Category: Sundance 2011

Sundance Institute Announces Projects Selected for 2011 Theatre Lab to Be Held at the BANFF Centre

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES PROJECTS SELECTED FOR 2011 THEATRE LAB TO BE HELD AT THE BANFF CENTRE

A RECORD 31 ARTISTS INVITED FROM THE UNITED STATES, KENYA, MEXICO AND TANZANIA

Sundance Institute today announced the artists and projects selected for its 2011 Theatre Lab to be held at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, from March 27-April 17. The centerpiece of Sundance Institute’s Theatre Program, the Theatre Lab is a three-week developmental retreat designed to provide a private, creative environment for playwrights, directors, composers and librettists to devise and refine new work with the support of creative advisors, full casts and rehearsal space.  This year, Sundance has 31 fellows or generative artists, including playwrights, composers, directors and creative teams. Sundance Institute is grateful for the assistance of the Performing Arts Residency program at The Banff Centre.

The 2011 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the Banff Centre:

Africa Kills Her Sun (Tanzania/Kenya)

An Adaptation of Africa Kills Her Sun by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Mrisho Mpoto, adapter/performer

Irene Sanga, adapter/performer

Elidady Msangi, composer

Gilbert Lukalia, assistant director/performer

Indhu Rubasingham, director

Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) was hanged by the Nigerian dictatorship for his activism on behalf of his Nigerian Ogoni people. The original text is a condemned man’s last letter to his loved one. Mpoto and his team are adapting this text and using his poetic style in Kiswahili to combine it with slam poetry and storytelling to talk about corruption and abuse of power in contemporary Africa. Partnering with UK-based director, Rubasingham, the team will develop Sundance Institute’s first all-Kiswahili theatre project. Africa Kills Her Sun was previously workshopped at the 2011 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab on Manda Island, Kenya, as part of the theatre program’s charter lab for east African artists.

Annie Bosh is Missing (U.S.A.)

Janine Nabers, playwright

Trip Cullman, director

A family is swept into their own storm of violence and misunderstanding when Annie, a 22-year old recovering drug addict, returns home to Houston in the midst of Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Unable to communicate with her estranged family, Annie ventures out into the turbulent city around her looking for a connection as the rift between Annie and her family worsen. Nabers was a playwright at the 2010 Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross and 2010 member of Ars Nova’s Play Group, and Cullman developed Adam Bock’s A Small Fire at the 2010 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at MASS MoCA.

Froggy (U.S.A.) Jennifer Haley, playwright

Matt Marrow, director

When Froggy spots her long lost lover in a bootleg video game, she embarks on a quest that takes her from Los Angeles to a ghost town in the Mojave Desert, where she finds herself in a dangerous intrigue with a shady production company and ghosts from her past. Told in voiceover and tableau, this noir thriller was born from the Haley’s fascination with graphic novels. Froggy was written at the Millay Colony for the Arts and previously workshopped at the Page 73 Productions Summer Residency at Yale.

Light Years to the Delling Shore (U.S.A.)

Sam Marks, playwright

Director TBA

At an upscale country house in the secluded woods Thomas, a very successful novelist, and his old grad school chum Frank, a struggling writer, have decided to spend a night catching up and have brought along their college-age daughters. The men’s fraught history and competitiveness collides with their daughters’ desire to establish themselves, and avoid replicating their fathers’ damaged relationship. But soon the young women enter  the fray as the bad behavior spins out of control over wine, cheese, and  literary games.

Like Water For Chocolate (Mexico & USA) Lila Downs, composer

Paul Cohen, co-composer

Quiara Alegria Hudes, bookwriter

Ted Sperling, co-director

Jonathan Butterell, co-director

Michael Levine, designer

Michael Curry, puppet designer

Like Water for Chocolate is a musical adaptation of the best-selling 1989 novel by Mexican author Laura Esquivel. Making her musical theater debut, Mexican singer-songwriter Downs wrote the songs with her long-time collaborator Cohen, and the script is by Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-nominee Hudes. Like Water for Chocolate incorporates Mexican cooking and the power of food, the magical realism of Mexican folk tales, and both contemporary and ancient theater techniques.

Stuck Elevator (U.S.A.)

