Earlier this year, director Pamela Yates brought her sixth documentary to Sundance in the new Documentary Premieres section: GRANITO revisits the story of her award-winning 1982 film, WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE, which unexpectedly becomes a key piece of evidence of the genocide perpetrated against the Mayan people by the Guatemalan government. I profiled GRANITO in advance of Sundance here.
Category Archives: Sundance
True/False 2011 in Brief
My indieWIRE article covering the just-completed 2011 True/False Film Festival in Columbia, MO is now up here.
As a quick clarification – I didn’t catch every film that screened during the four-day festival, and didn’t write about the films that I’d already seen elsewhere. The eight I wrote about at length generally spoke to the two themes I noticed emerging, and I didn’t mean to suggest that these were the only films worth a look, despite the article’s title. There are a number of other films that are well worth seeing, including titles I profiled in anticipation of their Sundance launch (beginning here, and including, to name just a few, THE INTERRUPTERS, PAGE ONE, THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED, and RESURRECT DEAD), films from Toronto and/or IDFA (ARMADILLO, FAMILY INSTINCT), and others viewed at T/F including THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH and BLOOD IN THE MOBILE, among others.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, In Brief, Recommendations, Sundance
On DVD: THE TILLMAN STORY
Coming to DVD tomorrow, February 1: THE TILLMAN STORY
Check out what I had to say about Amir Bar-Lev’s 2010 Sundance doc here.
Buy the DVD here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases, Sundance
83rd Academy Awards: Best Documentary Feature Nominees
I’m breaking my Sundance silence briefly since the Oscar nominations were announced today. Of course, I’m thrilled that four of the five documentary feature nominees are Sundance alumni. I’ve previously written about them here and am linking to those posts below. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to write about the fifth, Charles Ferguson’s INSIDE JOB, but hope to find time post-Sundance. The remaining nominees, with my thoughts, here:
Filed under Documentary, Film, Sundance
Special Note: what (not) to doc & 2011 Sundance
With the 2011 Sundance Film Festival opening tonight, my role as Programming Associate for the festival will make it difficult to post here with the regularity I’ve established since the beginning of this blog. I’ll post when I can, but realistically, I’ll have to wait until after the festival wraps on January 30 before I can resume normal frequency.
In the meantime, you can catch up on my film-by-film profiling of all 42 docs in our line-up this year, beginning here, and get quicker and shorter updates and impressions from Park City by following me on Twitter.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Sundance
indieWIRE @ Hulu Docs: Sundance Flashback, Part Two
Sundance 2011 begins this week! My film-by-film profiling of each of this year’s docs wrapped up today as I arrived in Park City in my role of Programming Associate for the festival. If you’ll be at the fest, you’ll have plenty of great new films to watch, but if you can’t make it out there this year, I’ve curated a new batch of past Sundance films for Hulu’s Documentaries page for indieWIRE – and they’re all free.
For more information about the selections, take a look at my iW article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: LIFE IN A DAY
The 42nd and final entry in my doc-by-doc look at the 2011 Sundance line-up has already generated a lot of attention: Kevin Macdonald’s LIFE IN A DAY, a YouTube user-generated record of July 24, 2010 around the world.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE NINE MUSES
The second of two documentaries in this year’s New Frontier’s on-screen offerings is John Akomfrah’s THE NINE MUSES, a poetic, experimental meditation on the myth of Odysseus, homecoming, and identity.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: !WOMEN ART REVOLUTION
Lynn Hershman Leeson brings one of two documentaries to this year’s New Frontier on-screen offerings, !WOMEN ART REVOLUTION, a decades-in-the-making examination of the development of feminist art in the US.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL
Alex Stapleton has the only documentary in Park City at Midnight, CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL, a love letter to the quintessential independent filmmaker behind such classics as THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, HOUSE OF USHER, THE WILD ANGELS, and DEATH RACE 2000.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
