A new documentary world premiere — the latest from Jeff Orlowski, dealing with the social controls and neuroprogramming aspects of technology platforms and social networks — and two restored works from the Sundance Collection were announced today. Orlowski’s film, The Social Dilemma, will screen next month in Park City as will two distinguished works that are favorites here at the magazine: Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art and Zana Briski and Ross Kaufman’s Born into Brothels. From the press release: Archival screenings are made possible by the Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA, and give audiences the opportunity to discover and rediscover the […]

Let’s state the obvious: attending a film festival for a prolonged period is a privileged experience. Few can boast that they got to spend a week sitting and watching movies all day. You have two options on your hands in attending any festival. There is the Indiana Jones approach: run in, grab the treasure and bottle it out the door. Assuming you have the inclination, this is your ticket to compile a gratifying best-of-the-year list in a relatively bloodless fashion. In this case, movie festivals become a convenient service with a practical goal: better to see this stuff here than […]

Thirty-two independent experimental and independent media projects comprising the 2020 Sundance Film Festival New Frontier program were announced today by the Sundance Institute. Included in what is often Sundance’s most surprising section are an art/journalism project riffing on the newsreel format by artist and Lemonade collaborator Khalil Joseph; an “under construction” AI based on the thoughts of linguist and critic Noam Chomsky; and a 35mm short consisting of 16,000 cuts. Also included are new works that are the latest installments in the lifelong practices of artist and filmmakers (and Sundance veterans) Lynn Hershman Leeson and Narcissister. Of note too is […]

Eighth episodic works, 74 short films and nine special events were announced today as part of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The shorts were selected from 10,397 submissions hailing from 27 countries. In the press release, Kim Yutani​, the Festival’s Director of Programming, said, “Authenticity and independent voices resonate across formats – and that’s evident across the full spectrum of this year’s Indie Episodic and Special Events slates. Defined by distinctive voices and enlightening viewpoints, these are riveting projects that find inspiration in the urgent stories and extraordinary individuals of our times.” Mike Plante, ​Senior Programmer, Shorts, said, “With an […]

For independent filmmakers the most eagerly awaited announcement of the year is here: the 118 feature films selected for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The films hail from 27 countries and were chosen from a dizzying record high of 3,853 features. And the 2020 edition is the final one for outgoing Festival Director John Cooper, who says, “The program this year, my last as Director, is a celebration: of art and artists, yes, but also of the community that makes the annual pilgrimage to Park City to see the most exciting new work being made today. Watching this group expand […]

This is a strange place to have a revelation. I’m sitting in a movie theatre in Pingyao, Shanxi Province, China. I have shrunken into a cosy corporate space which, once the house lights are put out, is soothingly anonymous. I’m briefly hidden from the startling and imposing hubbub of the Pingyao International Film Festival, a “boutique” film festival founded by the great Jia Zhangke in 2017; hiding, as it were, in plain sight. All this festival’s state-sponsored glitz, its overproduced sleekness, the ubiquity of its many, many attendees, the drone of voices in the street, the scooters caroming by—all of […]