Author Archives: basiltsiokos

SEEKING MAVIS BEACON
Launched in the late ’80s, educational software Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the program’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY investigators search for the unsung cultural icon, while questioning notions of digital security, AI, and Black representation in the digital realm.

Director:
Jazmin Renée Jones

Producer:
Guetty Felin

Festival Section:
NEXT

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

REALM OF SATAN
An experiential portrait depicting Satanists in both the everyday and in the extraordinary as they fight to preserve their lifestyle: magic, mystery, and misanthropy.

Director:
Scott Cummings

Producers:
Caitlin Mae Burke, Pacho Velez, Molly Gandour

Festival Section:
NEXT

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

DESIRE LINES
Past and present collide when an Iranian American trans man time-travels through an LGBTQ+ archive on a dizzying and erotic quest to unravel his own sexual desires.

Director/Producer:
Jules Rosskam

Producers:
André Pérez, Amy E Powell, Brittani Ward

Festival Section:
NEXT

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
In 1960, United Nations: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe denouncing America’s color bar, while the US dispatches jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the Congo to deflect attention from its first African post-colonial coup.

Director:
Johan Grimonprez

Producers:
Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety

Country of Origin:
Belgium/France/Netherlands

Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition

More Info:
Grimonprez makes his return to Sundance following DOUBLE TAKE.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

NOCTURNES
In the dense forests of the Eastern Himalayas, moths are whispering something to us. In the dark of night, two curious observers shine a light on this secret universe.

Director/Producer:
Anirban Dutta

Director:
Anupama Srinivasan

Country of Origin:
India

Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

A NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS
In a forest in Norway, a family lives an isolated lifestyle in an attempt to be wild and free, but a tragic event changes everything, and they are forced to adjust to modern society.

Director:
Silje Evensmo Jacobsen

Producer:
Mari Bakke Riise

Country of Origin:
Norway

Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

NEVER LOOK AWAY
New Zealand-born groundbreaking CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth risks it all to show the reality of war from inside the conflict, staring down danger and confronting those who perpetuate it.

Director/Producer:
Lucy Lawless

Producers:
Matthew Metcalfe, Tom Blackwell

Country of Origin:
New Zealand

Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

IGUALADA
In one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, Francia Márquez, a Black Colombian rural activist, challenges the status quo with a presidential campaign that reappropriates the derogatory term “Igualada” — someone who acts as if they deserve rights that supposedly don’t correspond to them — and inspires a nation to dream.

Director:
Juan Mejía Botero

Producers:
Juan E Yepes, Daniela Alatorre, Sonia Serna

Country of Origin:
Colombia/US/Mexico

Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

IBELIN
Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world.

Director:
Benjamin Ree

Producer:
Ingvil Giske

Country of Origin:
Norway

Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition

More Info:
Ree was previously at Sundance with THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

ETERNAL YOU
Startups are using AI to create avatars that allow relatives to talk with their loved ones after they have died. An exploration of a profound human desire and the consequences of turning the dream of immortality into a product.

Directors:
Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck

Producers:
Christian Beetz, Georg Tschurtschenthaler

Country of Origin:
Germany/US

Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition

More Info:
This is the filmmakers’ sophomore project at Sundance following THE CLEANERS.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.