SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

WINNERS IN ANY LANGUAGE
By Daily Insider Staff

Last night, filmmakers and Festivalgoers crowded into the Park City Racquet Club to celebrate the close of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and to learn which films Festival juries and audiences had chosen for awards. The Festival’s Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, awarded to one of the 16 U.S. films in the Independent Film Competition: Dramatic, went to Christopher Zalla’s Padre Nuestro.


	FEATURE — Not So Foreign Languages By Ronke Idowu Reeves The quintessential effect of language is more than a mere means of exchanging thoughts and ideas. At its core, language is the cultural handprint of its people – each swirling groove and unique imprint detailing an ethnicity’s identity, history, and mores READ MORE...

FEATURE — Form Evolves But Truth Remains
By Holly Willis

Call it “gonzo,” call it “new,” call it “creative”: Documentary filmmaking at this year’s Sundance Film Festival stretches far beyond traditional non-fiction film – and even beyond traditional notions of truth in some cases – to craft a movement in cinema akin to the New Journalism of the 1970s or the creative non-fiction writing so popular today where the elements of fiction enliven the chronicling of fact.


	FEATURE — This Frontier Cannot Be Tamed By Holly Willis Want to make a Sundance film? Great! Bring your cell phone to Park City and talk to Shu Lea Cheang. Want to be in a Sundance film? Perfect! Wander by Lincoln Schatz’s Cluster, and chances are you will appear onscreen sometime later. READ MORE...


POINT OF VIEW - Cara Mertes, Director of Sundance Documentary Film Program Like a number of other documentaries in competition at the Festival this year which cover everything from prison abuse to outright war, No End in Sight is not just about Iraq but something more expansive: how violence becomes sanctioned, institutionalized, condoned, and supported. READ MORE...


	INSIDER CONVERSATION with Crispin Glover Crispin Glover sat down and answered a few questions before last night’s premiere It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. the second film in his trilogy It. READ MORE...


FEATURE — Clearing the Dust Away By Claiborne Smith Like a number of other documentaries in competition at the Festival this year which cover everything from prison abuse to outright war, No End in Sight is not just about Iraq but something more expansive: how violence becomes sanctioned, institutionalized, condoned, and supported. READ MORE...


	FEATURE — Based on a True Story By Graham Fuller Narratives inspired by true events have been a staple of cinema since its earliest days, but the unflinching nature and unusually large number of fact-based films in this year’s Festival signals that they have transcended their Movie of the Week status. READ MORE...


POINT OF VIEW — The Lost Art of Agitation By Travis Wilkerson The world is what we make of it. And at Sundance what most of us make is art. In our own way we are trying to change the world – hopefully for the better, but not always for the more comfortable. This year my contribution is Soapbox Agitation #1: Proving Ground at the New Frontier on Main Microcinema. READ MORE...

FEATURE — Documentaries and the Environment: Filmmakers Strive to Unearth Truths
By Sarah Keenlyside

The polar ice cap is rapidly melting, rivers in China are running black with glues and dyes from factories, and a vital springs in Austin, Texas is being contaminated by suburban sprawl. These are just some of the environmental crises tackled by documentaries screening at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

FEATURE — Things We Do For Love
By Ronke Idowu Reeves

It’s what the world needs now. It’s all we need. Love. According to modern psychology, it is our Freudian first loves, dear old Mom and Dad, who teach us to be so twisted when it comes to romance. But instead of spending years on the couch and thousands of dollars, skip the psychiatrist’s office and grab a seat at this year’s Festival...


	INSIDER CONVERSATION with Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore With the ’07 Sundance Film Festival now in full swing, Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore shares his thoughts on the how this year’s lineup fits into the history of independent film, how Sundance is celebrating the emergence of a new arena, and what he hopes you’ll take with you when you leave Park City. READ MORE...


FEATURE — Turning Upside Down and Inside Out By Claiborne Smith Like other restless filmmakers at the Festival who are not content with fashioning conventional narratives, Lask is asking his audience to think – about the ways in which stories are told, and about film as a medium... READ MORE...

FEATURE — Chicago 10
By Sarah Keenlyside

Yesterday, just minutes before the Festival's Opening Day Press Conference at the Egyptian Theatre, Robert Redford, Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore, and Chicago 10 director Brett Morgen exchanged green room greetings. At the press conference, the three shared their excitement about the opening night film and a Festival that promises to renew filmgoers' sense of what is possible - creatively, socially, and politically. Gilmore spoke of the Festival's New Frontier program which celebrates the work at the new nexus of film, art, and technology, and encouraged audiences to "Focus on Film."


FEATURE — Robert Redford on Documentary Film Interview By Cara Mertes The Sundance Film Festival’s longstanding commitment to documentary has been driven by the personal connection Founder and President Robert Redford feels for the form. Leading up to the premiere of Chicago 10, the second doc to ever open the Festival, The Insider talked to Redford about the past, present, and possible future of documentaries. READ MORE...