Aaron Jafferis, writer

Byron Au Yong, composer

Chay Yew, director

Based on the true story of an undocumented immigrant who survived 81 hours in a Bronx elevator, this comic-rap-scrap-metal-music-theatre work follows Guang’s increasingly fantastic attempts to escape a 4′ x 6′ x 8′ metal box. As he climbs into memories, nightmares, and impossible futures, he is cooked into a morsel of Orange Beef and mugged by a bursting bladder. Taking charge, Guang transforms into Takeout Man, battles his prison guard, flies paper airplane menu letters to his family, and leads an army of bicycle deliverymen. Suspended between the upward mobility of the American dream and the downward plunge into an empty abyss, Stuck Elevator travels between refuge/prison, freedom/safety, and voice/silence for our superhero. The text will be in Mandarin and English.

Untitled Worlds Fair Play (U.S.A.)

Made by The Debate Society

Hannah Bos, writer

Paul Thureen, writer

Oliver Butler, director

Chicago 1893: The Zoopraxiscope, cracker jacks and neon lights. The Ferris Wheel, hootchy-kootchy… hell they even had the hamburger! On the eve of a glowing new century, something terrible happens in a humble two-story home. And everything ends. Chicago 1933: When The Fair returns 40 years later, so do the unfinished histories of everything that could have been. And so things begin for the hermit upstairs and the mysterious look-a-like below. Play-making company The Debate Society creates a haunted world of forgotten futures, a rotting building and the spirit of invention.

Wild with Happy (U.S.A.)

Colman Domingo, playwright

Robert O’Hara, director

Gil plans to toss his mother’s ashes at the place where she was most happy…Disneyworld! In this dark comedy about death, ritual and tradition, Domingo (A Boy and His Soul, Up Jumped Springtime) explores the surreal, bizarre and outrageous comedy that lies in everyone’s search for answers as they try to deal with death and healing. Domingo was previously a member of the 2009 Theatre Lab acting company as well as an actor in Sundance Institute-supported projects Passing Strange and Well on Broadway.

“The artists and plays selected this season are among the most dynamic, diverse and innovative that Sundance Institute has supported in its 30-year history”, said Philip Himberg, Producing Artistic Director of the Institute’s Theatre Program. “These eight works challenge traditional forms and include work written in Kiswahili, Spanish and Mandarin The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at The Banff Centre will offer artists an unparalleled opportunity – three weeks of in-depth exploration of their scripts in an extraordinary retreat atmosphere.”

The playwrights, directors and composers will work with a respected staff of dramaturgs and creative advisors. Dramaturgs include Marge Betley, former literary manager of Geva Theatre, playwright and dramaturg Kim Euell, Sundance Institute Theatre Program artistic associate Roberta Levitow, and freelance dramaturg Otis Ramsey-Zoe. Mame Hunt, Karan Kandel, Janice Paran and Stephen Wadsworth served as the 2011 Theatre Lab Advisory Committee.

“The diversity of projects and advisors illustrates the scope of Sundance Institute’s work around the world,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director, Sundance Institute. “We are thrilled to be working with The Banff Centre, an organization of like mind and purpose, and are excited to be hosting some of the greatest artists working in theatre today.”

Under the guidance of Producing Artistic Director Philip Himberg, more than 85% of the work coming out of the Program’s labs has found professional production at theatres across the United States, Mexico and Europe. Recent productions of Sundance Institute-developed work include: Passing Strange by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, which won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, The Lily’s Revengeby Taylor Mac, and A Small Fire by Adam Bock. The Sundance Institute Theatre Program is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre.

Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, I Am My Own Wife, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. www.sundance.org

The Banff Centre

The Banff Centre is Canada’s creative leader in arts and culture. A post-secondary learning institution located in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, The Banff Centre’s mission is Inspiring Creativity. In this powerful mountain setting, exceptional artists and leaders from around the world create and perform new works of art, share skills and knowledge in an interdisciplinary environment, explore ideas, and develop solutions in the arts and leadership. The Banff Centre supports international creative residencies in opera, ballet, contemporary dance, music, and visual and literary arts. www.banffcentre.ca

Sundance 2011 Review: SEPTIEN

Review By Clare Halpine

SEPTIEN, the recent film by Actor/Director/Writer Michael Tully explores themes of sexual repression, parental transference and religion. The film alludes to a variety of Freudian themes; both implicitly and explicitly, as witnessed through the lives of three, young, recently reunited brothers living on an old farm in a small community. Having said that, without a psychoanalytic degree in my back pocket, I was left feeling the way I feel after reading the writings of Freud: slightly confused, but largely disconcerted.  Well, the “largely disconcerted” part happened immediately as the opening credits roll across all manner of bloody and otherwise disfigured phallic imagery. (It does not please me to say this, but after this barrage of visual imagery, even the unprecedented amount of plumber’s crack throughout the film will seem palatable.)

