Online Film Guide
The Panic Button: Push or Ponder?
The sky fell, companies collapsed, and the industry spent much of the year with one hand on the panic button. So, where do we go from here? Is this the end or simply a transition? Of the questions that besiege the industry today (content, distribution, its very identity), maybe the most fundamental is what kind of movies we want to make…and see. Today we ask for a vision of the future; for new models that foster the health, diversity, and creativity of independent filmmaking.
So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, a group of students, desiring to graduate from high school with their friends, return to New Orleans on their own.
Boutonniere
A simple teenage girl attempts to survive her overbearing mother's exuberant plans for a prom she’d rather not attend.
Animation Spotlight
Dear Beautiful,I can tell you're infected, so strange yet so telling,For us to be isolated in this labyrinthlike dwelling.And if you shall pass, I know a few bravesWho will take care of your coffin, and walk to your grave...I can't take work off, darling,’cause Mister Cok won't approve, but I can care for your dog, and serve you some “food.”No comets in sight; there's a horse cart out back;I think we're all good if you avoid the train tracks.And in your final hours, take a look at the land...It's a beautiful landscape, created by computer and hand. 2, 3, 4-D, let's take in the view:Remember, my dear, I Am So Proud of You. Sincerely,Me
Untitled
Sandra Lea Gibson and Luis Recoder’s piece, Untitled, takes two frames of light and methodically works with their edges to an evocative sound design by Olivia Block. The piece literally creates an installation environment in the theatre, making the finale an entirely physical experience. Gibson and Recoder experiment with the possibilities of the projector and the light itself, from booth to screen, over our heads and back to our eyes.
Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
575 Castro St.
Set to the original audio cassette recorded by Harvey Milk in November 1977 to be played "in the event of my death by assassination."
sex, lies, and videotape
Twenty years ago, Steven Soderbergh arrived at the Sundance/United States Film Festival carrying the print of sex, lies, and videotape; he left with the dramatic Audience Award. The film went on to win the Palme d' Or and the best actor award for James Spader at Cannes and became one of most popular and critically acclaimed independent films. Suddenly, for good or bad, Sundance was on everyone's radar.Sex, lies charts the complex interrelationship linking four characters in a southern town: Ann (Andie MacDowell); her husband, John (Peter Gallagher); her sister, Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo), who is having an affair with John; and John's old college friend Graham (Spader), who drifts into their lives and, through his videotapes, changes the way they see themselves and relate to each other.What makes the film unique is the counterpointing between the images and the soundtrack, enabling you to follow two strands of the story simultaneously and see their connection. In the film's opening scene, for example, we hear Ann telling her analyst about her poor sexual relationship with John while we watch John and Cynthia making torrid love.Some films run dry over time, but sex, lies keeps getting richer. With each viewing, new subtleties emerge. All the performances are impressive, but Spader is mesmerizing. His Graham is disarmingly direct yet maddeningly elusive; at one point, he tells Ann, ""I don't have the slightest idea who I am."" Neither do we, but that just increases our fascination.
Passing Strange
In this astounding and explosive documentary, Spike Lee captures the eponymous Broadway musical show written by singer/songwriter Stew (with music cowritten by his creative partner, Heidi Rodewald). The resulting work unites revelatory theater with superb filmmaking, raising the whole to a dizzyingly plateau of emotional engagement. The story (developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab) concerns the uneasy relationship of a young black man (called simply Youth in the show’s credits) with his life. Raised somewhere south of Interstate 10 in Los Angeles, our hero, a would-be songwriter, stews in a sea of conflicted cultural signals. He chafes under his mother’s fixation on family ties and church and her bourgeois aspirations. So he sets out on his own—like pioneers Josephine Baker and James Baldwin—to Europe, seeking something “real.” Picaresque misadventures with sex, drugs, politics, and art await Youth in far-out Amsterdam and hypermilitant Berlin. His eyes are opened ever wider, even revealing what he left behind. An absolutely superb cast, ably supported by sparing (but pitch-perfect) costumes, design, and stagecraft, bring to life the emotionally charged story with its astounding original music, narrated and overseen by Stew himself. Lee’s multicamera coverage of the event (including backstage scenes) involves the audience in not only the text but the electricity of the ensemble’s onstage adventure. It's a tour-de-force of creative collaboration and inspiration
Earth Days
Director Robert Stone concocts an inspiring and hopeful work in Earth Days, a feature documentary that recounts the history of the modern environmental movement from its beginnings nearly four decades ago. Environmental activism really began with the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and precipitated an unexpected and galvanizing effect on the national psyche. Told through the eyes of nine very divergent witnesses, including a secretary of the interior, Stewart Udall, who actually cared about the environment; a biologist, Paul Ehrlich; a congressman, Pete McCloskey; and an astronaut, Rusty Schweickart, Earth Days is a visually stunning, globe-spanning chronicle of watershed events and consciousness-changing realizations that prompted a new awareness: the post–World War II American dream of a future world created by scientific progress, new technology, and economic expansion was rapidly changing into a nightmare. To the twenty million Americans who demanded change and political action to protect the environment on that first Earth Day, the urgency and scale of the current crisis would have seemed extreme and alarmist. Earth Days is a truly cogent and powerful depiction of the awakening of the world to environmental reality by a dedicated and skilled filmmaker; ignoring its message could imperil us all!
