Sundance Film Festival 2007 - Independent Film Competition: Documentary
by Andre Soares
The Sundance Institute has announced the line-up of 64 films selected for the Independent Film and World Cinema Competitions for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Among the 122 feature films selected are 82 world premieres, 23 North American premieres, and 11 U.S. premieres representing 25 countries, with nearly 60 first- or second-time feature filmmakers.
Some of the documentaries sound intriguing, e.g., Daniel Karslake’s For the Bible Told Me So, an attempt to understand how Fundamentalist Christians have used the Bible to discriminate against non-heteroxuals; My Kid Could Paint That, Amir Bar-Lev’s take on art vs. charlatanism; and Jessica Yu’s ambitious Protagonist, which, according to the brief Sundance synopsis, "explores the organic relationship between human life and Euripidean dramatic structure."
And by the way, the "unusual encounter" between man and horse in Robinson Devor’s Zoo is of the sexual kind.
A couple of other documentaries sound at best like sensationalistic trash — but before pointing fingers and naming names, I should sit and watch them. It could be a case of a simple-minded synopsis writer botching a complex and intelligent film.
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival runs January 18-28, 2007, in Park City, Sundance, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah.
INDEPENDENT FILM COMPETITION: DOCUMENTARY
BANISHED (Director: Marco Williams)—This story of three U.S. towns which, in the early 20th century, forced their entire African American populations to leave, explores what—if anything—can be done to repair past racial injustice. World Premiere.
CHASING GHOSTS (Director: Lincoln Ruchti)—Twin Galaxies Arcade, Iowa, 1982: the birthplace of mankind’s obsession with video games. The fate of this world lies in the hands (literally) of a few unlikely heroes: They are the Original Video Game World Champions and the arcade is their battleground. World Premiere.
CRAZY LOVE (Director: Dan Klores)—An unsettling true story about an obsessive relationship between a married man and a beautiful, single 20-year-old woman, which began in 1957 and continues today. World Premiere.
EVERYTHING’S COOL (Directors: Daniel B. Gold, Judith Helfand)—A group of self-appointed global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, proper language, and points of leverage to help the public go from embracing the urgency of the problem to creating the political will necessary to move to an alternative energy economy. World Premiere.
FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO (Director: Daniel Karslake)—Grounded by the stories of five conservative Christian families, the film explores how the religious right has used its interpretation of the Bible to support its agenda of stigmatizing the gay community and eroding the separation between church and state. World Premiere.
GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB (Director: Rory Kennedy)—This inside look at the abuses that occurred at the infamous Iraqi prison in the fall of 2003 uses direct, personal narratives of perpetrators, witnesses, and victims to probe the effects of the abuses on all involved. World Premiere.
GIRL 27 (Director: David Stenn)—When underage dancer Patricia Douglas is raped at a wild MGM stag party in 1937, she makes headlines and legal history, and then disappears. GIRL 27 follows authorscreenwriter David Stenn as he investigates one of Hollywood’s most notorious scandals. World Premiere.
HEAR AND NOW (Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky)—Filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky tells a deeply personal story about her deaf parents, and their radical decision—after 65 years of silence—to undergo cochlear implant surgery, a complex procedure that could give them the ability to hear. World Premiere.
MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET) (Director: Jason Kohn)—In Brazil, known as one of the world’s most corrupt and violent countries, MANDA BALA follows a politician who uses a frog farm to steal billions of dollars, a wealthy businessman who spends a small fortune bulletproofing his cars, and a plastic surgeon who reconstructs the ears of mutilated kidnapping victims. World Premiere.
MY KID COULD PAINT THAT (Director: Amir Bar-Lev)—A 4-year-old girl whose paintings are compared to Kandinsky, Pollock and even Picasso, has sold $300,000 dollars worth of paintings. Is she a genius of abstract expressionism, a tiny charlatan, or an exploited child whose parents have sold her out for the glare of the media and the lure of the almighty dollar? World Premiere.
NANKING (Director: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman)—A powerful and haunting depiction of the atrocities suffered by the Chinese at the hands of the invading Japanese army during “The Rape of Nanking”, one of the most tragic events of WWII. While more than 200,000 Chinese were murdered and ten of thousands raped, a handful of Westerners performed extraordinary acts of heroism, saving over 250,000 lives in the midst of the horror. World Premiere.
NO END IN SIGHT (Director: Charles Ferguson)—A comprehensive examination of the Bush Administration’s conduct of the Iraq war and occupation. Featuring first-time interviews with key participants, the film creates a startlingly clear reconstruction of key decisions that led to the current state of affairs in this war-torn country. World Premiere.
PROTAGONIST (Director: Jessica Yu)—PROTAGONIST explores the organic relationship between human life and Euripidean dramatic structure by weaving together the stories of four men—a German terrorist, a bank robber, an "ex-gay" evangelist, and a martial arts student. World Premiere.
WAR DANCE (Director: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine)—WAR DANCE is set against the backdrop of Uganda’s 20 year civil war and its devastating affects on two generations of Ugandans. This film tells the story of Dominic, Rose and Nancy and their school in the Patongo IDP camp as they take an historic journey to compete in Uganda’s national music and dance festival. World Premiere.
WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN: THE DESTRUCTION OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI (Director: Steven Okazaki)—WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN offers a visceral, topical and moving portrait of the human cost of atomic warfare. World Premiere.
ZOO (Director: Robinson Devor)—A humanizing look at the life and bizarre death of a seemingly normal Seattle family man who met his untimely end after an unusual encounter with a horse. World Premiere.
Sundance Film Festival 2007 - World Cinema Competition: Dramatic
Sundance Film Festival 2007 - World Cinema Competition: Documentary
Sundance Film Festival 2007 - Independent Film Competition: Dramatic
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