The story opens in the quaint mid-western home of the Rawlings brothers. But all is not calm in this home; nor does the initial dialogue make the characters appear very bright. The first few lines of dialogue feel like a bad improv show: lines sound haphazard or just plain unpracticed. For example, when Ezra, the eldest brother and wanna-be-house-mom, welcomes home his long-lost younger brother, Cornelius, his lines are so stilted and mechanical as to be comedic.

The bad improv vibe lingers into the next scene as the brothers reunite for a sit down meal. The oldest brother, Ezra, questions Cornelius as to where he has been. Cornelius stoically responds that Ezra doesn’t need to know. Ezra continues to prod by responding that he does need to know, as Cornelius has been gone for (a whopping!) eighteen years. As a result of these inquiries, Cornelius jumps up from the table and runs off screen, to be shortly followed by the sounds of breaking glass. Cornelius: prodigal son, unpredictable window smasher. End welcome home banquet scene.

While the film is slow to start, once Cornelius leaves his bed and the house, to engage with the world, funny and heart-wrenching moments ensue. Cornelius’ former athletic prowess is re-established as he challenges various strangers to games of one-on-one: wining handily each time. As a result of Amos’ reminiscing about Cornelius’ his high school athletic career, we later learn that there was a tragic reason for Cornelius’ departure from home and community — his coach sexually molested him. However, this is not revealed until the end of the film, and so Cornelius’ silent and unapproachable behavior throughout the majority of the film seems inexplicable, if not unwarranted.

After attempting to cajole details out of Cornelius regarding his High School days, Amos suddenly confesses his desire to be gay. Due to his repressed sexuality, as a result of the early fear of “Faggots” instilled in him by their father, he comments that even though he is an open-minded artist, he just can’t seem to attempt being gay. A confusing admission, it nonetheless provides a necessary glimpse into the early lives of these brothers.

While the synopsis states that Ezra is a freak for “cleanliness” and “Jesus,” the latter remains largely unsubstantiated. On-screen, the character Ezra goes to church once. And, while he does wake up his brothers to tell them he is going to church, and to invite them to join him, the claim that he is a “Jesus freak” feels a little more like a groundless gimmick than an integral part of Ezra’s character. However, in what I would consider to be one of the most disturbing scenes of the film, Ezra, after falling and cutting himself, is face to face with himself in the mirror. Noticing his cut, he rubs the blood from his wound over his lips as a makeshift replacement for lipstick. Now, where is my copy of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality when I need it?!

However, the most bizarre intrusion into the film comes near the end when, out of nowhere, a man in a leather jacket, wearing a gaudy cross around his neck and another in his ear, looking part cult-leader part charlatan, emerges from a port-o-potty on the side of the road. While one could argue that this is all a post-modern allusion to the humble beginnings of another savior known as Jesus, there is so little within the film to explain the sudden emergence of this savior-character that, instead, it initially feels like a) a joke [with no explicit punch line] and/or b) suggestive of an 80’s music video. (“Desert Love,” by Roger Hodgson, comes to mind.)

Since the role of religion is never wholly developed within the story line, the sudden cure–all closure provided by the cultish crusader, makes the film’s ending feel all the more unresolved for the viewer. Revenge and healing is so swift and sweet that, in the end, it is the viewer who is left saddled with the remnant emotional baggage. While I appreciated the happy ending, the facile resolution left the film in pieces; pieces of stories begun and pieces of human tragedy explored.

Overall Rating: Two Kernels

2011 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES JURY PRIZES IN SHORT FILMMAKING

Filmmakers from Australia, Poland, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Canada and the United States Celebrated for their Documentary and Narrative Work

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival this evening (January 25) announced the jury prizes in shorts filmmaking and gave honorable mentions based on outstanding achievement and merit. The awards were presented at a ceremony held in Park City, Utah. These award recipients will also be honored at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony hosted by Sundance Alum Tim Blake Nelson on Saturday, January 29.

