SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL


BACKSTORY — Cocalero By Graham Fuller Alejandro Landes’ Cocalero is ostensibly a diary of socialist reformer Evo Morales’ successful campaign to become president of Bolivia in 2005. “For some, it’s the story of Cinderella—the guy who could never become president becomes president,” Landes says. READ MORE...

BACKSTORY — Crossing The Line
By Ronke Idowu Reeves

It was while working on his first feature... that British-born filmmaker Daniel Gordon stumbled upon the subject of his latest film Crossing The Line. Narrated by Christian Slater, the documentary chronicles the life of Private James Dresnok, who in 1962 at age 19 was one of four American soldiers that defected to North Korea during the Cold War.

BACKSTORY — Starting out in the Evening
By Sarah Keenlyside

Andrew Wagner is returning to the Festival this year with his second film Starting Out in the Evening, but three years ago, with his 40th birthday approaching, Wagner’s situation was very different. The NYU Film School and AFI alum had directed two award-winning shorts and written several features but had never directed one.

BACKSTORY — The Legacy
By Graham Fuller

The Legacy, directed by the father-and-son team of Temur and Géla Babluani, shows what happens when three French thirtysomethings, visiting Georgia, unwisely interfere in a local blood feud. The film could be interpreted as a parable about Western European cultural imperialism in a former Soviet country still grappling with independence.

BACKSTORY — Enemies of Happiness
By Holly Willis

“Stop filming,” says Malalai Joya, covering her face with her hands and turning away from Danish documentary filmmaker Eva Mulvad’s camera. It is a rare moment of reluctance in the life of the notorious woman who, as a 24-year-old, publicly called Afghan parliament members “violent warlords” and who now lives in seclusion because of the death threats that followed.

BACKSTORY — Great World of Sound
By Sarah Keenlyside

Ever heard of “song sharking”? It’s when fly-by-night record companies hire unwitting salespeople as “record producers” to sell dodgy recording contracts to wannabe musicians. First-time writer-director Craig Zobel’s film Great World of Sound tackles the subject, which for the filmmaker happens to hit close to home—literally.


BACKSTORY — Waitress By Graham Fuller with Claiborne Smith That Adrienne Shelly isn’t alive to see her movie Waitress bow in this year’s Spectrum is immeasurably sad, but its presence here is a fitting epitaph for an actress and filmmaker who plowed her own furrow in independent cinema. READ MORE...


	BACKSTORY — Hounddog By Claiborne Smith There is a scene about three-quarters of the way through Hounddog, Deborah Kampmeier's unflinching drama about a girl growing up in the hardscrabble South in the 1950s, that has some people wagging their fingers even before the film premieres tonight. READ MORE...

BACKSTORY — Blame it on Fidel
By Holly Willis

Julie Gavras went to law school and she studied literature, but she didn’t attend film school. “I decided a long time ago not to make movies but to be different...” Lucky for us, though, Gavras changed her mind. She left behind law and literature to make movies, and this year brings her feature debut Blame it on Fidel to the Sundance Film Festival.


	BACKSTORY — War/Dance By Claiborne Smith The conflict in northern Uganda between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government, which has cost tens of thousands of civlian lives and displaced 200,000 children, is an unusually complex and internecine quagmire that has been consistently underreported. READ MORE...


BACKSTORY — How She Move By Ronke Idowu Reeves Both in independent and Hollywood films, there are precious few leading roles for black women and that is something screenwriter Annemarie Morais wants to change — particularly for girls and teenagers. READ MORE...