Sundance
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“WHERE DO WE GO NOW?” | director, Nadine Labaki’a
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 2:45 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Growing up in Lebanon as a little girl, my childhood was synchronized between home and shelter. Living in a country adorned in politics, secular perturbations, and injustice, our lives evolved around continuous wars. Most of our days were spent in confinement behind sacks of sand. There were times when it was too dangerous to even leave our homes. We couldn’t go to school, we couldn’t go outside to play, and we couldn’t practice what normal childhood was. Early on, I started developing a unique relationship with the TV […]
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WRITER/DIRECTOR CRAIG ZOBEL ON “COMPLIANCE”
Following the adventures of two mismatched salesman hawking vanity recording deals for a small Southern recording label, Craig Zobel’s 2007 Sundance picture Great World of Sound is a beautifully crafted debut feature, emotionally rich and with a sagacious perspective on America’s escalating obsession with fame. And in the months following its release, the banter between the two men, and the hapless vocalists aiming for an America’s Got Talent-style brass ring by way of a cheaply-produced studio single, must have made the film seem like a comedy to those who missed its lacerating moral critique. That’s because, as Zobel notes below, […]
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Detropia | Directors/Producers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, Noon –Temple Theatre, Park City] Rachel Grady: I’m a documentary filmmaker because it’s basically like going to an amazing graduate school with each new project. And getting paid to do it. It gives you an excuse to learn, explore, hypothesize, get it wrong, change your mind, discover new ideas and then share your results with complete strangers. That’s extremely fun to me. Heidi Ewing: In our view, there is no other medium that is better suited for Detroit than the medium of documentary film. The slew of popular picture books about the city and its […]
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“FOR ELLEN” | writer-director, So Yung Kim
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 5:30 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] I was lucky enough to fall into filmmaking. I tried other art forms like painting and performance, but there was something lacking. Then I helped my husband Brad make his first feature film. I found the experience inspiring and so I began to make my own films. With each film I have been learning, not just about filmmaking, but also about life and myself. I started to write For Ellen when I was filled with anxiety and doubts about being a decent parent, a loving partner, and a […]
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“TWENTY-EIGHT HOTELS ROOMS” | writer-director, Matt Ross
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 5:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] The most truthful answer I can come up with as to why my story is told as a film (and not a novel or a play) is this: the most profound narrative experiences I have had have been in a dark movie theatre. One of the first films I can remember seeing was Jaws. I must have been about five. The experience was seared into my brain. It was horrifying, primal. Even now, as an adult, so many years later, every time I swim or surf in the […]
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“THE HOUSE I LIVE IN” | director, Eugene Jarecki
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 6:00 pm –Temple Theatre, Park City] “Why am I a filmmaker?” I often ask myself the same question. I ask it because first and foremost I guess I am less an artist than simply a small-p-political person who is moved by human struggle anywhere around me and who, however naively or presumptuously, wants to do something about it. My new film, The House I Live In, examines the destructive impact of the War on Drugs on poor and minority Americans and what can be done to reform it. It is my most personal film to […]
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“ME AT THE ZOO” | directors, Chris Moukarbel & Valerie Veatch
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday , January 21 9:00 pm – Temple Theatre, Park City] Our film Me @ The Zoo began in another form entirely. We were making a long form art video for the NYC-based arts organization Rhizome. The artwork was about exploring the ways that technology mediates our lives as a generation comes of age watching reality television and using social media. It seemed like what is considered to be performance has shifted and “acting” was losing ground as a popular medium. Video technology enables us to turn the content of our lives into a kind of show. If you […]
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“THE END OF LOVE” | director, Mark Webber
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 2:30 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] My mom had me when she was 16. I lived with her in a car, then in shitty houses with an abusive father who was hooked on heroin, then in abandoned buildings we would takeover because we were homeless. I had an interesting childhood. So when I was lucky enough to see a film in a movie theater, I would immediately be transported to another world. A world of dreams, where everything seemed possible. What was once just a form of escapism, is now my greatest joy. It […]
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“MY BEST DAY” | Writer-director, Erin Greenwell
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 6:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] I can trace back wanting to make movies to my father and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Once in grade school, I had a history presentation due. While watching the above mentioned movie with homework-is-due dread, I was struck with inspiration. I asked my dad “Is this true?”. “Yeah” he remarked. My fact checking was pretty dodgy. Pulse racing, I made my father point out the name in the Encyclopedia Britannica and then based the rest of my research off the movie. The next day at school, […]
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Five Questions with The Comedy Director Rick Alverson
Director Rick Alverson is nothing if not prolific. After putting out six albums over eight years with his band Spokane, Alverson turned his attention to film, directing The Builder in 2010 and New Jerusalem last year. Continuing this productive streak is The Comedy, a dark exploration into the insular, self-destructive lifestyle of the affluent white male. Set against the backdrop of Brooklyn’s ultra-hip Williamsburg, The Comedy stands in contrast to Alverson’s previous two films, films that focused mainly on the stories of working class immigrants. Starring comedian Tim Heidecker (in his first dramatic role) and a supporting cast that includes […]
