Film maker Alec Roth’s feature directorial debut, “Billy Knight” was screened at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts on Thursday. The screening of “Billy Knight” at USC is part of a nationwide college tour Firebrand Media is hosting with the goal of taking a grassroots approach to film distribution.
The film follows a man named Alex who — after the death of his father — navigates his career as an aspiring filmmaker using his late father’s unfinished scripts and a handkerchief with the name “Billy Knight” on it.
“It changed my life. And, you know, it’s my first foray into showing you know who I am as an artist.” Roth told Annenberg Media. “And there’s a lot of things that I absolutely love and love in the film. I wouldn’t change the way that it was made for anything.”
“Billy Knight” features Charlie Heaton as Alex Hubbs, Al Pacino as Billy Knight and Diana Silvers as Emily.
USC alum Max Pratts was on the production team for “Billy Knight.” He graduated from USC’s SCA in 2021 and started working with Firebrand Media this year.
While reflecting on the advice he would give to students trying to break into the film industry, Pratt says he encourages them to work with people they love, prioritize happiness and keep creating and promoting their best work.
“Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there — grow and work with your peers, but also reach out to anyone you can who has a leg up in the industry,” he said. “This is a business where you need help to get to the next bar. Never be ashamed of asking for help, and when you don’t get it, that’s fine — you keep trying and keep making your pitch stronger.”
Pratts explained how he got in contact with USC in hopes of scheduling a screening at SCA near the beginning of the film’s tour.
“USC is known to have top quality stuff, and what we want to show and hopefully build a community around is great art and really pushing and motivating artists to make their best stuff,” Pratts said.
Roth’s start in the industry came from his family of cinema enthusiasts. His father, Eric Roth, won an Oscar for “Forrest Gump” in 1995. His mother and siblings are also involved in the film industry as producers and screenwriters.
“My whole family all together [is] blessed with the ability to go to different movie sets,” said Roth. “You can create these worlds on a bigger scale, to where it’s not just playing with Legos anymore, but you can actually build sets and build walls.”
This year Roth also directed and produced the TV mini series “Golden Gai” which was released in June. In the past, Roth has been a producer for “Desert Road” (2024) as well as the producer and director for the short film “Protagonist” (2017).
The film’s Instagram posted a list of 10 universities where they would be holding a screening, having already completed stops at Miami Dade College, University of Miami and USC.
Inspired by the “Billy Knight” movie, Firebrand Media is hosting a short film contest that is open to anyone interested, according to the film’s Instagram page.
A cash prize of $25,000 will be awarded to the winner with second and third place winning $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.
The post listed themes for the contest like “Hollywood fairytale!” or “Redemption through art!”
“This is about making movies and having fun doing it,” Roth said when asked about the short film contest. “We’d love to see films from around the world, and get people, you know, talking about ‘Billy Knight’ as a thing that really inspired them to make movies again.”