The 2011 Short Film jurors are Barry Jenkins (director, writer, Medicine for Melancholy); Kim Morgan (Film and Culture writer, Sunset Gun, The Hitlist) and Sara Bernstein (Vice president, HBO Documentary films; supervising producer, Baghdad ER, White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

The Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was awarded to Brick Novax pt 1 and 2 (Director and Screenwriter: Matt Piedmont)— Penniless and now living in a seedy motel with only weeks to live, international super legend Brick Novax records his amazing tales as an astronaut, movie star, corporate CEO, and famous musician to preserve his legacy as the coolest guy in the history of the world.

The Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking was given to Deeper Than Yesterday Australia (Director and Screenwriter: Ariel Kleiman) – After three months submerged underwater in a submarine, the crew have become savages. Oleg, one of the men onboard, fears that losing perspective may mean losing himself.

In addition, The Shorts Jury awarded Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking to:

Choke / Canada (Drector and Screenwriter: Michelle Latimer)— Upon leaving his First Nations reserve, Jimmy encounters the lost souls of the city and is reminded that no matter how far you travel, you cannot escape who you are.

Diarchy / Italy (Director and Screenwriter: Ferdinando Cito Filmomarino) – Giano and Luc are traveling through the woods when a storm breaks, forcing them to take shelter in Luc’s villa. Gradually and insidiously, a competition emerges between them, with terrible consequences.

The External World / Germany, Ireland (Director and Screenwriter: David O’Reilly) – A boy learns to play the piano.

The Legend of Beaver Dam / Canada (Director: Jerome Sable; Screenwriters: Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion) – When a ghost story around the campfire awakens an evil monster, it’s up to nerdy Danny Zigwitz to be the hero and save his fellow campers from a bloody massacre.

Out of Reach / Poland (Director and Screenwriter: Jakub Stozek) – Karolina and Natalia seek refuge from their domineering father and reminiscence about sad childhood without a mother in a basement of their block of flats.

Protoparticles / Spain (Director and Screenwriter: Chema García Ibarra) – The experiment was a success: protomatter exists.

Tim Blake Nelson Hosting Sundance Awards Ceremony

DEADLINE NEW YORK is reporting that Tim Blake Nelson (O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, HOLES, MEET THE FOCKERS etc.) will be hosting this years closing awards ceremony at the sundance film festival.

DEADLINE NEW YORK STATES:

I’m hearing that Tim Blake Nelson has been set to host the closing awards ceremony at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 29. Nelson will be on hand for the premiere of his latest film,Flypaper. He stars with Patrick Dempsey and Ashley Judd in the Rob Minkoff-directed film, which was  produced by Dempsey. Scripted by The Hangoverwriters Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, the pic’s about two gangs that knock off the same bank at the same time. Nelson’s one of the bumbling robbers. The pic premieres Friday, January 28 at the Eccles Theatre, and is being shopped by UTA. Pic’s produced by Mark Damon and Peter Safran. Additionally, Nelson stars in the upcoming CBS drama series Chaos.

Do you think he is a good choice for host? Who would you have host?

Source: DEADLINE NEW YORK

MARGIN CALL Will Premiere At SUNDANCE

MARGIN CALL, a thrilling new film starring Kevin Spacey, will make it’s debut at the Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday, January 25th. And hey… guess what? We have the poster for you to take a gander at below. The trailer isn’t even out yet!

Just by the synopsis and cast what do you guys think?

SYNOPSIS: Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, Margin Call is a thriller entangling the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When entry-level analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. Expanding the parameters of genre, Margin Call is a riveting examination of the human components of a subject too often relegated to partisan issues of black and white.Y

Propelled by a stellar cast that includes Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell,  Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci in writer/director JC Chandor’s enthralling first feature is a stark and bravely authentic portrayal of the financial industry and its denizens as they confront the decisions that shape our global future.

Margin Call is written and directed by J.C. Chandor, and produced by actor Zachary Quinto’s Before The Door Pictures, along with partners Neal Dodson and Corey Moosa. The producing team also includes Michael Benaroya and Robert Ogden Barnum of Benaroya Pictures along with Joe Jenckes, and executive producers Cassian Elwes, Laura Rister, Randy Manis, and Joshua Blum of Washington Square Films.

*Synopsis credit goes to David Courier, Sundance Film Festival*

!WAR At Sundance

“When the definitive book on media arts is written, San Francisco artist Lynn Hershman Leeson deserves a long chapter.”— San Francisco Chronicle

Lynn Hershman Leeson’s new film !Women Art Revolution will screen at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the screening Sundance will feature an installation titled RAWWAR. RAWWAR is a live participatory environment that allows users to “bring light” to lost or invisible histories of women in art with virtual flashlight controllers accessing an interactive community-curated archive.

