Director-Writer Andrew Morgan’s TEXAS, USA is streaming on Apple TV, Google Play and Plex. [Cast-attended premiere events took place in New York City, Washington D.C. as well as in Austin, Marfa and Houston, Texas.]
Written & Directed by ANDREW MORGAN
Produced By ZACH MORGAN
Producer SARAH LABOWITZ
TEXAS, USA is a sublimely lensed, rousing cinematic powerhouse telling a whopper of a story about a diverse, charismatic, committed group of Longhorn organizers, activists, and candidates who, rapt with optimism during the 2022 state-wide election campaign and ignoring criticism of what was considered their pie-in-the-sky idealism, campaigned that they could bring about real and lasting progressive change in the Lone Star State. They are a picture of a new kind of Texas politician: Young, progressive and deeply connected to Texas’ Latino culture and history.
Throughout the 2022 campaign, they are up against enormous obstacles of increasingly extreme and anti-democratic policies, including the harshest voter suppression laws in the country. Nevertheless they believed they could achieved their goals for change despite their state’s culture of nefarious, immoral and amoral history and traditions of skullduggery and savage bigotry and racism cultivated and nurtured by powerful political institutions and groups whose members and true believers believed that they could get away with anything.
Lush cinematography and incredible images and imagery show what the organizers, activists and candidates in action as well as what they accomplished, what they didn’t accomplish and what they plan to accomplish, nevertheless. It’s not hard to image that even though their philosophy might sound like a big, big slice of pie-in-the-sky, Andrew Morgan’s TEXAS, USA may have many in the audiences rising up from the edge of their seats yelling and clapping.
Picture courtesy of Shark Party Media
TEXAS, USA is a documentary with the look and feel of a feature film shot through the eyes and personal stories of the main characters: Beto O’Rourke, 50, running for governor against Greg Abbott, one of the country’s most awful conservatives, who, after losing a race for Senate against Ted Cruz in 2018; Greg Casar, 33, competing in a newly-formed Congressional district after serving six years as the most progressive member of Austin’s City Council; Lina Hidalgo, 31, running for re-election as chief executive of Harris County (includes the city of Houston), a county of 4.8 million people.
Beto O’Rourke. Picture courtesy of Shark Party Media
Greg Casar. Picture courtesy of Shark Party Media
Lina Hidalgo. Picture courtesy of Shark Party Media
Other Key Characters
– Brianna Brown, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project. She leads one of the largest mobilization of Black voters in the state’s history.
Brianna Brown. Picture courtesy of Shark Party Media
– Tory Gavito, executive director of Way To Win, raising tens of millions of dollars from around the country to support candidates and organizations in Texas and the Southwest. Adri Perez, a trans advocate and strategist, mobilizing trans families to fight back against cruel new regulations enacted by the state. [Picture not available]
– Anthony Graves, who spent 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit and is confronting Texas’ policy of over-incarceration. [Picture not available}
– Hannah Horick, an abortion advocate, who is organizing Democrats in her small, conservative city in response to Texas’ abortion ban and the rollback of Roe v. Wade.[Picture not available]
Picture courtesy of Shark Party Media
Andrew Morgan – Director
An internationally recognized filmmaker with a unique ability to tell stories that provide hope for a better tomorrow. His experience includes a broad range of work that spans narrative and documentary storytelling, including Samantha Rose (Apple + Amazon), Long Gone By (HBO), The True Cost (Amazon), and The Heretic (Amazon). He brings an infectious energy, tireless work ethic, and a keen creative vision to this project, which is his 4th feature length documentary. Andrew’s experience growing up in a conservative, religious family in the American south informs a style the New York Times has described as featuring “gentle, humane investigations” and that Vogue cites as “evidence that each of us can act as a catalyst for change within our own lives and work together towards a greater good.” The True Cost was nominated for a Cinema for Peace award in 2016. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Emily and their four kids.
Zach Morgan – Producer
A well-versed producer, showrunner, and partner at UNTOLD where he is responsible for all aspects of production for film, television & commercial projects. He oversees all areas of business and creative development for Texas, USA: budgeting, managing, scheduling, and coordinating distribution & marketing plans to create a seamless and efficient process throughout all stages of the filmmaking process.
Sarah Labowitz – Producer
Sarah is a Houston-based policy expert. She is a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously worked in leadership roles at the ACLU of Texas and the City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department, and was a policy advisor at the U.S. Department of State. She co-founded and co-directed the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Sarah was included in Forbes’ inaugural 30 Under 30 list for law and policy. This is her first film project.
Helen Cassell – Cinematographer
A skilled cinematographer and artist with a broad range of experience in scripted and non-scripted creative work including Saturday Night Live, Her Smell, and Real Time with Bill Maher. This film will be Helen’s first feature film as a director of photography. She has shot projects around the world, including South Africa, Brazil, Thailand, Vietnam, Baltimore, New York, and Texas. She holds a BFA from MICAH in film (2016) and is a member of IATSE Local 600 in New York City.
Executive Producers
Ginny Goldman
Livia Firth
Mark & Jenny Johnson
Great Neck Richman
Michelle Randolph Faires
Associate Producers
Megha Kadakia
Jorh Trefry
Samata Pattinson
Gregg W. Morris can be reached at gregghc@comcast.net, profgreggwmorris@gmail.com