By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. While we can learn a lot about the filmmakers from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival through the art that these storytellers share with us, there’s always more we can learn about them as people. We decided to get to the bottom of those artistic wells with our ongoing series: Give Me the Backstory!
After premiering the emotionally intense Madeline’s Madeline and Shirley at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and 2020 respectively, auteur filmmaker Josephine Decker returns in 2026 with Chasing Summer, debuting in the Festival’s Premieres section. Penned by actor and comedian Iliza Shlesinger (who also stars as the film’s protagonist), Chasing Summer follows Jamie as she returns to her small hometown after enduring a breakup and the loss of her job. Back in Texas, Jamie makes new friends and meets up with peers from her high school years, and through the foibles of a second coming-of-age, she explores what she really wants — and lets herself have it.
A story centering the desires of an elder millennial felt especially compelling to Decker. “I’m not sure I can fully handle the word ‘middle-aged,’ but that is what people refer to me as, much to my own chagrin,” she explains. “I think there are these unspoken rules about what women can and can’t do in life and on film, and I think some of the closing of our lives — once we’ve had kids and built a family — creates an inherent smallness and isolation that can creep into a woman’s life at this age. This film is about expansion and pleasure and living to your absolute fullest. It’s about being sensual and sexual and hilarious and lost.”
The filmmaker continues, “It’s funny, because I do think puberty and middle age have a lot in common. Iliza really hit on something with that, and I think many women are going to relate to some of the keystones of Jamie’s journey.” Read on to learn more about Decker and Chasing Summer, including the inspiration behind the story and the director’s dedication to maintaining good vibes on set.
What was the biggest inspiration behind Chasing Summer?
Iliza was initially inspired by a simple role reversal: letting a woman be the one who leaves, flipping the familiar love story dynamic where the man usually walks away. From there, we got excited about portraying pleasure on screen — about a woman allowed to want things, choose things, and have it all.
The film is also a love letter to that very specific, liminal space between finishing high school and truly leaving home. It’s a time when people often feel untethered for the first time and when emotions can distort reality. Iliza wanted to explore how easy it is to create monsters in our own heads during those vulnerable years, fears that aren’t actually pursuing us. Layered onto this is the surreal experience of returning home as a millennial, seeing the town you grew up in through entirely new eyes.
Ultimately, the film is rooted in Iliza’s affection for the Texas suburb where she grew up and the complex, funny, emotional terrain of outgrowing a place while still loving it.
Describe whom you want this film to reach.
Obviously, we hope the film is for everyone, but I think women are going to get a lot out of enjoying the quirks of our lead character, Jamie, and also the road to endless pleasure that she goes on.
Your favorite part of making Chasing Summer? Memories from the process?
We had a very joyous set, and I have to say that a lot of times on a set, you as the director are the one who’s trying to create the good vibes. On this film, so many people were working really hard to create a really amazing team and great morale for everyone. Iliza was constantly getting our cast together for fun events on the weekends. Eric Branco is the most loving director of photography on Earth and was so inclusive to everyone on our set. Our producers are incredibly sweet and were very generous and enthusiastic throughout the process. It was incredibly positive vibes.
Some moments of fun that stand out to us: nailing the opening oner after like 10 or 11 takes, grabbing an impromptu sunset sex scene, laughing in the hair and makeup trailer in the mornings; watching Megan Mullally make up the most hilarious shit ever for the unusual opening moments of Jamie landing in her parents’ living room.
Tell us why and how you got into filmmaking.
I got into filmmaking because I was obsessed with studying everything: literature, writing, photography, costume design, film, Latin American studies, religion. Film is this amazing way to really study every discipline — you get to be a photographer, a stylist, an actor, a musician, a conductor, and more when you become a director. When I realized that directing was a job that could hold my huge range of interests, I got very excited about my path in life.
I started out working in documentaries but was writing fiction on the side, and then when I started to make my fiction work, I brought a strong documentary aesthetic into it. It meant I could shoot very easily for very little money and build the work in the edit, and that has sort of been a trademark of a lot of my films. I think the approach to them comes from letting the images guide you and never getting too married to one idea of how the story could go.
Why is filmmaking important to you? Why is it important to the world?
Our editor, David Barker, recently quoted Jim Jarmusch. He said filmmaking protects empathy. I think in this time more than ever, we need long stories to remember what it’s like to live in another person’s shoes. I think this work has really helped open my eyes to how easy it is to let disagreement tear apart folks who could be terrific collaborators. I feel really grateful that I’ve gotten to collaborate so deeply and learned so much crossing lines of difference in this movie.
What is something that all filmmakers should keep in mind in order to become better cinematic storytellers?
For better or worse, I have always treated the script as a jumping-off point. What you discover on set with your actors and collaborators goes far beyond anything a script can point to, and I like to keep a really open mind in the edit about how it all comes together. I think a lot of times people marry themselves to a script, and I feel that when I’m making cinema, I’m marrying myself to images and visceral emotions. If you can bring those out, you can build your world from them.
Who are your creative heroes?
I think my creative heroes right now are actually film students and young people who are really working to get their films made. I think it’s an insanely hard time to get your work made, and I see folks hitting the pavement again and again to make their voices heard. It feels so important right now.
Andrea Arnold — her sensual, visceral work. Darren Aronofsky — how you feel like you’re inside someone else’s experiences in his films. I’m obsessed with Persona by Ingmar Bergman. But I think increasingly my heroes are the people who are actually just living their lives as their art. I’ve met some very special people in Northern California who are shepherds and who also do a lot of community teaching about boulder skills on their land, and these are my big creative heroes right now — people who are connecting the world with the earth in these times when we can rely less and less on our government and need to rely more and more on each other.
What was the last thing you saw that you wish you made?
I love everything Hailey Gates makes!!
One thing people don’t know about me is _____.
I am in a clown troupe in LA run by clown genius Amrita Dhaliwal.
Which of your personal characteristics contributes most to your success as a storyteller?
I love people so much. I love hearing their ideas, playing with them in rooms, calming them down, nurturing their visions, crying together, bingeing with them on matcha lattes, improvising on accordions together, making up rituals and dances together. I think being open to everyone’s ideas really helps me explore all the possibilities of a work and then refine how I feel and find what works the best for telling a powerful story.
Tell us about your history with Sundance Institute. When was the first time you engaged with us? Why did you want your film to premiere with us?
I first came to the Festival in 2011 with a film I had acted in and actually met my life partner, Malik Vitthal, at Sundance that year (we started dating at Sundance in 2015).
