Premiering in the NEXT section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2026, Walter Thompson-Hernández’s feature film If I Go Will They Miss Me expands his 2022 short. Alphonse Nicholson, and Danielle Brooks, exploring fatherhood through magical realism.
Director Walter Thompson-Hernández isn’t just delivering a family drama; he is decoding the invisible architecture of Watts through the eyes of a twelve-year-old artist.
The Bottom Line
- The Creative Leap: Director Walter Thompson-Hernández successfully scales his award-winning 2022 short into a sweeping feature film backed by the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program and Catalyst program.
- The Thematic Core: The narrative blends Greek mythology with the concrete realities of South Los Angeles, examining generational healing and paternal absence.
Mapping the L.A. Flight Path to the Big Screen
When Walter Thompson-Hernández introduced his feature at the Library Center Theatre in Park City, Utah, he leaned into personal history. Growing up under the flight paths of Los Angeles, he and his childhood friends spun elaborate mythologies about where those massive metal birds were headed. Those childhood imaginings birthed the “airplane people,” fictional guardians tasked with answering the world’s deepest mysteries.
In the feature expansion, those childhood fables manifest physically. Twelve-year-old Lil Ant—brought to life with staggering naturalism by newcomer Bodhi Dell—begins encountering ghostly apparitions floating through his neighborhood. These surreal visions act as an ethereal bridge, connecting a sensitive, budding artist to a father he barely knows.
Big Ant, portrayed by J. Alphonse Nicholson, has just stepped out of prison. He is attempting to step back into a household anchored by his wife, Lozita, played with raw emotional honesty by Danielle Brooks. Nicholson has noted that the role forced him to hold a mirror up to his own paternal shortcomings. According to remarks shared at the Sundance premiere, stepping into Big Ant required a vulnerability that resonated deeply with the actor’s own life as a father.
Inside the Production and Festival Ecosystem
Developing a project of this scale requires serious institutional backing, and If I Go Will They Miss Me spent its incubation period within the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program and Catalyst program. That developmental runway allowed Thompson-Hernández to preserve the intimate, poetic atmosphere of his original short while constructing a sprawling narrative about social realism and magical realism in Watts.
The industry context here is vital. Festival programmers in the NEXT section consistently look for filmmakers who reject flat, monolithic depictions of marginalized communities. By centering the inner emotional lives of Black families against a backdrop often flattened by outsiders, Thompson-Hernández joins a lineage of modern auteurs redefining regional American cinema.
| Film Attribute | Production Detail |
|---|---|
| Director | Walter Thompson-Hernández |
| Premiere Date | January 24, 2026 (Sundance Film Festival) |
| Key Cast | Bodhi Dell, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Danielle Brooks, Myles Bullock |
| Development Incubator | Sundance Institute Feature Film Program and Catalyst Program |
Why This Narrative Resonance Matters Right Now
Emotion in the Library Center Theatre ran exceptionally high following the credits. Danielle Brooks addressed the crowd directly, noting the scarcity of positive, nuanced imagery of Black bodies on screen and thanking the festival for carving out space for such storytelling. For Brooks, playing Lozita served as a conduit for personal healing.
The film’s emotional apex hinges on a fragile prayer muttered on screen: “Dear God, keep every single one of us.” In post-screening commentary captured at the event, Nicholson connected those cinematic prayers to the harsh realities facing children and families in America today.
As the film secures its trajectory beyond Park City, it leaves audiences with a haunting, necessary question: If you go, will they miss you? Drop a comment below—how do you think contemporary indie cinema is shifting the narrative on generational fatherhood?
