All posts tagged: Sundance

Netflix Nabs Sundance Doc ‘Daughters’

Netflix Nabs Sundance Doc ‘Daughters’

Published by Sam

The Sundance documentary Daughters has landed at Netflix. The feature follows four young girls as they prepare for a daddy daughter dance, which is a chance to reunite with their incarcerated fathers as part of a fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. prison. Daughters took home the audience award in the documentary competition and earned the festival favorite award. Directors Angela Patton and Natalie Rae are behind the feature. Patton is the CEO of Girls for a Change, a non-profit that launched the Date with Dad Program, which holds a dance for the daughters of men incarcerated in a D.C. prison. The documentary details a ten-week program the men enter upon in preparation for the dance, as well as the anticipation the girls feel for the big day. “Daughters peaks an hour in with the father-daughter dance, which is astonishing and as potent as you could hope for. From the preparations for the dance, on both sides of the prison walls, to the moment at which the girls tentatively walk down the hallway to where …

Focus Features Lands Sundance Coming-of-Age Movie Didi

Focus Features Lands Sundance Coming-of-Age Movie Didi

Published by Sam

Focus Features had landed the worldwide rights to Sean Wang’s feature directorial debut Dídi, which won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is set in 2008 in the San Francisco Bay Area and, according to the film’s logline, follows an “impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.” Izaac Wang (Good Boys) stars in the film, alongside Joan Chen, Shirley Chen and Chang Li Hu. The film was also awarded the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast. THR‘s Sundance review of the film reads: “The film is a very solid entry in the annals of coming-of-age films, reminiscent of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade in both its affection for its young characters and its willingness to meet them on their own terms. But its real secret weapon turns out to be the equal empathy it extends toward Chungsing, whose own journey emerges as a moving complement to her son’s.” The film was produced under …

Tommy Dewey’s Feral Fairy Tale

Tommy Dewey’s Feral Fairy Tale

Published by skeptic

Back in 2019, when actor Tommy Dewey signed on to play the monster in Caroline Lindy’s short film Your Monster, he was excited about the opportunity to play a uniquely romantic, fantastical figure, and to work with former Casual colleague Lindy. But he never thought that four-day shoot would extend to making a full-length feature three years later, much less one that would premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “There was a certain magic about [the story],” Dewey says of his early involvement in Your Monster, which is about a young woman (Melissa Barrera) whose unconventional relationship with a monster in her home (Dewey) helps her heal her broken heart and find her voice and confidence. “We knew we had something there, but how many times have we made shorts…and you think it’s going to be a feature? That works one out of a million times.” Fortunately, something’s got to be that one out of a million. “We stayed in touch as [Lindy] developed it,” says Dewey, who also signed on as an executive …

The Best Female-Directed Films At Sundance

The Best Female-Directed Films At Sundance

Published by skeptic

PARK CITY, Utah — Amid our inclination to focus on Hollywood’s many inequities, including, say, the Academy’s failure to recognise one very specifically selected female directors, the notion of a talent deficit can emerge and drown out the truth: We have a plethora of female filmmakers from across all backgrounds telling daring, superb stories all the time. They just too often don’t reach the audiences that they deserve. This month’s Sundance Film Festival, for instance, premiered a wide variety of interesting movies from women — some of whom you might have never heard of before, and others whose work might get a lot of much-deserved buzz at the festival, only for that to fizzle out as the year progresses. (Hopefully that won’t be the case.) But in today’s flooded news cycle, it’s hard to sustain interest around a film for 365 whole days. Not all of them are acquired by big film studios, and even those that do don’t always get marketed well or find an audience. Last year’s festival alone gave us good female-directed …

Richard Linklater’s Superb HBO Docuseries

Richard Linklater’s Superb HBO Docuseries

Published by Sam

Anchored by Richard Linklater’s exceptional feature-length “Hometown Prison,” HBO‘s God Save Texas may only be a three-part anthology docuseries, but in those three parts, it manages to be wide-ranging, timely and vitally important. While the inspiration is Lawrence Wright’s book of the same title, and the focus is the Lone Star State, the template set by Linklater, Alex Stapleton and Iliana Sosa could be applied to personal/political hybrid storytelling delving into the fractured identities of all 50 states and the artists who call them home. God Save Texas The Bottom Line Linklater’s doc is the standout, but they’re all strong. Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Episodic)Airdate: Tuesday, February 27 and Wednesday, February 28 (HBO)Directors: Richard Linklater, Alex Stapleton and Iliana Sosa Or maybe we just need more seasons of God Save Texas — premiering at Sundance before coming to HBO on February 27 and 28 — since Texas represents so much of what 21st-century America is likely to look like moving forward. A red state with blue cities, in which the ideology and voting interests of …

Aubrey Plaza, Kristen Stewart, Julia Fox: The best-dressed celebrities at Sundance Film Festival 2024

Aubrey Plaza, Kristen Stewart, Julia Fox: The best-dressed celebrities at Sundance Film Festival 2024

