By Jessica Herndon

Emotions were divinely high following the premiere of Walter Thompson-Hernández’s If I Go Will They Miss Me. “How beautiful was it to see Black bodies in this way?” Danielle Brooks, who stars in the film, asked the audience after a wave of applause and cheers washed over the Library Center Theatre as the credits rolled. “We don’t have enough of those images, so I also thank Sundance for the space.”

Thompson-Hernández has returned to the Festival with If I Go Will They Miss Me, expanding his award-winning 2022 short into a moving feature premiering in the 2026 Festival’s NEXT section. The Los Angeles–based filmmaker, who developed the film in the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program and Catalyst program, brings his signature poetic lens to this family drama set beneath the flight paths of South Los Angeles.

In Watts, 12-year-old Lil Ant, played by Bodhi Dell in his first leading role, struggles to connect with a father he barely knows. Big Ant, played with both strength and vulnerability by J. Alphonse Nicholson, has just been released from prison and is attempting to rebuild the fractured relationship with his family, including his wife, Lozita (Brooks). When Lil Ant, a budding artist with a tender disposition, begins to see ghostly figures of other boys who seem to float through his neighborhood like apparitions, the surreal encounters become a bridge between father and son, and reality and fantasy.

“When I was a boy, I grew up under the L.A. flight path. My friends and I created mythologies, and we imagined where the airplanes were going and where they were coming,” Thompson-Hernández says while introducing the film. “We created a group of people called the airplane people who we imagined were there to answer questions about the mysteries of the world. This movie is a reflection of that.” 

Thompson-Hernández stages his story at the intersection of the mythic and the concrete. Drawing from Greek mythology while remaining firmly rooted in the textures of everyday life in Watts, the film explores both magical and social realism. His story reflects the inner life of a complex, beautiful community often stereotyped by outsiders. 

“I wish you all could feel my heartbeat,” says Brooks. “It is beating out of my chest, and I know that’s because of Walter Thompson-Hernández. You are brilliant.” Playing Lozita hit Brooks on a deep level, she adds. “I’ve felt like Lozita in my personal life. It was very real for me. But [Walter] gave me a space and a place for my personal healing. I just want to say thank you for being the storyteller that you are, for allowing us to fly.” 

Nicholson echoed Brooks’ sentiment, saying his work on the film also helped foster his emotional well-being. “I’m a father first, so to step into the role of a father seems easy until you have to put the mirror on yourself and realize how much you’ve messed up,” he says. “I hope this film puts a mirror on every man in here, every father in here, every cousin, every son to say, you know, I can do better. I can show up in a better way.” 

For Dell, playing Lil Ant was light work. “I didn’t really have to prepare,” he says when asked how he geared up for the role. “I saw a lot of myself through the character, like, because I don’t talk a lot.  And the character didn’t really talk a lot. So, yeah, I didn’t really have to prepare.” As the crowd giggled endearingly, Nicholson shouted, “He was born ready!” Nicholson also praised Dell’s performance: “He is so talented. The innocence and tenderness pours through his eyes.”

By keeping one eye on the clouds and another on the pavement in If I Go Will They Miss Me, Thompson-Hernández honors the conditions that shape his characters while refusing to let those circumstances define them entirely. 

“The part that gets me every time is when he says, ‘Dear God, keep every single one of us,’” Nicholson says, quoting a line in the film. “You see those brown babies on that screen?” he adds, getting emotional. “We see what’s happening in America today. Pray for those babies. See that little boy with that ICE agent and his hand on his backpack? You pray for those babies. When we made this film, those things weren’t quite where they are now. And so seeing it now and hearing those prayers, I hope you all say that prayer: If you go, will they miss you? Understand that. I hope it pulls at you in a very personal way, and I hope you go back and shine your light somehow or figure out how to turn your light back on if you feel like it’s been dimmed, because if you go, we will miss you.” 

With Myles Bullock in a key supporting role, If I Go Will They Miss Me emerges as a tender meditation on community, fatherhood, and what we must reconcile within ourselves to truly be there for the ones we love.