Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton’s ‘Their Town’ frames teen longing

mark duplass stayed away from the filming of Their Town for a reason that had nothing to do with creative control: someone had to remain home to care for the couple’s youngest daughter. The film, written with his oldest daughter Ora in mind and directed by Katie Aselton, now premieres this weekend at SXSW, turning a family production choice into part of the story’s underlying question—how younger generations search for real connection in an anxious present.

Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton’s division

The arrangement behind Their Town underscores a practical reality of “family filmmaking, ” as Mark Duplass described it: solving a “pragmatic puzzle” while trying to make a movie. That puzzle also became a form of creative clarity. Duplass said he briefly considered directing the script himself, then decided it was “a film for Aselton to make, ” pointing to her sense of “visual poetry” and, more importantly, the mother-daughter bond that could shape the performance at the center of the film.

Duplass described Katie Aselton and Ora Duplass as “very, very similar, ” calling them “beautiful, emotionally intelligent, sharp, ” and also “deeply insecure, ” a mix he said was “required for this film and this role. ” The pattern suggests the production’s most consequential decision was not merely who would direct, but who could translate family intimacy into craft without turning it into sentimentality. Mark Duplass stepping back from set, while still anchoring the script, placed that translation largely in Aselton’s hands.

Ora Duplass leads Abby in Bangor

Ora Duplass, 18, makes her feature acting debut as Abby, a teenager in Maine cast in a high school production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. The plot tightens when Abby’s boyfriend unexpectedly drops out of the play, forcing a last-minute replacement: Matt, a quiet newcomer to the school played by Chosen Jacobs. In one account, Matt is described as being “shoved into this emotionally intimate situation, ” setting up a dynamic that depends less on spectacle than on proximity and vulnerability.

The two characters spend a night wandering their hometown of Bangor, Maine, discovering unexpected connections. The figures and specifics here—Bangor as both setting and shooting location, Abby’s role in a school play, a single night of walking and talking—point to a deliberate attempt to stage teen interiority in ordinary spaces. Ora Duplass said scenes that looked straightforward on the page carried surprising emotional force in performance, adding that acting helped “the emotion come through, ” alongside “personal growth. ”

Bangor mattered to the production beyond the script’s needs. Mark Duplass knew the town well because Katie Aselton’s family lives nearby. He framed it as a place where kids can “walk around freely at night” and feel connected to a “pre-cellphone era, ” aligning geography with theme: a town that visually suggests an older pace, even as the characters live in the present.

SXSW ties ‘Their Town’ to legacy

Their Town arrives at SXSW 11 years after Mark Duplass gave a well-known speech at the Austin festival advising indie filmmakers that “the cavalry is not coming, ” urging them to lead their own projects. The new film, made by Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton with their daughter in the starring role, is presented as an example of that ethos—building the support system rather than waiting for one. Yet, it also exposes the cost: Ora Duplass said her parents tried to keep her out of the business for as long as possible, hoping to spare her the “near-constant rejection most actors face. ”

Aselton said she was nervous about directing her daughter, who was 16 during filming, and described the preparation as both logistical and emotional, including conversations with Ora, her therapist, and Mark Duplass late at night. She credited Ora’s “emotionally intelligent” instincts and said the production benefited from a compressed timeline: a 12-day shoot. The pattern suggests that the project’s “supportive” structure—family collaboration, advance preparation, and a short schedule—wasn’t just a kindness to a first-time feature actor, but a management strategy meant to protect the working environment from predictable parent-teen friction.

The film’s artistic influences also loop back to SXSW’s ecosystem. Austin is described as an apt launchpad because the film drew inspiration from Richard Linklater. Mark Duplass recalled driving 80 miles from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to see Linklater’s Before Sunrise in 1995, around the age Ora is now. He remembered being struck by the “dignity” given to young people’s thoughts, plus “a sense of humor, ” and said it felt “loose, ” “casual, ” and “sweet. ” That reference functions less as a name-check than as a tonal blueprint for Their Town, which similarly focuses on an “unforced” dynamic between its young leads over the course of one night.

Their Town premieres Saturday at SXSW, with Ora Duplass appearing as Abby and Chosen Jacobs as Matt. What remains open is how audiences at the festival respond to the film’s central bet: that a story built around Our Town, Bangor’s nighttime walkability, and a deliberately intimate parent-led production process can capture the “introspective, ” “deeply anxious” desire for connection that Mark Duplass said he recognizes in teens today—without turning that longing into a cliché.