I used to argue with Genu Lee ’25 about where we should take our creative ambitions — my hometown of New York or his of Los Angeles. “You’ll get it,” we would say to each other. After all, I’m privy to a special experiential understanding of my city, one that Genu would share only if he felt it for himself. How strange, that a New Yorker would so desperately hope to induce a transplant.
When Genu wants to talk about Valley Daze, a television pilot he produced with Alessia Cruci and David Dastmalchian, he puts it in terms that I’ll understand. Sure, transplants and tourists like the opulence of Manhattan, but “the people that really move New York live in Queens. The people that really make change, the regular, real people of LA … live in the [San Fernando] Valley.”
Valley Daze hopes to be a series based on real (or rumored) coming-of-age stories from Valley locals. Its creators, Genu and Jocelyn Catt, cite Valley “folklore” and their own high school memories, like the time someone they knew was offered $10,000 to impregnate somebody. The pilot episode, directed by Marco Bizio, follows a vape’s journey between hands of varying socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds — the “rich kids and the poor kids,” the “drug addicts and the straight-edges.” The Valley’s social contradictions disclose themselves in the narration of an often tragic but still beautiful ethic of fighting to live in proximity with people who don’t always have to.
Growing up in the Valley, Genu remembers hearing all about the movies that were being made in nearby Hollywood. “But none of us [Valley kids] are connected to it. Like, my parents are small business owners that teach kids how to code.” He mentions his childhood friends, mostly people of color, who relied on food banks while their most affluent neighbors would become celebrities. At least they found solace together: “We can’t break into this industry that’s literally, like, 10 miles away, but we’re going to stick together and make movies.”
The Valley-born creators of Valley Daze went all over town to fund the pilot. A struggle that at least caught the attention of Hollywood underdog David Dastmalchian, an actor you may recognize from The Dark Knight or Prisoners, concluded in the most fitting way I can imagine — by a grassroots fundraising campaign.
“Everybody in the Valley pulled through,” Genu tells me. Valley creatives of all ages “wanted to be a part of this thing, … and we were able to to reach our goal. Everyone on the cast are all actors that grew up here, that went to NYU and Carnegie Mellon, ... but came back to act in this thing. The director, the cinematographer, everyone from the lighting guys to costume designers, everybody in this film is from the Valley, and I think that’s really important to us.”
Valley Daze may have its roots and audience in the Valley, but Genu credits his Cornell experience with imparting expertise that came in handy for producing. He thanks Prof. Christopher Byrne, communication, for encouraging him to pitch the script around the industry. Prof. Byrne’s course Writing and Producing the Narrative for Digital Media gave Genu the chance to work through all of the anxieties of making his first project. “Making your first thing, it’s so nerve-racking. [Prof. Byrne’s] class really encouraged me to do that but I took that extra step to … ask questions about pitching, story structure, everything.”
Thanks to his work on Valley Daze, Genu got to produce even more projects during his time at Cornell. “People just started calling me around town, like, 'Can you produce this movie? Can you produce my music video?' … I would produce things that were shooting in LA and I built that resume, and I built that portfolio, and now I’m back in town, and I just get to do this full-time, which is such a blessing. And now I’m doing feature films, and I’m doing, you know, union sets, and it’s been really, really cool.”
I may still have my apprehensions about LA, but Genu and his Valley Daze colleagues paint a prettier picture than I imagined. Just like in my own city, where working class creatives starve in plain view of a robust entertainment industry, the fight for artistic uplift continues.
The Valley Daze pilot is set to premiere on Dec. 13 at the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles.
Eric Han is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the associate editor of the 143rd Editorial Board and was an arts and culture co-editor of the 142nd Editorial Board. His monthly column, Campus Dialectic, reviews recent Sun op-eds to speculate on cultural and political issues. He can be reached at ehan@cornellsun.com.
