Sundance unveils diverse state

New thematic thread of environmentally focused programming

LOS ANGELES, Dec 1, (RTRS): These may be turbulent times for the country, but as sure as the sun rises tomorrow, the 33rd edition of the Sundance Film Festival brings tales of dysfunctional families, college hazing, and soldiers coping with Gulf War trauma, as well as new work from such independent film stalwarts as Parker Posey, Michael Cera, and Elizabeth Olsen.

From the uprising of Ferguson, Missouri, citizens after the police killing of an unarmed black man to Hulk Hogan’s legal war on media outlet Gawker, documentaries at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival are diving deep into this year’s headlines.

And yet, if such offerings sound familiar, think again, as Sundance director John Cooper and director of programming Trevor Groth insist that the 2017 lineup for the festival’s four juried categories — American and World narrative, and documentary competitions — as well as Next, includes a wealth of new voices, one-ofa-kind portraits of never-before-seen characters, and fresh spins on mainstream genres.

This year, the most intense segment of the selection process occurred at the very moment Americans were focused on the election. “While that was going on in the outside world, we were watching films showing the other side — an intimate, more personal side of people’s lives,” Cooper told Variety. “In the end, it gives me great encouragement and optimism, even with everything happening out there. The work we’re seeing this year adds so much dimension. It’s really the human side. Giving the whole story of who we are is really important to the world.”

The festival’s US dramatic competition comprises 16 films, eight of them debut features, including Matt Spicer’s social-media stalker comedy “Ingrid Goes West,” in which Aubrey Plaza’s character is obsessed with the aforementioned Olsen; the music-driven story of a plussize white rapper, “Patti Cake$,” written and directed by Geremy Jasper (a member of Court 13, the creative team responsible for “Beasts of the Southern Wild”); and “To the Bone,” an intimate look at anorexia, from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” producer Marti Noxon.

“I haven’t seen a fiction film that captures the issues around eating disorders so accurately and so humanely, and I think that for young people going through similar things, a film like this can have a real healing power,” Groth said.

Though the festival’s commitment to diversity makes it difficult to spot trends at this stage, competition has traditionally been a platform for actors making their directorial debuts (none more sensational than Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” last year). This time, Zoe Lister-Jones unveils romantic comedy “Band Aid,” and character actor Macon Blair bows “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore,” starring Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood.

Competition

The US dramatic competition also welcomes several returning filmmakers, a number of whom previously had films in Sundance’s Next section, among them Gillian Robespierre (“Obvious Child”), whose ‘90s-set period piece “Landline” reunites her with Jenny Slate; and Alex Ross Perry (“Listen Up Philip”), reteaming with Jason Schwartzman on Brooklyn-based relationship drama “Golden Exits.” Likewise, Spike Lee protege Michael Larnell, whose hip-hop-themed “Roxanne Roxanne” premieres in competition, previously debuted “Cronies” in Next — of which “Beach Rats” helmer Eliza Hittman (“It Felt Like Love”) and “The Yellow Birds” director Alexandre Moors (“Blue Caprice”) are also veterans.

But the Next-to-competition track is not necessarily a one-way trajectory, as “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” director David Lowery (who co-wrote “The Yellow Birds”) demonstrates with his uniquely odd “A Ghost Story.” “Coming off of working with a studio — he actually had a good experience with Disney on ‘Pete’s Dragon’ — he just had this jolt of creativity to go back to his indie roots,” said Groth, who typically saves many of the festival’s most exciting discoveries (e.g. “Tangerine”) for the low-budget, boundary-pushing category. “There is a fluidity between Next and competition. All Next films could go into competition, but not all competition films could go in Next. I do think there’s a boldness of vision that makes a Next film.”

On the documentary side, topics range from Japanese girl bands (“Tokyo Idols”) to tabloid scandals (“Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press”), as the form continues to evolve (demonstrated by hybrid doc “Casting JonBenet”). Cooper cited the vitality of “the citizen journalism effect” in recent nonfiction filmmaking: “A lot of filmmakers are relying on footage from people that were there, at the scene, using images caught on cell phones,” he said, referring to cases in which eyewitness footage from Syria (“Last Men in Aleppo”) and Ferguson (Pete Nicks’ “The Force”) heightens the impact of those projects.

Cooper seemed especially proud of the strength he sees in the festival’s world competition categories, which launched a number of key international films, including films that went on to become Israel and the U.K.’s official foreign language submissions (“Sand Storm” and Iran-set midnight movie “Under the Shadow,” respectively). This year, more than half of the festival’s 4,068 feature submissions came from abroad, representing 32 countries in all.

“It’s an interesting view of what international cinema thinks of Sundance, and what they think it can do for them. We got a lot of films dealing in subjects that countries haven’t necessarily dealt with that much before, especially regarding the sexuality of characters,” Cooper said, specifically referencing Mexican director Ernesto Contreras’ “I Dream in Another Language,” in which the legacy of a nearly extinct dialect depends on two aging men; English coming-out drama “Own Country”; and African-made “The Wound”.

As usual, Sundance represents a far more diverse lineup of filmmaking voices than the more commercial studio world (“In the Next category, five of the 10 directors are people of color,” Groth said), though nowhere near the balance of 2013, when half the competition directors were women. This year, there were only five women directors in each of the US competition categories — though Cooper said the number is up in Premieres, which will be announced next Monday. The New Frontier lineup will be unveiled Thursday, with shorts to follow on Dec 6.

The festival itself is scheduled to take place from Jan. 19-29, and will once again kick off with screenings of four competition titles — “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore “(US dramatic), “Whose Streets?” (US documentary), “Pop Aye” (World Cinema dramatic) and “The Workers Cup” (World Cinema documentary) — and Next entry “Dayveon.”

