Category: Now Playing

Selah and the Spades begins streaming on Amazon Prime today.
While Philadelphia-born filmmaker Tayarisha Poe did in fact attend boarding school when she was growing up, she’s quick to note that there aren’t a whole lot of similarities between herself and her Selah and the Spades protagonist, Selah Summers. “I tend to write fictional characters doing the things that I wish I could do, or that I don’t have the guts to do.

As Sundance Institute adapts its artist support programs to continue providing resources for independent storytellers amid global uncertainty, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of the work that has previously come through our labs and Festival.
Here are a few recommendations from our programming team for films you can stream at home—from suddenly more-relatable-than-ever stories about people in isolation to thoughtful portraits that remind us of our shared humanity, to off-the-wall comedies that can provide a moment of levity in uneasy times. As we are acutely reminded of the power of art in our everyday lives, Sundance Institute remains committed to supporting the voices that enrich our world.

When her third feature, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Eliza Hittman was clear about the urgency of the project’s message. “We have an administration that’s trying to chip away—successfully—women’s rights, reproductive rights,” she said after a screening at the Library Theatre in Park City.
Fittingly, the film—which follows two teenage cousins from rural Pennsylvania as they travel by train to New York City so one of them can get an abortion—premieres March 13, right in the middle of Women’s History Month.

We may be decongesting and decompressing after our snowy adventures in Park City these past two weeks, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t also looking forward to the Festival releases that will be premiering this February.
In the coming weeks, a number of this year’s titles will be hitting theaters and streaming platforms: among them, McMillions, Horse Girl, and Downhill. We’re also excited about the theatrical release of the 2019 Midnight selection The Lodge, an eerie snow-dusted horror film featuring yet another top-notch performance by Riley Keough (co-star of Zola, which you might have seen at this year’s Festival).

There’s something invigorating about the start of a new year. After unplugging, unwinding, and engaging in a bit of reflection during the holidays, you wake up January 1 feeling capable of becoming your best possible self. That marathon you’ve always dreamed of training for suddenly doesn’t seem like such a stretch (even if you did spend most of December on the couch catching up on 2019’s must-watch independent films).

Chinonye Chukwu’s second film, Clemency, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. And at the end of this month, it arrives in theaters, bringing her long journey with the film to a close.
Chukwu began working on the death-row drama after the 2011 execution of Troy Davis, an inmate who had long declared his innocence.

Turbulent family dynamics are at the heart of November’s slate of 2019 Sundance Film Festival releases—including Minhal Baig’s Hala, centered around a 17-year-old Muslim Pakistani American as she and her family navigate unstable ground.
“When I was growing up, I didn’t really see this character, and I really wanted to see her; it would have made me feel less alone,” explained director Minhal Baig about her titular character. Hala is a coming-of-age drama about a young woman learning to pave a path different from that of her parents, but it’s also the story of a tender mother-daughter relationship and their resilience in the face of the unraveling of their world.

From the creepy to the bizarre, October’s slate of Sundance-supported releases makes for prime Halloweentime movie watching.Check out the absurdist genre comedy Little Monsters, starring Lupita Nyong’o as a kindergarten teacher thrust into the role of fierce protector as she shields her class from a zombie invasion—or the chiller Sweetheart, starring Kiersey Clemons as a woman stranded on a desert island where she is hunted by an otherworldly creature each night. And while documentaries about classic films might not normally be at the top of your scary movie list, Alexandre O.

Round out your summer movie watching with the latest Sundance Film Festival selections to hit theaters and streaming platforms this month.
With Ms. Purple, director Justin Chon has written another powerful love letter to Los Angeles (after 2017’s Gook)—this time taking place in a Koreatown karaoke room, where hostess Kasie caters to rich businessmen while struggling to provide for her bedridden father on her own, until she begrudgingly seeks help from her estranged brother.

If you’re keeping up with all the new releases from the Sundance Film Festival, you’ve got your work cut out for you in August. With 17 films coming to theaters and streaming platforms (including a host of award winners), you could watch one every other day for the entire month, and then some. Better get started!
In the mood for a theater trip? Then check out Brittany Runs a Marathon, which won the Festival’s U.

After the record-breaking sales of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Festival films are steadily rolling out for the summer. This month, escape the heat—in theaters or on the couch—and catch four brand-new Festival releases.If you’re looking for a multi-award-winner, look no further than Pippa Bianco’s Share; it came out of the Festival with both a U.

As a popular slogan on shirts and signs at Pride parades around the world says, “The first Pride was a riot.” This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and though the United States has legalized marriage for same-sex couples and a number of other countries (most recently Taiwan) are progressively passing their own legislation ensuring marriage equality, Pride is still revolutionary.
Even in film, celebratory and proud stories still feel rare.