Hierarchy, a crime thriller film made by Texas State students during their time in college, has been chosen by Vertical Entertainment to have a limited theatrical release, which is no small feat for independent filmmaking. Creators Chiderah Uzowulu, Russell K. Reed and Xavier Alvarado made the film in 2021 with a ton of talent and the help of an angel investor, to find that, four years down the line, their hard work paid off.
Each of the three students played their own unique role in the film’s creation. Uzowulu is the writer and a co-producer in the project as well as the actor in one of the starring roles. Reed was the director, director of photography, editor and co-producer. Alvarado was the executive producer and played a starring role.
“It’s about two adopted brothers who were submerged into an illegal life of illegal work in order to get financial gain. And [they are planning one of the] the biggest jobs that they’ve ever done, which is a multi million dollar heist, and in the midst of planning the heist, they’re faced with a lot of adversity with law enforcement, with some family ties that’s kind of crept up. Then also there’s some conflict with some foreign enemies as well that are on their tail,” Reed said. “The film is sort of like just this observatory journey of these characters and how they navigate their last job that they have to do.”
Alvarado called the movie a “modern-day Robin Hood.”
“When you watch it, it may not make sense at first, but as you dig a little bit deeper, you find some hidden gems as to why they’re on these missions, why they are doing this illegal activity,” Alvarado said, adding that the film takes a different approach from many others. “It’s told from all three different angles. I think in today’s time, you kind of see one dramatic take or one follow up of a specific character, but you’re seeing two story lines kind of be brought into play here.”
The film only took around two weeks for Uzowulu to crank out because he’d been crafting it in his mind for a while.
“It was just built up ideas that I had that I just wanted to put on paper and bring to life,” Uzowulu said. “There was some car flipping scenes that I wanted in the script, but we had to go back to the drawing board and take some stuff out and edit it while we were shooting. So it was just a prolonged timeline of me writing the script, but the first draft … took about two weeks,” When the trio decided to take on this endeavor, they had only done short films but were ready to take the leap into full-length. They realized quickly that they would need to gather funds but were able to enlist the help of an angel investor, and the movie was on its way to becoming a reality.
“This project is just kind of like a tale of what it looks like for an independent, grassroots filmmaker to just start, just go — not waiting for a handout, not waiting for an opportunity, not waiting for a studio to back you, not waiting for anybody to give you a green light on an audition,” Reed said. “[We just took] our skill sets and our camaraderie and our brotherhood and began making a movie and did it from the grassroots of Central Texas in San Marcos.”
Hierarchy took $80,000 to make but was purchased for double that amount.
“The fact that we were able to do it with such a limited amount of resources was really gratifying,” Reed said. “I think what it also told us is that we are more than capable of doing something really great if we were to have real studio backing our work or even more money to take care of a project.”
The trials and tribulations of trying to get a lot of eyes on an independent film was tough, but they are excited they were finally able to make the film available to a larger audience.
“We took a chance and took a bet on ourselves with making the film and going broke for it, but the fact that it’s actually reaping its benefits and good things are coming from it is … good,” Uzowulu said.
The movie was shown at the Kent Theater in Brooklyn, New York, Galaxy Theatres Mission Grove in Riverside, California, Emagine Portage in Portage, Illinois, Emagine Woodhaven in Woodhaven, Michigan and Emagine Lakeville in Lakeville, Minnesota.
View the trailer at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POF0q9ovxRo
