Congratulations to all our alum and Filmmakers’ Fund grantees with films screening at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. This year offers a great line-up of features, documentaries, and shorts from folks who’ve previously screened with us including Filmmakers’ Fund grantees Shaka King’s Newlyweeds, Julia Potts with her short film The Event, Maxim Podorovkin with Pussy Riot-A Punk Prayer, plus many more from our alum. We highly suggest watching these films if you are in Park City for the festival and definitely keep them on your radar.
FEATURES
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
Director: David Lowery
Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie, an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out to find Ruth and their daughter, born during his incarceration.
Cast: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, Keith Carradine
Milkshake
Director: David Andalman
In mid-1990’s America, we follow the tragic sex life of Jolie Jolson, a wannabe thug (and great-great-grandson of legendary vaudevillian Al Jolson) in suburban DC as he strives to become something he can never be – black.
Cast: Tyler Ross, Shareeka Epps, Georgia Ford, Eshan Bay, Leo Fitzpatrick, Danny Burstein
Newlyweeds
Director and screenwriter: Shaka King
A Brooklyn repo man and his globetrotting girlfriend forge an unlikely romance. But what should be a match made in stoner heaven turns into a love triangle gone awry in this dark coming-of-age comedy about dependency.
Cast: Amari Cheatom, Trae Harris, Tone Tank, Colman Domingo, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Adrian Martinez
Touchy Feely
Director and screenwriter: Lynn Shelton
A massage therapist is unable to do her job when stricken with a mysterious and sudden aversion to bodily contact. Meanwhile, her uptight brother’s foundering dental practice receives new life when clients seek out his “healing touch.” Cast: Rosemarie DeWitt, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, Scoot McNairy, Ellen Page, Josh Pais
Toy’s House
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Three unhappy teenage boys flee to the wilderness where they build a makeshift house and live off the land as masters of their own destiny. Or at least that’s the plan.
Cast: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie
DOCUMENTARIES
Citizen Koch
Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
Wisconsin –birthplace of the Republican Party, government unions, “cheeseheads” and Paul Ryan – becomes a test market in the campaign to buy Democracy, and ground zero in the battle for the future of the GOP.
Life According to Sam
Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine
Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns fight to save their only son from a rare and fatal aging disease for which there is no cure. Their work may one day unlock the key to aging in all of us.
Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer
Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin
Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is
really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in? World Premiere
SHORTS
Black Metal
Director and screenwriter: Kat Candler
After a career spent mining his music from the shadows, one fan creates a chain reaction for the lead singer of a black metal band.
The Captain
Directors: Nash Edgerton, Spencer Susser
A man wakes up with a hangover, only to discover the consequences of his actions.
Karaoke!
Director and screenwriter: Andrew F. Renzi
On a night out in New York City, a young man tries to avoid his problems.
#PostModem
Directors and screenwriters: Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva
A comedic, satirical, sci-fi pop musical based on the theories of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists, #PostModem is the story of two Miami girls and how they deal with technological singularity, as told through a series of cinematic tweets.
Social Butterfly
Director and screenwriter: Lauren Wolkstein
When a 30-year-old American woman attends a teenage party in the south of France, guests wonder who she is and what she is doing there.
On Suffocation
Director and screenwriter: Jenifer Malmqvist
This dialogue-free film about an execution describes what happens when the system
becomes more important than human life.
The Battle of amfAR
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
When AIDS strikes, two very different women – Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor and research scientist Dr. Mathilde Krim – join forces to create America’s first AIDS research foundation. The fight against HIV/AIDS has never been the same.
Irish Folk Furniture
Director: Tony Donoghue
In Ireland, old hand-painted furniture is often associated with hard times, with poverty, and with a time many would rather forget. In this animated documentary, 16 pieces of traditional folk furniture are repaired and returned home.
A Story for the Modlins
Director: Sergio Oksman
The tale of Elmer Modlin, who, after appearing in Rosemary’s Baby, fled with his family to a far-off country and shut himself away in a dark apartment for 30 years.
The Event
Director: Julia Pott
Love and a severed foot at the end of the world.
Marcel, King of Tervuren
Director: Tom Schroeder
In this Greek tragedy – as acted out by Belgian roosters – Marcel survives the bird flu, alcohol, sleeping pills and his son, Max.
Reindeer
Director: Eva Weber
A lyrical and haunting portrait of reindeer herding in the twilight expanses of the Lapland wilderness.