Lance Oppenheim’s documentary feature debut Some Kind of Heaven which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival has been acquired by Magnolia Pictures. Magnolia is planning an early 2021 release.

From Sundance: Inside the palm-tree-lined streets of The Villages, America’s largest and most utopian retirement community in central Florida, we meet four residents living on the margins, struggling to find happiness. Referred to as the “Disneyland for Retirees,” this preplanned community offers perfectly manicured lawns, singles mixers, bocce ball, and countless activities to re-energize the golden years of life.

While most of “the Villagers” have bought into the packaged positivity, Barbara, Dennis, and couple Anne and Reggie each struggle to find their footing in this fantasy land as they seek new purpose, look for second love, and navigate the extremes of mental deterioration.

Oppenheim said, “From ‘Queen of Versailles’ to ‘Tangerine,’ I grew up having my mind blown time and time again by so many of Magnolia’s movies and by their sharp curatorial sensibility. I’m so thrilled to be working with them and couldn’t have asked for a better home to launch this film.”

Lance Oppenheim is a filmmaker from South Florida. His films explore the lives of people who create homes in unconventional places and circumstances. He was a 2019 Sundance Ignite fellow, was one of Filmmaker magazine’s 2019 “25 new faces of independent film,” and is the youngest contributor to the New York Times: Op-Docs. Oppenheim graduated from Harvard University’s visual and environmental studies program in 2019. Some Kind of Heaven is his first feature film.