Young outcast Sean has isolated himself in a trailer in the woods, setting out on alchemic pursuits, with his cat Kaspar as his sole companion. Filled with disdain for authority, he’s fled the daily grind and holed up in the wilderness, escaping a society that has no place for him. But when he turns from chemistry to black magic to crack nature’s secret, things go awry and he awakens something far more sinister and dangerous. From the mind of acclaimed American filmmaker Joel Potrykus (BUZZARD, APE), THE ALCHEMIST COOKBOOK is an Official Selection of the 2016 South by Southwest Film Festival.
Ty Hickson - "Sean"
Ty Hickson is a New York based actor and musician. He made his feature debut in Adam Leon’s GIMME THE LOOT which made it’s international premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Rolling Stone referred to Ty as a “star in the making” while RogerEbert.com described Ty as "a beautiful humorous energy, and a visceral openness to the camera, rare in a non-professional actor, but rare with professionals as well. He is emotionally transparent.” Ty next can be seen as the lead on Joel Potrykus’ third feature, THE ALCHEMIST COOKBOOK, which recently made its world premiere at the 2016 SxSW Film Festival.
Amari Cheatom - "Cortez"
Amari Cheatom is a graduate of The Juilliard School Drama Division, where he played such roles as 'King Leontes' (The Winters Tale), 'Bynum Walker' (Joe Turner's Come and Gone), 'Edmund The Bastard' (King Lear), 'Shaun' (Beau Willimon's War Story) and 'Banner' (Bryan Tucker's St. James Infirmary).
Amari has recently wrapped two feature films, Darker Than Blue and The Alchemist Cookbook. He can be seen starring in the feature Newlyweeds, written and directed by Shaka King. The critically acclaimed film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, follows two young Brooklynites (Cheatom and Trae Harris) as they deal with the ramifications of their marijuana use, and other life choices. Other film credits include Django Unchained for director Quentin Tarantino, Knucklehead directed by Ben Bowman with Gbenga Akinnagbe and Night Catches Us for director Tanya Hamilton with Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington. He has guest starred on Detroit 1-8-7 (ABC), Chase (NBC), Numb3rs (CBS) and Georgetown (ABC).
Among Cheatom’s notable theatrical credits are, On the Levee (Lincoln Center), Dutch Masters (Berkshire Theatre Festival) The Book of Grace (The Public Theatre), Zooman and the Sign (Signature Theatre), The Lower Ninth (Acorn Theatre), A Ballad of Sad Young Men (Cherry Lane Theatre), Origin Story (Sundance Theatre Festival), and When January Feels like Summer (Sundance Theater Festival) as well as a recent performance in the New York Public Radio production of Jitney, directed by Rueben Santiago Hudson.
Joel Potrykus - Writer/Director
Joel resides in Grand Rapids, MI USA, where he continues to work with his filmmaking band, Sob Noisse. Buzzard (2014) (SXSW) is the final installment in his Animal Trilogy, following the feature film Ape (2012) (winner of Best Emerging Director, Locarno Film Festival) and the super 8 short Coyote (2010).
Andrew D. Corkin - Producer
Andrew D Corkin, of Uncorked Productions, is a Gotham Award winning New York-based Producer. Andrew’s credits include: AFTERSCHOOL (Cannes 2008), MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (Sundance 2011, Cannes 2011, 4 Independent Spirit Award nominations), AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY (Sundance 2012, Gotham Award winner), KING KELLY (SxSW 2012), WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (Sundance 2013, Cannes 2013), WILD CANARIES (SxSW 2014) and BIG SIGNIFICANT THINGS (SxSW 2014). Andrew executive produced Andrew Renzi’s feature debut, THE BENEFACTOR, starring Richard Gere and Dakota Fanning, and produced EMELIE, an elevated thriller starring Sarah Bolger; both films premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Recently, he produced Joel Potrykus’ third feature, THE ALCHEMIST’S COOKBOOK, which premiered at SxSW 2016 and he just completed production on Netflix’s MERCY, written and directed by Chris Sparling. Andrew also serves as an adjunct professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Bryan Reisberg - Producer
Bryan’s feature directorial debut, BIG SIGNIFICANT THINGS, premiered at SXSW 2014 and was released in theaters and on demand by Oscilloscope in 2015 and his 8-episode web series, THE WALKER, starring Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan and Rightor Doyle was released this past summer by Refinery 29. He recently won an AICP Award for the anti-bullying PSA “Too Late,” and his short documentary THE UNRELENTING CHARLIE DAVIES premiered this past April on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
Since forming Uncorked Productions with producing partner Andrew D. Corkin in 2008, Bryan recently produced Joel Potrykus’ THE ALCHEMIST COOKBOOK (Oscilloscope, SXSW 2016), co-produced the Sarah Bolger-starring EMELIE (MPI/Dark Sky Films, Tribeca 2015), and will be executive producing Jan Kwiecinski’s THE INCIDENT for Emmett/Furla.
Ashley Young - Producer
Ashley Young is best known for her work with Joel Potrykus and resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She obtained her BA in Psychology while producing her first feature, Ape(2012). Ape premiered at Locarno Film Festival in 2012 where it won Best New Director. Her second feature, Buzzard (2014), premiered at SXSW in 2014 and was acquired by Oscilloscope Pictures. Her third feature, The Alchemist Cookbook (2016) premiered at SXSW in 2016.
