Sundance 2026: If I Go Will They Miss Me, Night Nurse, Jaripeo | Festivals & Awards | Roger Ebert

"The most accomplished of the three is Walter Thompson-Hernández's gorgeously composed South Los Angeles coming-of-age film " If I Go Will They Miss Me." An adaptation of his same-titled short, the lyrical narrative is defined by a bracing sense of wonder and an evocatively delivered humanism that, initially, is an ode to Charles Burnett's thoughtful social realist dramas. During the film's soaring opening montage, Lil Ant (Bodhi Dell), a perceptive teenager"

"While Jon Baptiste croons a cover of "This Bitter Earth," Lil Ant recalls that his dad was once a fun-loving kid, who found problems when he threw a brick at a janitor from a rooftop. While Lil Ant imparts this tale, Thompson-Hernández and his co-editor Daysha Broadway nimbly intercut scenes of his father's past frivolity with contemporaneous images of his father and mother Lozita (Danielle Brooks) shouldering the weight of Big Ant's absence."

NEXT at Sundance functions as a showcase for bold, experimental filmmakers presenting fearlessly artistic works. Walter Thompson-Hernández's South Los Angeles coming-of-age film If I Go Will They Miss Me adapts his short into a lyrical narrative defined by wonder and humanism, evoking Charles Burnett's social realism. The film opens with a soaring montage and Lil Ant's voiceover recalling his father's youthful mischief while Jon Baptiste's cover of "This Bitter Earth" plays. Thompson-Hernández and co-editor Daysha Broadway intercut past frivolity with present scenes of Big Ant and Lozita carrying the burden of his absence, visually echoing Burnett's slow, burdened dances.

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