La Chima Films presents TWO STEP, a fast-paced Texas thriller in which the lives of James, a directionless college dropout, and Webb, a career criminal with his back against the wall, violently collide. Written and directed by Alex R. Johnson, TWO STEP features Beth Broderick (“Under the Dome”, “Lost”, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”) as dance teacher, Dot, James Landry Hébert (“Mob City”, “Seven Psychopaths”, “Gangster Squad”) as short-fused career criminal, Webb, Ashley Rae Spillers (“Last Vegas”, “Zero Charisma”, “Saturday Morning Mystery”) as Amy, his fed-up girlfriend, Jason Douglas (“Breaking Bad”, “Nashville”, “Revolution”) as crime boss/father figure, Duane, and relative newcomer Skyy Moore (“Love Land”) as protagonist James.
Kicked out of college, James visits Grams, his only remaining family, who dies shortly after his arrival. He finds consolation in the company of Grams’ neighbor, Dot, a dance teacher, as he figures out his next move. While settling Grams’ affairs, James learns she’s been the victim of the “grandparent scam” in which someone posing as James has been slowly bilking her out of thousands. But before James can go looking for the culprit, he shows up at the front door, desperate for money. The culprit, Webb, has his own problems in the form of Duane, who has ordered Webb to pay an old debt or else. And if Webb can’t get it from Grams, James will have to do – no matter who stands in his way.
TWO STEP is produced by Paul Biedrzycki, Patrick Cassidy, and Charles Mulford and is lensed by Andy Lilien (“Roadie”). Shot entirely in and around Austin, the cast also includes local music scene fixtures Jesse Dayton, Dale Watson, and Laurie Gallardo, as well as locations such as the legendary Broken Spoke dance hall. The film features an original score by Austin resident Andrew Kenny (American Analog Set, The Wooden Birds).
Alex R. Johnson is an Austin, TX based filmmaker, recently relocated from NYC.
In 2005, he produced Henry Corra’s “Same Sex America” (Showtime Networks), a feature length documentary about the fight for gay marriage in Massachusetts. Johnson also produced “I Am Secretly An Important Man,” Pete Sillen’s feature length documentary about one of the most celebrated voices of Seattle’s grunge era, the late poet Steven Jesse Bernstein. That film premiered in 2010 at the MoMA and the IFC Center in New York, and is currently available on VOD.
His own short narrative films, “Pickup and Return” and “Thanksgiving,” have screened at festivals worldwide. The BFI London Film Festival said, “Thanksgiving” was “a bittersweet and darkly funny tale of urban isolation” while the Florida Film Festival called it “hilariously melancholy.”
Johnson’s earlier feature screenplays have been accepted in both the Hamptons International Film Festival Screenwriter’s Lab as well as IFP’s Emerging Narrative Projects. TWO STEP is Johnson’s feature length debut.
