Sundance – Next New Frontier

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Sunday, 23 January 2011 06:42

Written by L E Shannon

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The Festival’s out-of-competition New Frontier and Next selections are about “experimentation and the convergence of film, art, and new media technology as an emerging hotbed for cinematic innovation.”  The assorted works span both documentary and narrative, fact and fiction, and something for pretty much everybody.

NEW FRONTIER

This year’s “works that push the limits of traditional cinema aesthetics and the narrative structures of filmmaking” are:

World Premieres:

Jess + Moss
Director Clay Jeter, with co-Screenwriter Debra Jeter (USA)
Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, second cousins Jess and Moss only have each other. A series of vignettes conjure memories of companionship and sexual awakening during a summer shared together on their Kentucky farm. With Sarah Hagan, Austin Vickers.

The Mill & the Cross
Director Lech Majewski, with co-Screenwriter Michael Francis Gibson
(Poland, Sweden)
A visually vibrant and masterful work that seamlessly fortifies rich painterly compositions with digital effects, bringing Peter Brugel’s 1564 painting, The Way to Calvary, to real life. With Rutger Hauer, Michael York, Charlotte Rampling, Joanna Litwin.

The Woods
Director / Screenwriter Matthew Lessner (USA)
A satirical nod to ethnographic film fashions a critique on media technology dependence, when eight young Americans move deep into to the woods to start their own utopia. With Justin Phillips, Toby David, Adam Mortemore, Nicola Persky, Chris Edley.

North American Premiere:

The Nine Muses
Director / screenwriter John Akomfrah (United Kingdom )
An allegorical fable divided into overlapping musical chapters, this film retells the history of mass migration to post-war Britain through the suggestive lens of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey.

U.S. Premiere:

!Women Art Revolution
Director Lynn Hershman Leeson (USA)
One part of a transmedia project that includes the interactive video installation RAW WAR presented at New Frontier, this seminal documentary depicts the history of women artists who have used art as an activist practice to fight oppression and protest gender and racial exclusion – creating what many historians feel is the most significant art movement of the late-20th century.


NEXT

This section “highlights visionary work that shows aesthetic creativity is not limited by budget.” These “American films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking.” All are World Premieres.

Bellflower
Director / screenwriter Evan Glodell (USA)
A ballad for every person who has ever loved and lost – with enough violence, weapons, action and sex to tell a love story with apocalyptic stakes. With: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes.

The Lie
Director Joshua Leonard, with co-Screenwriters Jeff Feuerzeig, Mark Webber and Jess Weixler, based on the short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle (USA)
A man overwhelmed and disappointed with life tells a lie to avoid going to work… what could possibly go wrong? With Joshua Leonard, Jess Weixler, Mark Webber, Alia Shawkat, Jane Adams and Kelli Garner.

Lord Byron
Director Zack Godshal, with co-Screenwriter Ross Brupbacher (USA)
When he's not pursuing women, Byron is smoking weed and loafing around. But he's grown restless in his middle-age and feels the need to escape – he just doesn't know where to go. With Paul Batiste, Gwendolyn Spradling, Kayla Lemaire.

The Off Hours
Director / screenwriter Megan Griffiths (USA)
A passing truck driver brings an unfamiliar sense of optimism to a woman working the night shift at a quiet diner, reminding her it's never too late to become the person you always wanted to be. With Amy Seimetz, Ross Partridge, Scoot McNairy, Lynn Shelton, Bret Roberts, Tony Doupe.

Prairie Love
Director / screenwriter Dusty Bias (USA)
When a mysterious vagrant living out of his car among the snowy plains discovers a nearly-frozen local with a pen-pal girlfriend, he sees an opportunity to change his lonely existence. With Jeremy Clark, Holly Lynn Ellis, Garth Blomberg.

Restless City
Director Andrew Dosunmu, Screenwriter Eugene M. Gussenhoven (USA)
An African immigrant survives on the fringes of New York City. Music is his passion, life is a hustle and falling in love is his greatest risk. With Danai Gurira, Anthony Okungbowa, Babs Olusanmokun.

sound of my voice
Director Zal Batmanglij with co-Screenwriter Brit Marling (USA)
A young couple infiltrates a cult that meets in a basement in the San Fernando Valley. With Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius, Brit Marling.

to.get.her
Director / screenwriter Erica Dunton (USA)
Five girls come together for one fateful night where anything goes. With Jazzy De Lisser, Chelsea Logan, Adwoa Aboah, Jami Eaton, Audrey Speicher.


For further information, visit www.sundance.org/festival.