!Women Art Revolution was recently acquired by Zeitgeist Films for North American distribution after premiering at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Zeitgeist Co-President Nancy Gerstman notes, “There is so much about the history of the Feminist Art Movement that has been unacknowledged up to now and Lynn Hershman Leeson has done a great service in enriching our understanding of the pioneering heroines from the `70s until today. We feel privileged to be part of this ongoing history of the most significant art movement of the late 20th century.”

Here is what the press is saying about !Women Art Revolution:

“Overflowing with bold art” – New York Post

“Hershman Leeson’s film is a valuable resource on a movement whose issues remain relevant.” – Variety

“A powerful narrative that holds society accountable for its past prejudices, celebrates how far women have come, and is hopeful about where they have to go.” – Maclean’s

“Upsetting, informative and cool” – Film Threat

Hershman Leeson’s film is over 40 years in the making and draws from hundreds of hours of in the-moment interviews with her contemporaries—visionary artists, historians, curators and critics—to present an intimate portrayal of their fight to break down barriers facing women both in the art world and society at large. !Women Art Revolution features an original score composed by Carrie Brownstein, formerly of Sleater-Kinney. In conjunction with the film, legendary artist Spain has illustrated a 100-page graphic novel depicting selected highlights of the !WAR history; the graphic novel includes a 57-page curriculum guide to accompany the film.

In the 1960s, the Feminist Art Movement emerged to politicize female artists and challenge complexities of gender, race, class and sexuality. Through interviews with her colleagues, Hershman Leeson—a pioneering, award-winning multimedia artist—traces the history of the movement from its relationship to the anti-war and civil rights forces of the 1960s, through its groundbreaking contributions to women’s art of the 1970s, to the emergence of The Guerilla Girls, who became the conscience of the art world and held galleries and museums accountable for discrimination. Ultimately, Hershman Leeson and her collaborators would become part of what many historians now claim is the most significant art movement of the late 20th century.

Hershman Leeson says of the film, “In 1966, I borrowed a camera, figured out how to use it and shot people coming through my living room in Berkeley. Then I forgot about all that footage and it was stored in boxes in my studio until I found it in 2004. I felt it had become even more relevant and it was a personal imperative that I complete the project! I felt a tremendous responsibility to find the story inside that raw footage and to honor the women who struggled to invent themselves and who introduced the concepts of social protest, collaboration and public art that addressed directly the political imperatives of social justice and civil rights. This film took 42 years and it needed all that time to find the optimistic and uncompromising legacy.”

!Women Art Revolution is written, directed, produced and edited by Lynn Hershman Leeson. The film is executive produced by Sarah Peter, produced by Kyle Stephan and co-produced by Alexandra Chowaniec and Carla Sacks. !Women Art Revolution is a Hotwire Production in association with Chicken and Egg Pictures, Creative Capital and Impact Partners. Lynn Hershman Leeson has been cited as the “most influential woman working in new media” and has pioneered site specific, performance and interactive projects. She is the recipient of the 2010 d.velop digital art award [ddaa], the most prestigious award to be given to artists working in digital art. Additionally, she is the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica, the ZKM/Seimens Media Arts Award and became a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 2009. Hershman Leeson received a Creative Capital Grant for !Women Art Revolution and wrote, directed and produced the feature films Teknolust, Conceiving Ada and Strange Culture. These films screened at the Sundance, Toronto and Berlin International Film Festivals and were all internationally distributed.

SUNDANCE Public Screenings of !Women Art Revolution

January 22, 6:00 P.M. Yarrow Hotel Theatre Park City, UT

January 24, 3:00 P.M. Redstone Cinema 8 Park City, UT

January 25, 6:00 P.M. Broadway Centre Cinema VI SLC, UT

January 27, 5:30 P.M. Holiday Village Cinema III Park City, UT

January 28, 12:30 P.M. Holiday Village Cinema II Park City, UT

January 29, 12:00 A.M. Broadway Centre Cinema VI SLC, UT

Please visit www.womenartrevolution.com for more information. Additional archived interviews can also be viewed at lib.stanford.edu/women-art-revolution.

