Navigating Alternative Distribution with Rashad Frett and Simon TaufiQue (RICKY)
About this Spotlight
Spotlights feature conversations with high-profile film and television industry professionals who share helpful advice and insights on their career experiences and creative processes.
Join Sundance Collab for an exclusive conversation with the award-winning filmmakers of Ricky as they share their experience making and distributing their film.
Written and directed by Rashad Frett and produced by Simon TaufiQue, Ricky began as a short film, premiering at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The short was then expanded into Frett’s feature directorial debut of the same name, premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and winning Frett the Directing Award.
The film follows 30 year-old Ricky, who is released from prison after being locked up in his teens, as he navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.
In this event, Frett and TaufiQue will discuss making independent films with impact, navigating film festivals, and carving your own path, while offering their advice on how filmmakers can share their stories with audiences outside of the traditional networks.
Visit this site to see where Ricky is screening near you.
If you would benefit from an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please complete this form, contact us at (435) 776-7790, or email us at accessibility@sundance.org to discuss your specific requests. Every effort will be made to accommodate advance requests; however, requests made within 5 days of the event may not be guaranteed.
A recording of this Spotlight will be posted to Sundance Collab's Event Recording Library on the first business day after the live event. All registered attendees will receive an email with a link to view the recording at no cost for two business days after it is posted. After that, on-demand access to the recording can be purchased for $10.
SpotlightTeam
Simon TaufiQue
Simon Sohel TaufiQue is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning British-Indian producer and film composer based in NYC.
A dedicated alumnus of the Sundance Film Festival, his films include the Dramatic Directing Award-winner Ricky (2025) and the 2026 Nominee Run Amok. His recent slate includes the studio film The Alchemy of Being Okay, directed by Sundance fellow Sarah Mohk. TaufiQue's festival accolades also include the Berlinale Forum Prize-winner She’s Lost Control and the Tribeca Untold Stories grand prize-winner, Land of Gold.
As a producer and composer, his credits span auteur-driven work, including the Emmy-nominated documentary The Interpreters, to studio projects such as Imperium (starring Daniel Radcliffe and Toni Collette) for Lionsgate/Universal, Amazon Originals (The New Yorker Presents), and HBO MAX (Weight of Gold). He has collaborated with acclaimed directors including M. Night Shyamalan, Cary Fukunaga, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Mary Harron and 2022 Oscar-nominee Jessica Kingdon.
Simon is a fellow of the ASCAP/Columbia Film Composing Lab and the Gotham Episodic Producing Lab. He currently teaches producing at NYU and leads the Core Producing course for the Sundance Institute’s Collab program. An Oscar-qualifying festival juror and BAFTA diversity committee member, he is a member of the Producers Guild, the Television Academy, and serves on the board of the Composer Diversity Coalition. TaufiQue is represented by IAG and records for the Warner-Chappell label. His work has been profiled by NPR, Medium and NBC News.
Rashad Frett
Rashad Frett is an award-winning Caribbean American filmmaker. He is a Spike Lee Film Production fellow, a Ryan Murphy HALF Initiative fellow, a Sundance Feature Film Lab fellow, and a Cary Fukunaga Production fellow. In 2023 he was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
Katherine Street
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer, Sundance Collab
Katherine "Kat" Street is an LA-based award-winning filmmaker and Philadelphia native. A cinephile at heart, she writes female-driven stories with complex (oftentimes damaged) main characters, centered around self-discovery, self-love, and belonging.
She has written numerous short-form projects, including original shorts, pilots, and features. She wrote and directed the dramatic short film “Cycles,” which received festival recognition in both acting and best romantic short. She also created her award-winning flagship web series "The New Adult,” which is currently streaming on Kweli TV.
Kat is a Stowe Story Lab SAGIndie Fellow and a participant in the BlackMagic Collective Emerging Filmmakers Initiative. In 2021, she founded the Black Film Challenge, a project that showcases filmmakers of African descent and the movies they create.
She earned her BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a concentration in Cinematography and has literary representation with Yak Yak Mgmt.