Exiles of the Shattered Star
Exiles of the Shattered Star presents a beautiful countryside showered with what appear to be remnants of another place. Inhabiting a place between fantasy and reality, the work evokes trepidation and fascination in equal measures. Richardson’s videos adopt the language of cinematic illusion and suspense, here - not only in the inherent drama of the fiery streaks of matter illuminating the brooding sky, but also in the many contrasting narratives that one is dared to imagine.
Sin Nombre
It’s almost impossible to believe that Sin Nombre is Cary Joji Fukunaga’s feature debut; its storytelling is so accomplished, its visual style so crisp, and its heightened naturalism and performances so textured. A social-political thriller in the tradition of American film noir, Sin Nombre is set on the border, where Mexico becomes the crucible and the fearsome gangs of today’s Mexican countryside, the gauntlet, to freedom. The stories of Sayra, a teenager living in Honduras and hungering for a brighter future, and teen gang members Smiley and Casper, for whom the Mara Salvatrucha is nearly their entire universe, become interlaced on the train to the border, a journey that will determine the future of their lives. Young Casper is already a wary veteran of the "Mara," and his new recruit is the 12-year-old Smiley, full of bravado and looking for status. The two run afoul of the everyday violence that penetrates their world and find themselves fellow passengers with Sayra on a States-bound freight, hugging the rooftop as their precarious journey unfolds. At once a love story and a chase film, a thrill ride and a vision of an apocalyptic hell, Sin Nombre demonstrates Fukunaga's skill; he envelops us in a nightmare that is all too real for its inhabitants. Sin Nombre is a portrait of hope and desperation and announces the launching of a shining new filmmaking career.
Recipient of the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic, and the Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Dramatic.
Arlen Faber
Arlen Faber (Jeff Daniels) is the reclusive author of Me and God, a book that has redefined spirituality for an entire generation. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of his still-wildly-popular book, Arlen continues to be sought after as the man with all the answers. Then his life collides with those of Elizabeth (Lauren Graham), a single mom raising her seven-year-old son, and Kris (Lou Taylor Pucci), a young man fresh out of rehab who is searching for meaning. Both Elizabeth and Kris are hopeful that Arlen has answers for them, but the truth is, he hasn't got a clue.In Arlen Faber, writer/director John Hindman’s dialogue is clever and insightful but not enough to eclipse the underlying sweetness of his film. He brings together an eccentric group of characters and allows them to work their way through this unique and ultimately inspiring story. It helps that the talented cast has an engaging chemistry that draws us into their cinematic lives. The emotional walls between our main characters are high—but not insurmountable, so the pleasure is in watching them try to get over them. If romance gives Arlen Faber its heart, then its spine is the things that make life complicated—heroes that let us down, life not giving us what we deserve, and fame not being all it’s cracked up to be.
I Love You Phillip Morris
With alacrity and style, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the codirectors of I Love You Phillip Morris, have fashioned an improbable, but true, tale of a spectacularly charismatic and resourceful con-man’s journey from small-town cop to flamboyant white-collar criminal. Concocted by the absurdist sensibilities and warped minds that were behind the creation of Bad Santa and centered around an eccentrically wonderful performance by Jim Carrey, the film relates a story that is truly stranger than fiction and showcases a love story that will not be denied. When a local Texas policeman, Steve Russell (Carrey), turns to cons and fraud to allow him to change his lifestyle (in more ways than one), his subsequent stay in the state penitentiary results in his meeting the love of his life, a sensitive fellow inmate named Phillip Morris, perfectly portrayed by Ewan McGregor. What ensues can only be described as a relentless quest as Russell attempts escape after escape and executes con after con, all in the name of love. This is the world of the preposterous: it plays like a farce but is vastly entertaining because it turns all that we take for granted about life on its head. As a primer on the irresistible power of a man who is either insane or in love (is there a difference?), I Love You Phillip Morris surely serves to remind us of the resilience of the human spirit.