2011 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films In NEXT, Spotlight, New Frontier, Park City At Midnight

Festival Adds New Native Showcase

As Previously Announced, Slacker to Screen From the Collection

PARK CITY, UT – Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival out-of-competition sections NEXT (<=>), Spotlight, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight, as well as a new Native Showcase. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/.

Trevor Groth, Director of Programming said, “The Sundance Film Festival is uniquely a festival of discovery and we are once again privileged to showcase the work of talented new artists, including a special section devoted to Native filmmakers. But it’s also exciting to see returning directors honing their skills and emerging with dazzling new films. And the NEXT section highlights visionary work that shows aesthetic creativity is not limited by budget. All of this speaks to the vibrancy of independent film.”

NEXT (<=>)

Eight American films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking. Each is a world premiere.

Bellflower / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Evan Glodell) – 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. Cast: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes.

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

Lord Byron / U.S.A. (Director: Zack Godshall; Screenwriters: Zack Godshall and Ross Brupbacher) – 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. Cast: Paul Batiste, Gwendolyn Spradling, Kayla Lemaire.

The Off Hours / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Megan Griffiths) – 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. Cast: Amy Seimetz, Ross Partridge, Scoot McNairy, Lynn Shelton, Bret Roberts, Tony Doupe.

Prairie Love / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Dusty Bias) – 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. Cast: Jeremy Clark, Holly Lynn Ellis, Garth Blomberg.

Restless City / U.S.A. (Director: Andrew Dosunmu; Screenwriter: Eugene M. Gussenhoven) – 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. Cast: Danai Gurira, Anthony Okungbowa, Babs Olusanmokun.

sound of my voice / U.S.A. (Director: Zal Batmanglij; Screenwriters: Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling) – A young couple infiltrates a cult that meets in a basement in the San Fernando Valley. Cast: Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius, Brit Marling.

to.get.her / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Erica Dunton) – Five girls come together for one fateful night where anything goes. They all had secrets, but their friendship was the only thing they knew to be true. Cast: Jazzy De Lisser, Chelsea Logan, Adwoa Aboah, Jami Eaton, Audrey Speicher.

NATIVE SHOWCASE

Following President and Founder Robert Redford’s original vision, Sundance Institute has remained committed to supporting indigenous filmmaking. This showcase highlights new work that contributes to a worldwide understanding of and appreciation for these artists.

GRAB / U.S.A. (Director: Billy Luther) – Three families in the Laguna Pueblo tribe prepare for Grab Day, when they throw groceries from a rooftop to the community waiting below – an annual community-wide prayer of abundance, thanks and renewal. Documentary, narrated by Parker Posey. World Premiere.

INDIGENOUS SHORTS- a program of short films from around the world by Native American and indigenous filmmakers. The seven short films that will be presented together as part of the Native Showcase will be announced on December 6.

SPOTLIGHT

Cinema we love.

Attenberg / Greece (Director and screenwriter: Athina Rachel Tsangari)- Marina, a young woman living with her father in a decaying, seaside factory town, acquires a new perspective on the mysteries of human nature after she meets a stranger. Cast: Ariane Labed, Yorgos Lanthimos, Vangelis Mourikis, Evangelia Randou. U.S. Premiere

Elite Squad 2 (Tropa de Elite 2) / Brazil (Director: José Padilha; Screenwrtiers: Bráulio Mantovani, José Padilha and Rodrigo Pimentel) – Captain Nascimento of Rio de Janeiro’s special operations police unit has a new enemy: widespread corruption within the city. Cast: Wagner Moura, Seu Jorge, Tainá Müller, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz. International Premiere

I Saw the Devil (Akma-reul bo-attda) / South Korea (Director and screenwriter: Kim Jee-woon) –

A young secret agent tracks a brutal serial killer who murdered his fiancée. Cast: Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi. U.S. Premiere

In a Better World (Hævnen) / Denmark(Director: Susanne Bier; Story: Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen, Screenplay: Anders Thomas Jensen) – The lives of two Danish families become intertwined as an extraordinary but risky friendship develops. Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Markus Rygaard and William Jøhnk Nielsen. U.S. Premiere

Incendies / Canada, France (Director: Denis Villeneuve, Screenwriters: Denis Villeneuve with the collaboration of Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne, based on a stage play Incendies by: Wajdi Mouawad) – A mother’s last wish sends Jeanne and Simon, twins living in Canada, on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Cast: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard.

