Written, directed, produced and even partially starred in by three Texas State alumni, “Hierarchy” is an action film that follows two adopted brothers as they take on a dangerous heist.
Chiderah Uzowulu, writer, producer and actor in the movie, started working on the movie during his senior year at Texas State while studying engineering. He said he came up with the idea for the movie while he worked on his senior project.
“I had a senior project, but I was like, ‘I don’t care, I’m going to write this movie while I was at Texas State,’ this was my priority more than my classes,” Uzowulu said. “It was for sure hard, but I’m so glad I had a village with me to get this to the finish line.”
The movie follows two brothers, Stone (played by Uzowulu) and Reach (played by Executive Producer and Actor Xavier Alvarado) evading law enforcement and the Russian mafia. Teamwork was a strong theme throughout the film, as Stone and Reach headed heists to take money and give it to children in the adoption industry like them.
However, teamwork and camaraderie were prevalent before even writing the script. After Uzowulu wrote the script and Director, Editor and Producer Russell K. Reed started shooting scenes, they ran out of money on day nine.
Uzowulu said he saved funds for the movie from working as a bouncer on 6th Street during his time at Texas State, which helped push the movie to the finish line.
“I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll just use my bouncer money. We’ll figure it out whenever that time comes, we’ll just pay everybody weekend by weekend,’” Uzowulu said. “But luckily, an angel dropped from the sky and helped us out to get this to the finish line.”
Funding was a large hurdle when it came to making the movie. Reed said the total funding of the movie was only about $80,000, which led to some struggles in directing the movie exactly the way he wanted to.
“It’s really easy to fall back on the numbers and look at it and say… ‘I guess this actual thing won’t work,’” Reed said. “But that’s why it’s really important to create from your imagination. I didn’t want to allow any of our resources to stop me from making a movie I saw in my head.”
Alvarado put a couple of thousand dollars into the movie. While he had to act and produce the movie, he continued to learn the importance of having a strong group of people.
“You can accomplish great things with a team,” Alvarado said. “You need a village to do anything really amazing and to continue to have the brotherhood we have and camaraderie and connections to the places we have that lent us stuff for the film, lent us locations with just open arms, it just compounded the blessings.”
The obstacles, however, allowed the trio to exemplify the importance of teamwork and camaraderie. Uzowulu said some crew members helped provide resources for the movie, such as a car and filming locations.
Additionally, the trio filmed the movie in Austin, San Marcos and Seguin. They hired students from Texas State and UT Austin for credit.
Alvarado, Reed and Uzowulu studied public relations, business and engineering, respectively. Reed met Alvarado at a Subway in San Marcos and met Uzowulu shortly after doing a project with a web series. From then on, the three knew they wanted to work together on a film, which led to “Hierarchy.”
“The only reason this even happened is because I went to Texas State,” Uzowulu said. “If I would have went to any other school, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
All three are Black filmmakers. Alvarado said Black representation is very important in the film industry as it shows the world is becoming a more diverse place.
“Being a Black filmmaker in this day and age shows we can lead in many different spaces and not only that, but we can tell unique stories,” Alvarado said. “I think that one of the building blocks of the American Dream early on was to showcase what opportunities can be made [with] a motion picture… that’s where you get information from.”
Alvarado learned from and resonated with the Black characters he saw on his screen, which is why it was important to him to have Black representation in the industry.
Reed recommends students who may be interested in taking a risk and following their dreams, whether it’s in film or not, to find their team and just get started.
“Be curious and follow that curiosity,” Reed said. “Find your tribe, actively seek creative opportunities. The best thing to do is to get the ball rolling and then find people who can push it with you. You gain momentum that way.”
“Hierarchy” is now available for rent or purchase on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
