The 23rd edition of the Slamdance Film Festival runs this Friday, January 20 through next Thursday, January 26. The event offers just over two dozen features to compete with its higher-profile neighbor, Sundance, among them the below ten doc features:
Making their world premiere are: Cullen Hoback’s WHAT LIES UPSTREAM, following the filmmaker’s investigation into drinking water contamination; Stephen Richardson’s BOGALUSA CHARM, a portrait of a Louisiana charm school; Patricia Josefine Marchart’s THE CHILDREN SEND THEIR REGARDS (pictured), about now adult victims of clergy sexual abuse; Scott Drucker and Yu Gu’s WHO IS ARTHUR CHU?, a profile of a JEOPARDY winner-turned-cultural critic; Michael Rubenstone’s ON THE SLY: IN SEARCH OF THE FAMILY STONE, about the filmmaker’s ill-fated quest to track down the reclusive musician; and Stefan Avalos’ STRAD STYLE, which follows a man’s attempt to reproduce a Stradivari violin.
Charles Fairbanks and Saul Kak’s look at indigenous Oaxacan lives, THE MODERN JUNGLE (pictured), makes its North American premiere at the festival. US premieres include Matteo Borgardt’s YOU NEVER HAD IT: AN EVENING WITH BUKOWSKI, which repurposes a lost interview into a new portrait of the writer; and Pete Gleeson’s HOTEL COOLGARDIE, which follows the latest in a string of new young female bartenders in an Australian mining town. Finally, the festival also screens DOC NYC alum SUPERGIRL, Jesse Auritt’s portrait of an Orthodox Jewish teenage powerlifting champion.
what (not) to doc 