The full lineup: The 16 films in this section are all world premieres. “Band Aid” (Director and screenwriter: Zoe Lister-Jones): A couple who can’t stop fighting embark on a last-ditch effort to save their marriage: turning their fights into songs and starting a band. Cast: Zoe Lister-Jones, Adam Pally, Fred Armisen, Susie Essman, Hannah Simone, Ravi Patel.

“Beach Rats” (Director and screenwriter: Eliza Hittman): An aimless teenager on the outer edges of Brooklyn struggles to escape his bleak home life and navigate questions of self-identity, as he balances his time between his delinquent friends, a potential new girlfriend, and an older men he meets online. Cast: Harris Dickinson, Madeline Weinstein, Kate Hodge, Neal Huff.

“Brigsby Bear” (Director: Dave McCary, Screenwriters: Kevin Costello, Kyle Mooney) — “Brigsby Bear Adventures” is a children’s TV show produced for an audience of one: James. When the show abruptly ends, James’s life changes forever, and he sets out to finish the story himself. Cast: Kyle Mooney, Claire Danes, Mark Hamill, Greg Kinnear, Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins.

“Burning Sands” (Director: Gerard McMurray, Screenwriters: Christine Berg, Gerard McMurray): Deep into a fraternity’s Hell Week, a favored pledge is torn between honoring a code of silence or standing up against the intensifying violence of underground hazing. Cast: Trevor Jackson, Alfre Woodard, Steve Harris, Tosin Cole, DeRon Horton, Trevante Rhodes.

“Crown Heights” (Director and screenwriter: Matt Ruskin): When Colin Warner is wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend, Carl King, devotes his life to proving Colin’s innocence. Adapted from “This American Life,” this is the incredible true story of their harrowing quest for justice. Cast: Keith Stanfield, Nnamdi Asomugha, Natalie Paul, Bill Camp, Nestor Carbonell, Amari Cheatom.

“Golden Exits” (Director and screenwriter: Alex Ross Perry): The arrival of a young foreign girl disrupts the lives and emotional balances of two Brooklyn families. Cast: Emily Browning, Adam Horovitz, Mary-Louise Parker, Lily Rabe, Jason Schwartzman, Chloe Sevigny.

“The Hero” (Director: Brett Haley, Screenwriters: Haley, Marc Basch): Lee, a former Western film icon, is living a comfortable existence lending his golden voice to advertisements and smoking weed. After receiving a lifetime achievement award and unexpected news, Lee reexamines his past, while a chance meeting with a sardonic comic has him looking to the future. Cast: Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman, Katherine Ross.

“I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair): When a depressed woman is burglarized, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves, alongside her obnoxious neighbor. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals. Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Elijah Wood, David Yow, Jane Levy, Devon Graye.

“Ingrid Goes West” (Director: Matt Spicer, Screenwriters: Spicer, David Branson Smith): A young woman becomes obsessed with an Instagram lifestyle blogger and moves to Los Angeles to try to befriend her in real life. Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, Billy Magnussen.

“Landline” (Director: Gillian Robespierre, Screenwriters: Elisabeth Holm, Robespierre): Two sisters come of age in ‘90s New York when they discover their dad’s affair — and it turns out he’s not the only cheater in the family. Everyone still smokes inside, no one has a cell phone, and the Jacobs finally connect through lying, cheating, and hibachi. Cast: Jenny Slate, John Turturro, Edie Falco, Abby Quinn, Jay Duplass, Finn Wittrock.

“Novitiate” (Director and screenwriter: Maggie Betts): In the early 1960s, during the Vatican II era, a young woman training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, sexuality, and the changing church. Cast: Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson, Dianna Agron, Morgan Saylor.

“Patti Cake$” (Director and screenwriter: Geremy Jasper): Straight out of Jersey comes Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Killa P, a.k.a. Patti Cake$, an aspiring rapper fighting through a world of strip malls and strip clubs on an unlikely quest for glory. Cast: Danielle Macdonald, Bridget Everett, Siddharth Dhananjay, Mamoudou Athie, Cathy Moriarty.

“Roxanne Roxanne” (Director and screenwriter: Michael Larnell): The most feared battle emcee in early-’80s NYC is a fierce teenager from the Queensbridge projects with the weight of the world on her shoulders. At age 14, hustling the streets to provide for her family, Roxanne Shante is well on her way to becoming a hip-hop legend. Cast: Chante Adams, Mahershala Ali, Nia Long, Elvis Nolasco, Kevin Phillips, Shenell Edmonds.

“To the Bone” (Director and screenwriter: Marti Noxon): In a last-ditch effort to battle her severe anorexia, 20-year-old Ellen enters a group recovery home. With the help of an unconventional doctor, Ellen and the other residents go on a sometimes-funny, sometimes-harrowing journey that leads to the ultimate question: Is life worth living? Cast: Lily Collins, Keanu Reeves, Carrie Preston, Lili Taylor, Alex Sharp, Liana Liberato.

“Walking Out” (Directors and screenwriters: Alex Smith, Andrew Smith): A father and son struggle to connect on any level until a brutal encounter with a predator in the heart of the wilderness leaves them both seriously injured. If they are to survive, the boy must carry his father to safety. Cast: Matt Bomer, Josh Wiggins, Bill Pullman, Alex Neustaedter, Lily Gladstone.

“The Yellow Birds” (Director: Alexandre Moors, Screenwriter: David Lowery) — Two young men enlist in the Army and are deployed to fight in the Gulf War. After an unthinkable tragedy, the surviving soldier struggles to balance his promise of silence with the truth and a mourning mother’s search for peace. Cast: Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, Alden Ehrenreich, Jason Patric, Toni Collette, Jennifer Aniston.

Wood