2011 Sundance Film Festival – US Docs Compete

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 21 January 2011 17:52

Written by L E Shannon

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. Like the US Dramatic Competition, the U.S. Documentary Competition has its own tradition of presenting some of the most thought-provoking and courageous documentaries to the world, most of which have won awards at Sundance and elsewhere.

Beats, Rhymes and Life
Director Michael Rapaport
The story of the rise and influence of one of the most innovative and influential hip-hop bands of all time, the collective known as A Tribe Called Quest.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey
Director Constance Marks
The Muppet Elmo is one of the most beloved characters among children across the globe. Meet the unlikely man behind the puppet -- the heart and soul of Elmo -- Kevin Clash.

Buck
Director Cindy Meehl
In a story about the power of nonviolence, master horse trainer Buck Brannaman uses principles of respect and trust to tame horses and inspire their human counterparts.

Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology
Director Tiffany Shlain, with co-Screenwriters Ken Goldberg, Carlton Evans and Sawyer Steele
An exhilarating stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century. For centuries we’ve been declaring independence. With insight, curiosity, and humor, the film explores whether it’s time to declare our interdependence.

Crime After Crime
Director Yoav Potash
Debbie Peagler is a survivor of brutal domestic violence, incarcerated for her connection to the murder of her abuser. Two decades later a pair of rookie land-use attorneys cut their teeth on her case, attracting global attention to the troubled intersection of domestic violence and criminal justice.

Hot Coffee
Director Susan Saladoff
Following subjects whose lives have been devastated by an inability to access the courts, this film shows that many long-held beliefs about our civil justice system have been paid for by corporate America.

How to Die in Oregon
Director Peter D. Richardson
In 1994 Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. This film gently enters the lives of terminally ill Oregonians to illuminate the power of death with dignity.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Director Marshall Curry
The Earth Liberation Front is a radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's “number one domestic terrorist threat.” Daniel McGowan, an ELF member, faces life in prison for two multi-million dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. But who is really to blame?

The Last Mountain
Director Bill Haney, with co-Screenwriter Peter Rhodes
A coal mining corporation and a tiny community vie for the last great mountain in Appalachia in a battle for the future of energy that affects us all.

Miss Representation
Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom, with co-Screenwriter Jessica Congdon
This film uncovers how American mainstream media’s limited and disparaging portrayals of women contribute to the under-representation of women in power positions, creating another generation of women defined by youth, beauty and sexuality, and not by their capacity as leaders.

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times
Director Andrew Rossi, with co-Screenwriter Kate Novack
Unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom yields a complex view of the transformation of a media landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity.

The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Directors Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion
A brutal warlord who murdered thousands during Liberia's horrific 14-year civil war renounces his violent past and reinvents himself as an evangelist, facing those he once terrorized.

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
Director Jon Foy
An urban mystery unfurls as one man pieces together the surreal meaning of hundreds of cryptic tiled messages that have been appearing in city streets across the U.S. and South America.

Sing Your Song
A film by Susanne Rostock
Most people know the lasting legacy of Harry Belafonte, the entertainer; this film unearths his significant contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and to social justice globally.

Troubadours
Director Morgan Neville
A musical journey tracing the lives and careers of James Taylor and Carole King, pillars of the California singer/songwriter scene, which converged in and around L.A.'s Troubadour Club in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

We Were Here
Director David Weissman
A deep and reflective look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of this unimaginable crisis.


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

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