Sundance
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“CALIFORNIA SOLO” | director, Marshall Lewy
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, January 25 9:45 pm –EcclesTheatre, Park City] I remember watching the end of Hannah and her Sisters as a teenager, when Woody Allen finds out he’s not going to die from a terminal illness and then fails at a suicide attempt. How does he find the will to live again? He walks past a theater where a Marx Brothers comedy is playing, he slips in and loses himself in the magic of Duck Soup, and all his problems melt away. Of course, right? I mean, what better way for a person to celebrate life than to go […]
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“PRICE CHECK” | director, Michael Walker
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, January 25 6:30 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] When you are in the film business, someone, let’s say your dentist, will inevitably tell you a story that they think is a great idea for a movie. But they don’t know how to write a script, they just know how to clean teeth, so they want you to write it for them. If I had an idea that I thought would make a good novel, I would tell it to the poor guy who made the mistake of telling me that he was a novelist, because I don’t […]
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“GYPSY DAVY” | director, Rachel Leah Jones
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, January 24, 3:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] I’m not an independent filmmaker; so-called independent filmmakers—all the more so documentarians—are some of the most dependent people around. We depend on funders and characters, on permission-givers and gatekeepers, on our own (free) will, determination and hubris—not to mention on the weather. A film teacher I once had gave me the one really truly valuable lesson in all my MFA: “You want to make a movie?” she asked us. Yes, we nodded. “Then go out and tell everyone you know that you’re going to make a movie.” Otherwise, she […]
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Five Questions with Shut Up And Play the Hits Directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace
Over LCD Soundsystem’s ten-year career, the band grew from early blog darlings to lauded indie stalwarts. After telegraphing the group’s demise years in advance, band-leader James Murphy officially disbanded LCD last April with a star-studded, marathon-length performance at Madison Square Garden. Now, less than a year later, Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace present Shut Up and Play the Hits, a documentary that follows Murphy and his band-mates in the run-up to and aftermath of their now-legendary final performance. If the film’s trailer is any indication, Shut up and Play the Hits will serve as a great encapsulation of the excitement, […]
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Five Questions with Valley of Saints Director Musa Syeed and Producer Nicholas Bruckman
Musa Syeed’s Valley of Saints is a film warmly awash in setting and culture. Filmed in Kashmir, within the aquatic trading community of Dal Lake, Valley follows Gulzar, a young ferry driver who dreams of moving out of Kashmir, until the arrival of a beautiful American scientist begins to complicate things. Pairing with producer Nicholas Bruckman, Syeed’s first narrative effort patiently probes into a fascinating community (and part of the world) rarely seen on the big screen. Filmmaker: What inspired you to make a film set in Kashmir? Syeed: Both my parents were born in Kashmir. In the 1960s, my […]
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VIDEO: “WE ARE LEGION: THE STORY OF THE HACKTIVISTS” DIRECTOR BRIAN KNAPPENBERGER
Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco of the National Film Society are back with a video interview with director Brian Knappenberger, whose hacker documentary We Are Legion premieres in competition at Slamdance this week. During the interview, which will give those of you not in Park City a good idea of the snow situation, Patrick and Stephen speak with Knappenberger about hacker group Anonymous, infusing comedy into documentary, and SOPA. The full interview:
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SHORTS PROGRAM II: EVALUATING RELATIONSHIPS YOUNG, OLD, AND NEW
The films that make up Sundance’s Shorts Program II all address issues of basic intimacy and loneliness. Whether telling the story of a homecoming between wife and husband, an unexpected encounter with a stranger, or in one case, the way technology’s interference in everyday life renders a relationship unidentifiable, these young filmmakers are all attempting to understand emotions that still remain mysterious. Take Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos, and Jessie Ennis’ The Arm, for example. The film begins misleadingly. A narrative seemingly about a power struggle between two male teenage friends turns quickly into a darkly humorous depiction of a subject […]
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“VALLEY OF SAINTS” | director, Musa Syeed
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 6:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre My parents aren’t big moviegoers. In their nearly 40 years in America, they can probably count the number of times they’ve gone to a theater on one hand. So, when I was 8 years old, I was surprised when they decided to take the family out to the movies for the first time. But while other kids got to see Aladdin or Home Alone 2, my parents sat us down to watch Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. In one of the many scenes that stuck with me, Malcolm is able to […]
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“THE LAST ELVIS” | director, Armando Bo
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 8:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] I’m a third generation of filmmakers. When I was a boy I used to visit the sets of my father and grandfather. I worked as an extra, in production, in location scouting, in direction. I cannot say exactly why I do it. I only know that I enjoy it and I don’t see myself doing anything else. I believe that cinema, being a combination of most of the other arts, if it is well executed, it is without a doubt the art that goes deeper and mobilizes more […]
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“THE IMPOSTER” | director, Bart Layton
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 5:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] As a documentary-maker you could wait a lifetime to happen upon a story as extraordinary as this one. From the moment I heard about it it sounded like something that could hardly have taken place in the real world – a Frenchman successfully steals the identity of a missing Texan boy and begins a new life within the boy’s family posing as their child? If it were a work of fiction it would seem far-fetched. And from this sparked the need to find out more – about the […]
