Slice of Life’ Documentary Sets SXSW Sydney and Chicago Premieres

Celebrated Australian documentary filmmakers Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker of Urtext Films are preparing to serve up their “Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts” dish at the upcoming SXSW Sydney Festival.

Structured as a road movie, the picture serves up fascinating insights into how former Pizza Hut buildings around the US have been repurposed, and who the people are inside them.

It will first arrive on the table on Oct. 19 in Sydney. And be reheated a few days later for its North American premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival. The picture is due to do the rounds with a multi-city theatrical release in November, but is otherwise still seeking distribution.

The pair, who previously made “Barbecue” and “We Don’t Deserve Dogs,” cut deep into a dish of nostalgia, looking at the history of the iconic American pizza restaurant chain and interview 93-year-old Dan Carney, one of the two brothers that founded Pizza Hut.

What they find are six businesses that range from an LGBTQ+ church in Florida to a karaoke bar in Texas, a seafood restaurant in South Carolina to a cannabis store in Colorado. There’s also a BBQ joint in Illinois and a Mexican eatery in Virginia that has become a community hub for an immigrant community.

“All exemplify the heart and unity of community, the welcoming inclusivity and renewed purpose, the vibrant stories and inspiring people behind independent businesses,” said the filmmakers. That’s not unlike the pioneering spirit of the Carney brothers when they opened the first Pizza Hut in 1958, in Wichita, Kansas.

The film also includes a visit to the Pizza Hut Museum in Wichita where the selection of toppings include observations on the intersection of history, architecture and interviews with former Pizza Hut executives, historians and self-confessed Pizza Hut nerds.

The film is also scheduled to play at Wichita’s own film event, the respected Tallgrass Film Festival.
After making their two previous films in multiple international locations, Salleh said that American road trip movie “Slice of Life” was a different challenge. “How do you bring that epic and grand scale to the parking lots and dated exteriors of old Pizza Hut buildings? “I was excited by the opportunity to shoot something grand in a setting so familiar to so many people,” said Salleh.

“We love the intimacy that we can create with it just being the two of us. We understand the challenges of running a small business, and we like to think we’re quite entrepreneurial as well. “I think we have a lot in common with the people we were filming,” said Tucker. “We found such diversity, such different people, different opinions, different lives, different stories.”

At SXSW Sydney Salleh and Tucker will be panelists in a Screen Industry Session titled Beyond Australia: Screening at SXSW about navigating international festivals, sales and more. They will also participate in screen mentorship sessions during the festival.

Watch the trailer here.