Name: Bobbi Salvör Menuez
Notable past credits: 2019 Sundance film “Adam” and Amazon series “I Love Dick.” They also appeared in a Season One episode of “Euphoria.”
Sundance project: “My Animal,” a queer romance-horror film costarring Amandla Stenberg and directed by Jacqueline Castel. The film will be released by Paramount.
Their list of festival films to catch: “I have tickets for ‘Mutt’ and ‘Rotting in the Sun,’” says Menuez, adding that they had also caught a screening of “Earth Mama” since they’d arrived in Park City several days before. “It’s a really fun year because I have a lot of friends who have projects here, so I’ve just been meeting up with different people who are here and hanging out with people on my project.
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“Heather is a real outcast in her town. She’s a butch goalie,” says Menuez of their leading role in “My Animal,” a new entry in the werewolf movie canon. Sparks fly when an “intriguing” newcomer moves to the same small town. “Things that resonated and were exciting for me was the realness of the relationships, and the way in which the story follows this world-expanding moment for this person when they’re falling in love for the first time,” Menuez adds. “And choosing to take risks for the first time and let someone else into their world and into their most vulnerable parts of themselves. Thinking about the transformative healing power of queer love and self-discovery — there’s just so many of those elements woven throughout.”
Menuez, a longtime horror fan, praises the expansiveness of the midnight genre. “So many cinematic rules can get thrown out the window in the genre of horror,” they add. “The allegories and metaphors can be so rich and interesting. The psychology of horror is really evocative and compelling to me.”
The project also brought Menuez onto the skating rink and they walked away from the project with a newfound appreciation for hockey. “I’ve never played hockey before,” says Brooklyn-based Menuez. “I had ice-skated here and there, in the way a kid growing up in New York has once or twice, but not on the level of all the Canadians who were on the ice with me [in the film],” they say. “I actually kept my goalie skates from filming and was using them this winter.”
Menuez has several upcoming projects “coming into focus” this year, including another indie film that they’re particularly excited for.
“But, you know indie filmmaking,” Menuez says. “It’s always kind of run-and-gun, and I never really know what’s gonna happen next.”
