One of the first big revelations at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the world premiere of “Josephine” brought audiences to tears. One of the revelers at Park City’s Eccles Theater was none other than the film’s star, Channing Tatum, who finally admitted that he “cried five, six, seven times” when he first saw the film.
Those attending the festival didn’t just cry while listening to “Josephine.” They also laughed and cheered at the few lighthearted moments in the heartbreaking drama about a girl who witnesses a brutal sexual assault in a local San Francisco park. Tatum and Gemma Chan play Josephine’s parents, who struggle to comfort their young daughter as she grapples with the aftermath of a traumatic event.
Beth de Araujo wrote and directed the film, which is based on a harrowing real-life experience she faced as a child. When the director took to the stage in Eccles on Friday afternoon, she wiped away tears as she was greeted with a standing ovation. The crowd continued to clap and cheer as de Araujo led out the actors, including newcomer Mason Reeves, who played Josephine, and Tatum and Chan, who picked up and swung their diminutive co-stars around.
“I started writing this film in 2014 when I realized that something happened to me when I was young that stuck with me,” de Araujo said in a post-screening Q&A. “I challenged myself to write about women’s fears and how they shaped me. I took those fears to the extreme by portraying how she learns about male aggression through the eyes of an eight-year-old.”
Friday’s premiere was a star-making moment for 8-year-old Reeves, who the director discovered at a San Francisco farmers market. “My favorite thing about it was everything about it,” Reeves declared about his first movie set, drawing laughs from the audience. Reeves said he would like to continue captivating audiences and acting, but would prefer a less intense genre next time. “I have five (in mind)…The first is action, then fantasy, then musicals, then movies with animals, and finally movies shot in Paris.”
Throughout the film, Tatum and Chan’s characters are forced to reprimand their daughter, who grapples with new fears and anger she doesn’t yet understand. Tatum, who in real life is the father of a 12-year-old daughter, was worried that Reeves wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between pretend and reality.
“I was worried that she thought I was actually mad at her,” Tatum said of Reeves. “I was like, ‘You know I’m just acting, right?’
Reeves, wearing a sparkling silver dress, interjected, “He kept asking me about it, and I was like, ‘Okay!'”
Chan, the first actor to sign on to the film, said that while reading the script he felt “truth radiating off the page”. “This is a really challenging subject, and I thought the way[Beth]approached it and forced us to see it through the eyes of a child was brave.”
Before the audience returned to the cold, de Araujo thanked everyone for “doing something that wasn’t easy,” adding, “I hope you felt like you had the opportunity to open up and give yourself the time and space to imagine a better world for yourself.”