Kaboom / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Gregg Araki) – A science fiction story centered on the sexual awakening of a group of college students. Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Chris Zylka, Roxane Mesquida, Juno Temple. U.S. Premiere

Letters From the Big Man / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Christopher Munch) – An artist and government hydrologist surveying a remote part of southwestern Oregon befriends a sasquatch man and must take bold steps to protect his privacy, as well as her own. Cast: Lily Rabe, Jason Butler Harner, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Jim Cody Williams, Fiona Dourif. World Premiere

Meek’s Cutoff / U.S.A. (Director: Kelly Reichardt; Screenwriter: Jon Raymond) – In 1845, three families who have hired mountaineer Stephen Meek to guide their wagons over the Cascade Mountains get lost and face hunger, thirst and a lack of faith in their instincts for survival. Cast: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Zoe Kaza, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson.

Old Cats (Gatos Viejos) / Chile (Directors and screenwriters: Pedro Peirano and Sebastián Silva) – An old woman who realizes that her mind is quickly deteriorating desperately tries to hide this condition from her daughter, who waits keenly for any sign of senility in order to take her apartment. Cast: Bélgica Castro, Claudia Celedón, Catalina Saavedra, Alejandro Sieveking.

Submarine / United Kingdom (Director: Richard Ayoade; Screenwriter: Richard Ayoade from the novel by Joe Dunthorne) – Fifteen-year-old Oliver Tate has two big ambitions: to save his parents’ marriage and to lose his virginity before his next birthday. Cast: Craig Roberts, Paddy Considine,Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins, Yasmin Paige. U.S. Premiere

Uncle Kent / U.S.A. (Director: Joe Swanberg; Screenwriters: Joe Swanberg and Kent Osborne) – A pothead cartoonist in Los Angeles spends a weekend trying to sleep with his visiting house guest – a woman from New York he met on Chatroulette. Cast: Kent Osborne. World Premiere

PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT

Home to horror films and extreme comedies, Black Dynamite, The Blair Witch Project and Saw are among the films that have screened here.

The Catechism Cataclysm / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Todd Rohal) – After becoming disinterested with the church, a priest tracks down his old classmate, a former metalhead whom he idolized in high school. When the two embark on a canoeing trip together, all hell breaks loose. Cast:Steve Little, Robert Longstreet, Walter Dalton, Miki Ann Maddox, Koko Lanham. World Premiere

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Madeleine Olnek) – A shy greeting card store employee unknowingly falls for a lesbian space alien while two government agents closely track their romance. Cast: Lisa Haas, Susan Ziegler, Jackie Monahan, Cynthia Kaplan, Dennis Davis, Alex Karpovsky, Rae C Wright. World Premiere

Corman’s World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel / U.S.A. (Director: Alex Stapleton) – Tracks the triumphant rise of Hollywood’s most prolific writer-director-producer, the true godfather of independent filmmaking. Cast: Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, James Cameron, Roger Corman. World Premiere

Hobo with A Shotgun / Canada (Director: Jason Eisener; Screenwriter: Johnathan Davies) – A hobo hops from a train with dreams of a fresh life in a new city, but instead finds himself trapped in an urban hell. When he witnesses a brutal robbery, he realizes the only way to deliver justice is with a shotgun in his hands and two shells in the chamber. Cast: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Gregory Smith, Brian Downey. World Premiere

The Oregonian / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Calvin Lee Reeder) – After surviving a brutal car accident, a simple farm woman limps down the road into the nightmarish unknown. Cast: Lindsay Pulsipher, Robert Longstreet, Matt Olsen, Lynne Compton, Barlow Jacobs, Chadwick Brown, Jed Maheu, Roger M. Mayer. World Premiere

Septien / U.S.A. (Director: Michael Tully) – A reclusive sports hustler returns home to his family farm after years of absence to reunite with his two eccentric, unhinged and emotionally damaged brothers. Cast: Robert Longstreet, Onur Tukel, Michael Tully, Rachel Korine, Mark Robinson, John Maringouin. World Premiere

Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren) / Norway (Director: Andre Ovredal) – A group of student filmmakers get more than they bargained for when tangling with a man tasked with protecting Norway from giant trolls. Cast: Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Hans Morten Hansen, Johanna Mørch, Tomas Alf Larsen. International Premiere

The Woman / U.S.A. (Director: Lucky McKee; Screenwriters: Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee) – When a successful country lawyer captures and attempts to “civilize” the last remaining member of a violent clan that has roamed the Northeast coast for decades, he puts the lives of his family in jeopardy. Cast: Pollyanna McIntosh, Sean Bridgers, Angela Bettis, Lauren Ashley Carter, Zach Rand. World Premiere

NEW FRONTIER

Works that push the limits of traditional cinema aesthetics and the narrative structures of filmmaking.