O'er the Land
With the excuse of freedom, we lose so many things. — Silvio BarileO’er the Land is Deborah Stratman’s meditation on freedom and technological approaches to manifest destiny. She captures the marching-band battle cries of the country with a strong, controlled tone that proves its point but is extremely playful, too. Stratman documents the wild, wild worlds of gun shows—ones where you can fire machine guns in the forest and literally blow stuff up, reenactments of famous battles with historically accurate weapons and clothes (golf carts and Pepsi trucks in the wings), border disputes, and the organized frenzy of cheerleaders and motor homes. All are framed by the incredible experiences of Colonel William Rankin, who, in 1959, was forced to eject from his F8-U fighter jet at 48,000 feet without a pressure suit, only to get trapped for 45 minutes in the up-and-down drafts of a massive thunderstorm. Miraculously he survived.The scale of practicing war as a game is colossal and hard to grasp at times. Stratman captures the events she depicts with wonder rather than disdain. Her thoughtful framing of images and meticulous editing help us understand the absurdity in this dark path.
Magnetic Movie
Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries when scientists from NASA's space-sciences laboratory excitedly describe their discoveries.
I Am So Proud of You
Dark family secrets cast a shadow over Bill's recovery in this second chapter to the prize-winning short Everything Will Be OK.
White Lightnin'
Some people spend their whole lives running from who they really are, but Jesco White (Edward Hogg) uses tap dancing to keep his demons at bay. At the tender age of six, he started getting high by huffing gasoline and stolen lighter fluid. Growing up, Jesco often found himself shuffling between reform schools, work camps, and his home in West Virginia—until his father, famous mountain dancer D. Ray White, taught him how to tap. After his father's murder, Jesco begins to dance to control his increasingly wicked ways. Wearing his late father's tap shoes, he takes his show on the road, where he meets Cilla (Carrie Fisher), the love of his life. Sadly, Jesco's troubled past doesn't stay gone for long, and we are forced to bear witness to the dual powers of revenge and redemption, and the bone-chilling lengths that he will go to have both. White Lightnin' is a phantasmagoric tumble into the dark corners of artistic genius, addiction, and insanity that is set to an aptly kinky soundtrack. Inspired by the life of Jesco White, ""the dancing outlaw,"" director Dominic Murphy creates a cleverly stylized portrait that is nothing short of sensational.
One Day in a Life
A man, Salvatore, crosses a sand dune heading to the beach. The next instant the beauty of the sea and sky is revealed to him, as if a forecast of the possibilities that lie ahead. Salvatore cuts a striking figure in his bathing suit and becomes an instant lightning rod for others' curiosity. He exudes a bold presence, although his aloof exterior barely masks a lingering hurt from his past. The sun and sand do their part, helping separate him from the struggles of his everyday life and serving as a surreal backdrop for a peculiar menagerie of characters to enter his life. Writer/director Stefano Tummolini tells a simple, yet beautiful, story that unfolds in a single day. He has assembled a perfect cast, playing characters drawn from every section of modern Italian society—old and young, gay and straight, rich and poor. On the beach, they find the perfect emotional equalizer for them to express themselves. Antonio Merone, as the complicated Salvatore, is excellent in his role. As the sun lowers on the horizon, you realize Tummolini has accomplished something quite special: he has created a study of an ordinary day where an extraordinary thing happens—people are forced to slow down and become aware of the transformative pleasure of human contact.
This Is Her
As she watches her younger self, Evie's deliciously wry commentary reveals what life has in store for her daughter, her loving husband, and the six-year-old bitch who will one day destroy her life.
Predisposed
A conservative son is pulled into the messy mission of helping his manipulative, drug-addicted mother score, and they realize they are not so different.
Knife Point
An evangelical family passing through upstate New York gives a ride to an unusual traveling-knife salesman.
The Dirty Ones
Two Mennonite sisters travel throughout the southern states with the body of their dead grandmother in their truck bed.
American Minor
American Minor is a meditation on the popular image of the American teen girl. Through carefully created, lingering scenes, the film focuses on the external environment and internal state of a fourteen-year-old, upper-middle-class blonde girl whose world is defined through products, objects, and perpetual consumption. The film observes a single, protracted morning in the life of a picture-perfect American youth lost in the dehumanizing space that wealth, isolation, and fear can provide. By watching this American teen perform basic acts, from eating cereal, to watching television, to combing her hair, the film aims to reveal the complicated relationship between personal pleasure and politics, youth and sexuality, and class and suppression.
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