GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan filmmaker and professor Joel Potrykus's new film "Vulcanizadora," shot entirely in Michigan, is set to make its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Saturday, June 8.
"We shot [the film] in Manistee [and] Grand Rapids last summer with a crew of around 20," Potrykus said.
He said the film covers a trip between two friends into the forest and to the beach, where they're planning to carry out a troubling promise to each other.
"Then we see the aftermath of that promise gone wrong," Potrykus said.
Potrykus's filmmaking style has made him one of the most prominent indie filmmakers in America, with his debut feature film "Ape" (2012) winning him "Best New Director" at the world-renowned Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.
But Potrykus has never been in it alone, his team — or band, as he prefers to call it — Sob Noisse have been making films together for over a decade at home in Michigan.
"If we are a filmmaking band, we have what I call a hardcore aesthetic. Hardcore music is about rules and restrictions and ideologies," Potrykus said. "We have very strict formal requirements. We give ourselves things we can't do that locks us into a certain aesthetic once the film is done."
Potrykus's and Sob Noisse's style has been the subject of much analysis, earning their filmmaking craft the title of "Metal Slackerism".
That title wasn't born overnight and neither was Sob Noisse, as Potrykus and his lifetime cinematographer, Adam Minnick, met when they were teenagers.
"Since high school, we were making things and funny little movies, [just] messing around with cameras," Minnick said.
Yet today, those "funny little movies" have become international indie darlings, with seven projects together all debuting at top independent film festivals like South by Southwest in Texas.
While Sob Noisse members have found success as freelance filmmakers, Minnick said he feels his time away only reinforces his desire to create with Potrykus and the team.
"I work all over the United States and world, actually. Anything I learn I try to bring to these [films] because these are what matter to me the most," Minnick said.
Today, both Minnick and Potrykus find themselves once again at home in West Michigan.
Potrykus made his return to his alma mater, Grand Valley State University, and now teaches the next generations of filmmakers by producing a yearly script written by Potrykus for GVSU's summer film program.
"We let the students know that this is not an assignment, this is not a student film. This is something that we need to be proud of forever," Potrykus said.
By bringing in Sob Noisse members, such as Minnick, to teach students professionally, he ensured that Potrykus's films with a student-led crew would set the standard for years to come.
In fact, his first under the GVSU Summer Film Banner, "Thing From the Factory by the Field" (2022), was distributed on the Criterion Channel, sharing the screen with some of history's greatest filmmakers.
"It's only further validation for us and for [students] that we took it seriously. We made the right moves, and that's how they should approach everything that they make, with that same determination, ambition and level of seriousness to the project," Potrykus said.
Merely days before their flights to Tribeca Film Festival, both Potrykus and Minnick are on set with students once again, teaching them a mantra that has brought Potrykus' films and friends like Minnick across the world.
He said he always hears from students that they're waiting to make their movie — whether it be due to money, equipment, or even a sense of permission.
Potrykus's response? Stop waiting.
"You don't have to go to LA or you don't have to go to New York. You can just shoot in your backyard and make your movie. Never wait for permission to make your movie," he said.
Watch the teaser to "Vulcanizadora" below:
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