Author's Biography:
CASSIDY BATIZ is a director, writer, and editor from Dallas, Texas, based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently an MFA film candidate at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she’s been awarded the Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Scholarship and the W.T.C. Johnson scholarship.
Her narrative short BIG LOT has screened at festivals nationally and was nominated for a Best Screenplay Award. She is the recipient of the Alan Landsburg Documentary Production Award for her forthcoming short documentary, METAL DAD. As an editor, Cassidy has worked for The New York Times and for independent documentary filmmakers. She is currently in post-production on her narrative short, JEJUNE, and in development on her Texas-set debut feature, Sweetwater, which has been selected for the NYU Production Lab 2025 Feature Development Studio.
Cassidy obtained a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, with a minor in Creative Writing.
Script Synopsis:
Sweetwater follows 17-year-old Ava from a small Texas town. While Ava loves her hometown, she’s soon leaving to pursue a college education—something her father, Ernie, a retired rodeo star, never had the chance to do. Without a mother figure, Ava leans on her closest friend Harper to illuminate the complex world of sex and womanhood.
Ava’s last summer at home is like any other until she’s invited to a ranch party thrown by Lukas, an up-and-coming rider and the rodeo owner’s son. While at the ranch, after a long night of drinking, Ava is sexually assaulted by Lukas as she dips in and out of consciousness. Her sun-soaked days suddenly transform into the sterile waiting rooms of the Sweetwater police station.
After a manipulative interview, the town’s detective convinces Ava to close her case. Now seen as the girl who cried wolf, Ava succumbs to her community’s deafening silence. Even Harper brushes it under the rug, desperate to get back to the way things were. Despite her effort to forget, Ava can’t shake a feeling that something more happened, causing a rift between her and Harper.
As Ernie witnesses the ramifications community repression has on Ava, he fears her future is at stake. Upon seeing Lukas climb the ranks of the rodeo, Ernie wrestles with whether to seek revenge. Meanwhile, as Ava starts to come to terms with her assault, and reckons with self-doubt, she must decide whether to pursue justice at the cost of being further ostracized by her beloved hometown.
Director's Statement:
I grew up in Dallas, Texas, in a heavily patriarchal culture, where, for sex education, our public school brought in a pastor to convince us to wear purity rings. I got one, even though I didn’t believe in God. It took me years after leaving my hometown to become starkly aware of the lack of agency I had over my own sexuality. I wrote Sweetwater because I couldn’t stop thinking about the conversations I used to have about sex as a teen and the behaviors I deemed normal.
Sweetwater centers on an assault set against the backdrop of the rodeo. But it’s about much more. The film illuminates how a culture shapes—and is shaped by—these incidents. It emphasizes the silences that often cone around survivors, push friendships to the brink, and test parents’ ability to protect. And it depicts a system that often shames young women into being silent themselves. While the film explores the inner lives of girls, it sheds light on the ways boys are victims of this hyper-masculine culture, as well—the same culture that tells them to grit their teeth and ride.
Where I came from, the girls were tough. They were sexual and desirous, even in a repressed culture. What I wish we knew as teens was that we could be all those things—and that was still no excuse for others to take advantage of us. And what I know now is that a system, culture, or community can never take away your ability to keep fighting.
Production Information:
Sweetwater is a selection of the NYU Production Lab 2025 Feature Development Studio.
Author's Email Address:
cassidybatiz.sweetwater@gmail.com
Author's Email Address: