TRIBECA FILMS x MEMORY PRESENT: SERIOUS PEOPLE “Life’s a Movie”

OFFICIAL SELECTION: SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2025

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Pasqual Gutierrez & Ben Mullinkosson

PRODUCED BY: Ryan Hahn, Laurel Thomson, Teddy Lee

STARRING: Pasqual Gutierrez, Christine Yuan, RJ Sanchez, Miguel Huerta

Successful Music Video director Pasqual Gutierrez is faced with a dilemma on the due date of his first-born child: a job offer for his biggest video yet. Frustrated with his poor work/life balance, Gutierrez casts a doppelgänger named Miguel to take over his work duties in his director duo Cliqua as he prepares to take an extended paternity leave. But as Pasqual starts to spend more time with Miguel to teach him how to step into this new role, Pasqual's relationship and his work suffer, ending with a disastrous music video shoot. SERIOUS PEOPLE explores what it means to be a “director,” a parent, and the replaceability of people in clout-heavy Los Angeles.

PASQUAL GUTIERREZ (IG) is an award-winning American filmmaker best known for his work in Cliqua, the Mexican American directing duo alongside RJ Sanchez. Collectively, the two have worked with artists Bad Bunny, Rosalia, J Balvin, Madonna, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and many more. Gutierrez has accumulated various nominations and accolades in the music video world, including one MTV VMA. As a fiction director, his debut short film Shut Up & Fish is currently finishing its festival circuit and is Oscar qualified. SeriousPeople is Gutierrez’s first feature film as a writer and director which had its world premiere at Sundance in 2025.

BEN MULLINKOSSON (IG) is an award-winning American filmmaker whose debut narrative feature SERIOUS PEOPLE world premiered at Sundance in 2025. In 2023, he directed the smash documentary THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS, which won the Special Jury Mention at CPH:DOX and was released by MUBI. Mullinkosson's first doc DON'T BE A DICK ABOUT IT won the Audience Award in 2018 at IDFA, the biggest documentary festival in the world, and is distributed by Oscilloscope. His short film, GNARLY IN PINK, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 and was distributed by The New York Times Op-Docs. A number of his other short films have received Vimeo Staff Picks and have millions of views. Ben speaks Chinese fluently and is an X Games gold medalist for halfpipe skateboard competition in China.

RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes (USA, Feature Film)

Social Media: @Tribeca @memory.is