Documentary

“ART & COPY” director, Doug Pray

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 5:30 pm — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Art & Copy is a movie about advertising, creativity, and the innate human urge we have to communicate – whether it’s painting on cave walls or selling canned spaghetti. What makes this documentary a reflection of its times may be simply that people are finding my characters to be inspirational, at a time when many documentaries– for a lot of very good reasons– are depressing, and losing their audiences a result. Maybe times are changing, and people are ready to be less cynical. (Even about advertising…?)
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 16, 2009
SUNDANCE SHORTS FREE ON iTUNES

Once again Sundance has teamed with iTunes to showcase a collection of shorts during the fest for free. From January 15 through January 25, visit www.itunes.com/sundance to view 10 shorts from this year’s festival representing a variety of countries, styles, genres, and stories. They include: Acting for the Camera (Director: Justin Nowell; Screenwriter: ThomasNowell)-An acting class. Today’s scene: the orgasm from ‘When Harry MetSally.’ Countertransference (Director: Madeleine Olnek; Screenwriters: MadeleineOlnek and Cast)-A comedy about an awkward woman with assertivenessproblems who seeks the questionable help of a therapist. HUG (Director: Khary Jones)-Drew is a musician with a contract ready tosign. When […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 14, 2009
QUICK READS ON SOME SUNDANCE FILMS

I tend to be a check-in, sit on my hotel or condo bed and go through the catalog kind of person. I don’t really plan my schedule way in advance. This year I’ve taken a longer look at the catalog than usual and jotted down a few thoughts on some films I want to see and a couple that we know a little bit more about. Consider these the equivalent of notebook scribblings and reminders-to-self — more coherent (and substantive) writing on many of these films will follow later. Dramatic Competition Amreeka: I saw the first 18 minutes of this […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009
SEARCHING FOR THE SUNDANCE SHORTS

On this blog we’ve posted the line-ups of the various Sundance sections, but we forgot to include the shorts. So, to make up, Max Friend in the Filmmaker office has compiled this exhaustive post listing not only all the shorts but also hyperlinks taking you to info on the films, the filmmakers and sometimes the films themselves. Enjoy. U.S. Dramatic Shorts Abbie Cancelled (Directors: Dumb Bunny) — Two couples who have never met find themselves engaged in an awkward dinner after their mutual friends cancel at the last second. Acting for the Camera (Director: Justin Nowell; Screenwriter: Thomas Nowell) — […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE KEVIN LEE/YOUTUBE SITUATION

Let me weigh in quickly on the imbroglio surrounding the deletion of Kevin Lee’s YouTube account. On the account Lee had posted his series of critical video essays on a number of recent and classic films, and in the course of arguing the aesthetic merits of each picture the videos included clips from the movies themselves. Apparently, YouTube received a complaint from the copyright holder of one of the clips and deleted his entire account. Matt Zoller Seitz has the complete story along with a comments thread that is also a must read, and Karina Longworth originally covered the story […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009
SUNDANCE MOOD RING By Alicia Van Couvering

What’s the mood heading into the 25th Sundance Film Festival? Overall, the sense of a across the board scaling back is palpable. Almost no one will talk about their own company’s downsizing publicly, for fear of appearing financially unstable, but it’s no secret that the economic catastrophes have hit everyone’s travel and promotional budgets. Besides fewer sponsored parties – Motorola, for instance, will not be in attendance — the rumor is that some photo agencies have majorly scaled back their coverage, sticking to the red carpet only, and usually ubiquitous publications aren’t sending their film critics. “The party grid is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2009
REVISITING I.O.U.S.A.

Here Roger Ebert reprints his review of the deficit documentary I.O.U.S.A., which CNN airs this weekend. From Ebert’s blog post: I’m reprinting my review of the nonpartisan doc I.O.U.S.A. again because it will be televised on CNN at 1 p.m. CST Saturday, Jan. 10, and 2 p.m. CST Sunday, Jan 11. Co-hosts will be CNN financial experts Ali Velshi and Christine Romans. Their panelists will include Pete Peterson, ormer U.S. Commerce Secretary; Dave Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General; Alice Rivlin, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator. Okay, I’m going to reprint […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2009
“AFGHAN STAR” director, Havana Marking

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 6:15 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] Afghan Star is a documentary about a TV show of the same name. It’s a powerful TV format we all know — a version of Pop Idol — but in a country that most of us don’t: Afghanistan. With the backdrop of warfare and Taliban repression (they banned music and used to impale TVs on spikes) you certainly wouldn’t expect to find a TV music talent contest. But Afghan Star: The Series is now one of the most potent forces of change the country has. You […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2009
“BOY INTERRUPTED” director, Dana Perry

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 3:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] The story of my film, Boy Interrupted, was not affected much by recently changing digital technology. If anything, the film is a throwback to conventional documentary filmmaking; straightforward chronological storytelling – no tricks. Authenticity was our guide. The goal was to tell the story of my son Evan’s bipolar illness and suicide in as factual a manner as possible, with home movies and first-hand interviews bearing witness to our experience as a family. I love the self-contained and mostly humorous videos I see on YouTube and Facebook and […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2009
“IT MIGHT GET LOUD” director, David Guggenheim

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 9:00 am — Temple Theatre, Park City] The hardest thing about making documentaries is finding a story inside your material — it’s just so much harder than scripted material. And so what you find are a lot of documentaries that are written in advance; that is to say that the filmmaker knew what he or she wanted to say before beginning shooting. So you feel a kind of steering going on, and therefore a falseness. The other extreme is that you see documentaries that have no story at all. The filmmaker saw something interesting, they […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2009

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.