Author Archives: basiltsiokos

BLACK BOX DIARIES
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.

Director/Producer:
Shiori Ito

Producers:
Eric Nyari, Hanna Aqvilin

Country of Origin:
Japan/US/UK

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.

THE BATTLE FOR LAIKIPIA
Unresolved historical injustices and climate change raise the stakes in a generations-old conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white landowners in Laikipia, Kenya, a wildlife conservation haven.

Director/Producer:
Daphne Matziaraki

Director:
Peter Murimi

Producer:
Toni Kamau

Country of Origin:
Kenya/US

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.

AGENT OF HAPPINESS
Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?

Director/Producer:
Arun Bhattarai

Director:
Dorottya Zurbó

Producers:
Noémi Veronika Szakonyi, Máté Artur Vincze

Country of Origin:
Bhutan/Hungary

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.

UNION
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.

Directors:
Stephen Maing, Brett Story

Producers:
Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
This project marks Maing’s return to the Festival following CRIME + PUNISHMENT.

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

SUGARCANE
An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.

Director:
Julian Brave NoiseCat

Director/Producer:
Emily Kassie

Producer:
Kellen Quinn

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

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

SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY
To save their career and relationship, a daredevil couple journey across the globe to climb the world’s last super skyscraper and perform a bold acrobatic stunt on the spire.

Director/Producer:
Jeff Zimbalist

Co-Director/Producer:
Maria Bukhonina

Producers:
Tamir Ardon, Chris Smith

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

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

PORCELAIN WAR
Under roaring fighter jets and missile strikes, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind and fight, contending with the soldiers they have become. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living.

Directors:
Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev

Producers:
Aniela Sidorska, Paula Dupré Pesmen, Camilla Mazzaferro, Olivia Ahnemann

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

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

LOVE MACHINA
Futurists Martine and Bina Rothblatt commission an advanced humanoid AI named Bina48 to transfer Bina’s consciousness from a human to a robot in an attempt to continue their once-in-a-galaxy love affair for the rest of time.

Director/Producer:
Peter Sillen

Producer:
Brendan Doyle

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

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

GAUCHO GAUCHO
A celebration of a community of Argentine cowboys and cowgirls, known as Gauchos, living beyond the boundaries of the modern world.

Directors/Producers:
Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw

Producers:
Cameron O’Reilly, Christos V Konstantakopoulos, Matthew Perniciaro

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
Dweck and Kershaw return to Sundance following THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS and THE LAST RACE.

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

FRIDA
An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.

Director:
Carla Gutiérrez

Producers:
Katia Maguire, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Loren Hammonds, Alexandra Johnes

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
After editing previous Sundance titles RBG, WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE, and CESAR’S LAST FAST, Gutiérrez makes her feature directorial debut.

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