So many catalysts went into Troy Pryor becoming a force in Chicago filmmaking. Ask him about it, though, and he’ll stress two above everything else.
Then there’s his four-sport background: The athlete played on his South Side Chicago high school’s inaugural football team. As a walk-on to the University of Illinois football squad, he was the first of his alma mater to play college ball despite tearing his ACL in high school.
“That informed me that I can walk into a scenario where something doesn’t exist and fight for it,” he said.
After college, Pryor dropped 70 pounds and signed with Elite Model Management. He did runway work for brands like Michael Kors and had acting roles, including in the Chicago Fire series. A chance meeting with a casting director motivated him to launch Creative Cypher, a collective of Black Chicago storytellers whose motto is “eliminate the need for permission” in 2012.
“I remember staring at my phone, saying, ‘wait a minute…I can bring people together and create my own opportunities instead of just waiting,’” he recalled. “I was surrounded by a bunch of great artists and storytellers who didn’t want to wait, and I realized that my true skill set was the ability to bring people together and build community.”
Pryor was also inspired by sitting on local film festival boards that provided him with reach and resources in an historically segregated Chicago, but still made Black actors and creators an afterthought, he said.
“Those festivals weren’t owned and operated by us, so we [Black folks] never had the most authentic experience with them,” he said.
It all led to Pryor establishing the Chicago Film XLerator Program, a lab that “breaks down barriers for rising creators by providing access to resources and connections” for creators of color. Since its inception, 14 streaming deals have come from the accelerator as well as inspiration for the Chicago XL Fest name.
The multi-day event – dubbed the Chicago South Side Film Festival before Pryor acquired it in 2022 – allows attendees in the film and television industry to network and attend script readings, film screenings and seminars.
This year’s festival starts with a viewing of Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed Sinners in Millennium Park and will close August 23 with a program at the Obama Presidential Center, which opened to the public last Juneteenth. Pryor stressed that he wants attendees to gain a pathway to enter the market, if not walk away with a deal.
“People want to be able to say that they actually benefited from being a part of a festival,” he said. “I don’t see that with many other festivals.”
Pryor attributes the growing popularity of the Chicago XL Fest to celebs who’ve spoken at the event, including actor Robert Townsend in 2023 and the Tate brothers: Larenz, Lahmard and LaRon, Chicago natives and Hollywood mainstays in 2024. He teases more fun guests this year connected to the 2002 Chicago-based film “Barbershop.”
Pryor hopes this year’s XL Fest will result in more deals inked and stars made, but he wants the festival to highlight its biggest star: Chicago herself.
“A lot of people don’t realize just how much talent comes from Chicago,” he said. “We want to change the narrative of Chicago as this crime-ridden town. Chicago is a beautiful, world-class town with so many amazing elements that have influenced world culture.