PREDATORS TO CATCH A PREDATOR was a popular television show designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and eventually arrested. An exploration of the scintillating rise and staggering fall of the show and the world it helped create.
Director: David Osit
Producers: Jamie Gonçalves, Kellen Quinn, David Osit
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.
THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR A seemingly minor neighborhood dispute in Florida escalates into deadly violence. Police bodycam footage and investigative interviews expose the consequences of Florida’s “stand your ground” laws.
Director: Geeta Gandbhir
Producers: Nikon Kwantu, Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne, Sam Bisbee
Festival Section: US Documentary Competition
More Info: Gandbhir previously brought her short film, REMEMBERING THE ARTIST: ROBERT DE NIRO, SR, to Sundance.
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
MARLEE MATLIN: NOT ALONE ANYMORE In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Los Angeles Times
LIFE AFTER In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia.
Director: Reid Davenport
Producer: Colleen Cassingham
Festival Section: US Documentary Competition
More Info: This marks Davenport’s return to Sundance following his acclaimed I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE.
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT André, a brilliant idiot, is dying because he didn’t get a colonoscopy. His sobering diagnosis, complete irreverence, and insatiable curiosity, send him on an unexpected journey learning how to die happily and ridiculously without losing his sense of humor.
Director: Tony Benna
Producers: André Ricciardi, Tory Tunnell, Joshua Altman, Stelio Kitrilakis, Ben Cotner
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.
The 41st edition of the Sundance Film Festival will run January 23-February 2 in-person in Utah, with a selection of titles also available online January 30-February 2. The announced lineup consists of 86 features, 6 episodic projects, and 57 shorts.
As a Senior Programmer for Sundance, I’m excited for audiences to see these films next month. Over the next few weeks, I’ll highlight each of our feature and long-form episodic docs in this space with a simple pointer post. Sundance Don’t Miss Docs begins this coming Monday.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Matthew Rolston
Director: Dawn Porter
About: Luther Vandross started his career supporting David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and more. His undeniable talent earned platinum records and accolades, but he struggled to break out beyond the R&B charts. Intensely driven, he overcame personal and professional challenges to secure his place amongst the greatest vocalists in history.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Terence Spencer
Director: Johan Grimonprez
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Tsutomu Harigayaby
Director: Shiori Ito
About: 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.
About: Amid the glamour of Hollywood, Los Angeles, a woman finds herself on a transformative journey as she nurtures wounded hummingbirds, unraveling a visually captivating and magical tale of love, fragility, healing, and the delicate beauty in tiny acts of greatness.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Warner Bros / Alamy
Director: Ondi Timoner
About: DIG! XX tracks the tumultuous rise of two talented musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols, and dissects their star-crossed friendship and bitter rivalry. Through their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and ultimately to their chance at a piece of the profit-driven music business, they stage a self-proclaimed revolution in the music industry.
country’s broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.
About: A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Konrad Waldmann
Director: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck
About: 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.
About: Playing with the forms and tropes of various cinema genres, the filmmaker sets off on a quest to find a legendary lost video collection of 55,000 movies in Sicily.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Warner Bros / Alamy
Director: Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui
About: Never-before-seen home movies and extraordinary personal archives reveal how Christopher Reeve went from unknown actor to iconic movie star as the ultimate screen superhero. He learned the true meaning of heroism as an activist after suffering a tragic accident that left him quadriplegic and dependent on a ventilator to breathe.
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Terence Spencer
Director: Johan Grimonprez
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Matthew Rolston
Director: Dawn Porter
About: Luther Vandross started his career supporting David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and more. His undeniable talent earned platinum records and accolades, but he struggled to break out beyond the R&B charts. Intensely driven, he overcame personal and professional challenges to secure his place amongst the greatest vocalists in history.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Arun Bhattarai
Director: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
About: 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?
About: America’s policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Worried for their survival, trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl reaches out across political and social divides to uncover the country’s broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.
About: A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Slava Leontyev and Andrey Stefanov
Director: Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
About: 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.
About: America’s policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Worried for their survival, trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl reaches out across political and social divides to uncover the country’s broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Angela Gzowski Photography
Director: Lin Alluna
About: Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has long fought for the rights of her people. When her son suddenly dies, Aaju embarks on a journey to reclaim her language and culture after a lifetime of whitewashing and forced assimilation. But can she both change the world and mend her own wounds?
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Martin DiCicco
Director: Stephen Maing, Brett Story
About: 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.
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Bjørg Engdahl
Director: Benjamin Ree
About: 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.
About: America’s policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Worried for their survival, trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl reaches out across political and social divides to uncover the country’s broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Bjørg Engdahl
Director: Benjamin Ree
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Tsutomu Harigayaby
Director: Shiori Ito
About: 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.
Courtesyof Sundance Institute | Photo byMariaGrosVatne
Director: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
About: 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.
what (not) to doc 