Category: News

We were mildly terrified as we drove up the mountain to Park City for the first time. Prior to American Splendor, we had received several rejections for shorts and docs; so the Sundance Film Festival became some mythical, unattainable thing for us. We were just getting over the excitement of getting into the Festival (and the Dramatic Competition section, no less) when we realized we had to face skeptical audiences, tough jurors, and scary critics.

Park City, UT – Sundance Institute announced today a range of digital initiatives that will allow independent film-loving audiences to follow and engage with the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival begins today and runs through January 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. A complete list of films and events is available at www.

Fredrik Gertten sounds weary. And he should. The documentary filmmaker has spent the last two years dealing with the fallout from a lawsuit filed against him by the Dole Food Company after he made a film, Bananas!*, chronicling Nicaraguan plantation workers’ legal efforts to seek reparations for suffering the ill effects of pesticides used by Dole with its banana crops.

Calvin Lee Reeder’s story isn’t unfamiliar to his fellow filmmakers — or to anyone with an interest in independent film. His debut feature, The Oregonian, which screened at the 2011 Festival, is an atmospheric thriller about a woman running from her past. Reeder described The Oregonian to twitchfilm.

Los Angeles, CA (January 18, 2012) – Sundance Institute announced thirteen films supported by the Institute that are for the first time available to rent, download and stream. Look for the films on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, SundanceNOW and YouTube. Films will be available on Netflix on March 1.

Somewhere between the mind-blowing performances by musical luminaries like Lou Reed and Lyle Lovett — and once prospective talents like St. Vincent and The Civil Wars — the Sundance Film Festival music program has transformed from musical diversion to main event. Put simply, audiences in 2012 will be treated to a multi-faceted Festival of not only sound and vision, but to true visionaries in the realm of sonic artistry and entertainment.

“Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die”
-Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
The Sundance Film Festival began showing short films in 1991. Among the selections that year was The Passion of Martin, a 49-minute “brilliantly-paced black comedy” (according to then shorts programmer John Cooper’s catalog note) directed by a recent UCLA graduate named Alexander Payne.

What is film without discussion and debate? Or more to the point: What is the purpose of a film festival if the narrative ends when the reel runs out? Off Screen was created to keep the story alive, to ignite conversation, and to extend film beyond the movie theatre. This robust and engaging array of events and panels was expressly designed to complement the 181 films selected for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.“The whole point is to try and give some visibility to the films and the filmmakers,” says Sundance Institute Senior Programmer John Nein, who curates the Off Screen lineup.

The Feature Film Program ended last year on a high note, producing installments of our Screenplay Reading Series of Works in Progress on both coasts. In November in Los Angeles, we featured Carson Mell’s Ajax, an existential comedy set in outer space, with a cast including Mark Duplass, Gil Bellows, Vinessa Shaw, and Brandon Maggart. In December in New York, it was Keith Davis’s The American People, with a cast including Tonya Pinkins, Curtis McClarin, Charles Turner, Venida Evans, Dante Clark, JaQwan Kelly, Brandon Gill, Yvette Ganier, Adepero Oduye, Marisol Sacramento, and Bruce Faulk.

At Sundance Institute, artists are at the center of our mission and represent an integral part of our community. It’s important for us to keep the voices and perspectives of our alumni as a central part of all that we do, and our Alumni Advisory Board is one of the ways we do just that. This year, we’ve assembled 15 amazing alumni to advise us on Institute programs and to share their stories with you.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published after the 2012 Festival in the wake of the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Arab Spring. We’re republishing it this week as we witness the power of protests and activism to combat the systemic racism that has long plagued our country and its criminal justice system. There is still much work to be done.

With every installment of the Sundance Film Festival comes the same challenge of capturing the scope of such a huge event. There’s so many things happening at any one time, and being able to document it as well share all these unique experiences is a tall order. Thankfully, this year it’s gotten a lot easier with the help of four things: a hashtag, an iPhone, an app, and you.