Published by skeptic

It’s been a huge few weeks for famed faces of all variations, and things aren’t looking so slow down any time soon. From awards shows, red carpet appearances, front row Fashion Week sightings and regular celeb business, the world’s most notable stars are out in full force, of course donning some seriously stylish looks.  The latest celeb-adorned carpet was Salt Lake Cities 2024 Sundance Film Festival. From Aubrey Plaza wearing sneakers with tights to Julia Fox wearing a very Julia Fox-coded ensemble, here are all the best-dressed celebs that have taken to the carpet thus far.  Aubrey Plaza © Matt WinkelmeyerIconic behaviour Just when I thought I couldn’t love her anymore, she pulls up to the function wearing sneakers and itty bitty shorts. Keeping things subtle, the White Lotus star layered a pair of opaque black tights under micro shorts and a black turtleneck under a long-line button-up cardigan. The whole look was topped off with a pair of sensible, high-top sneakers.  Kristen Stewart © Matt WinkelmeyerWe love a casual red carpet look Keeping things …

Why Jerry & Jessica Seinfeld are in Park City for 2024 Fest

Why Jerry & Jessica Seinfeld are in Park City for 2024 Fest

Published by Sam

By Monday afternoon, the buzz hit Main Street: the Seinfelds have arrived at the Sundance Film Festival. The superstar comedian accompanied his wife, Jessica Seinfeld, to Park City for the world premiere of her Sundance documentary Daughters, held just after noon Monday at the Ray Theatre. And what an event it proved to be. “Daughters received multiple standing ovations at our sold-out premiere today,” Jessica shared on Instagram Stories along with a video showing a packed crowd on its feet. The film marks the entrepreneur, author and philanthropist’s first feature film. Daughters, directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, focuses a lens on four young girls — Aubrey, Santana, Raziah and Ja’Ana — as they prep for a special daddy-daughter dance with their incarcerated fathers as part of a unique program in a Washington D.C. jail. Per Sundance literature, Daughters is a result of an eight-year doc journey for its filmmakers. Patton serves as CEO of Girls for a Change, a nonprofit committed to advancing opportunities for Black girls. She’s known for a TEDWomen talk and …

Revealing Doc on Criminalization of Rap Lyrics

Revealing Doc on Criminalization of Rap Lyrics

Published by Sam

There probably isn’t a timelier Sundance premiere right now than As We Speak, an eye-opening documentary delving into the use, and misuse, of rap lyrics in criminal trials. While the film unspools in Park City, the biggest ever case concerning this phenomenon is still ongoing. It involves Grammy-winning trap star Young Thug, who has not only been charged with heading up a murderous Atlanta street gang that also doubles as a record label, but whose own song lyrics are being used in court by the prosecution. If the latter sounds a bit shocking, As We Speak director J.M. Harper demonstrates that such a legal tactic, which mixes art and evidence to ascertain guilt, is actually nothing new. As We Speak The Bottom Line Real talk. Venue: Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Documentary Competition)Director: J.M. Harper 1 hour 36 minutes Structured as a road movie, with Harper following Bronx-born rapper Kemba as he conducts interviews in cities across the U.S. and then over in London, the film offers its own array of proof to show that America’s …

A Quiet Debut Explores Forgiveness

A Quiet Debut Explores Forgiveness

Published by Sam

In the relationship between parents and children, memories can be ravaged battlefields. The validity of certain experiences is tested and accusations of wrongdoing are negotiated. It’s within this charged arena that Alessandra Lacorazza sets her quiet debut film, In the Summers. The feature is a visual poem, an enveloping four-stanza ode to experiences shared by a man and his daughters. It starts in the summer when Violeta (Dreya Renae Castillo) and Eva (Luciana Quinonez) visit their father, Vincente (René Pérez Joglar) in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Their first encounter, in the parking lot of the tiny town airport, is thick with the stilted awkwardness of distance. Lacorazza, who also wrote the screenplay, avoids specifying why Vincente hasn’t seen his kids, but some information can be gleaned from their bilingual conversations. We know it’s been a minute — so long that Vincente can’t remember what year of school his kids have just finished, among other milestones. In the Summers The Bottom Line An enveloping ode to fractious parent-child relationships. Venue: Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Dramatic Competition)Cast: …

‘Love Me’ Filmmakers Win Jury Prize for Science-In-Film Initiative

‘Love Me’ Filmmakers Win Jury Prize for Science-In-Film Initiative

Published by Sam

Sundance is showing some love to Love Me filmmakers Sam and Andy Zuchero. The husband and wife filmmaking team were honored on Monday with the juried film prize from the Sundance Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s joint Science-In-Film initiative during a special reception in Park City during the film festival. The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize comes with a $25,000 cash award from the foundation and is selected by a jury of film and science professionals. Per the organization, it’s “presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character.” Sitting on this year’s jury were Dr. Mandë Holford, Dr. Nia Imara, Matt Johnson, Theresa Park and Courtney Stephens. They cited the Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun-starrer “for its ambitious and formally inventive portrayal of a post-human Earth in which two machine-learning ‘life forms’ search for the cure to loneliness in the digital rubble of civilization, and for its original direction and engaging performances.” The Zucheros directed from their own script, which is …