Jess + Moss / U.S.A. (Director: Clay Jeter; Screenwriters: Clay Jeter and Debra Jeter) – 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 visceral vignettes conjure memories of companionship and sexual awakening during a summer shared together on their Kentucky farm. Cast: Sarah Hagan, Austin Vickers. World Premiere.

The Mill & the Cross / Poland, Sweden (Director: Lech Majewski; Screenwriters: Michael Francis Gibson and Lech Majewski) – 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. Cast: Rutger Hauer, Michael York, Charlotte Rampling, Joanna Litwin. World Premiere

The Nine Muses / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: John Akomfrah) – 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. North American Premiere

!Women Art Revolution / U.S.A. (Director: Lynn Hershman Leeson) – 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. U.S. Premiere

The Woods / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Lessner) – 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. Cast: Justin Phillips, Toby David, Adam Mortemore, Nicola Persky, Chris Edley. World Premiere.

FROM THE COLLECTION

A selection from The Sundance Collection at UCLA to preserve and restore independent films.

Slacker / USA 1991 (Director and screenwriter: Richard Linklater) – Praising the film in the Chicago Sun-Times in 1991, Roger Ebert wrote, Slacker is “a movie with an appeal almost impossible to describe, although the method of the director, Richard Linklater, is as clear as day.” Cast: Richard Linklater, Marc James, Stella Weir, John Slater, Louis Mackey.

Festival Sponsors

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors-Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura, Sundance Channel and Chase SapphireSM; Leadership Sponsors-Bing™, Canon, DIRECTV, Honda, Southwest Airlines and YouTube™; Sustaining Sponsors-FilterForGood®, a partnership between Brita® and Nalgene®, L’Oréal Paris, Stella Artois®, Timberland, and Trident Vitality™. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations will defray costs associated with the 10-day Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s year-round programs for independent film and theatre artists. In return, sponsorship of the preeminent Festival provides these organizations with global exposure, a platform for brand impressions and unique access to Festival attendees.

About Sundance Film Festival

Supported by the nonprofit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water and Napoleon Dynamite and, through its New Frontier initiative, has brought the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julian, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp and Matthew Barney. www.sundance.org/festival

Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. http://www.sundance.org/

2011 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films in Competition

PARK CITY, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four Competition Categories, the Festival presents films in six out-of-competition sections to be announced on December 2. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at http://www.sundance.org/.

On Day One, the Festival will forego the convention of one opening night film and instead screen one narrative film and one documentary from both the U.S. and World Cinema competitions, as well as one shorts program.

John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival said, “The Festival is a challenge to narrowly define. It is all at once exciting, fun, crazy, engaging, visceral, and sometimes even painful. We can explain storylines, we can share what we know of each artist’s unique journey, but ultimately what we will experience for 10 days in January is different for each of us. It’s the spark from the filmmakers – their passion – that brings 200 unique worlds to life and, in turn, ignites the audience. The films, conversations, encounters are there to experience. And that’s what makes Sundance so magical.”

Said Trevor Groth, Director of Programming, “Knowing how difficult it is to get a film made anywhere, and given that the number of submissions was higher than ever, it is a testament to the passion and creativity of filmmakers everywhere that they are able to preserve and stay true to their vision. The caliber of films submitted this year was exceptional and made for exhilarating discussion among the programmers. Now that discussion gets turned over to the audience.”

For the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, 115 feature-length films were selected, representing 28 countries by 40 first-time filmmakers, including 25 in competition. These films were selected from 3,812 featurelength film submissions composed of 1,943.

2011 SUNDANCE COMPETITION LINEUP

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

This year’s 16 films were selected from 1,102 submissions. Each is a world premiere.

Another Earth (Director: Mike Cahill; Screenwriters: Mike Cahill and Brit Marling) – On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, a horrible tragedy irrevocably alters the lives of two strangers, who begin an unlikely love affair. Cast: William Mapother, Brit Marling, Jordan Baker, Robin Lord Taylor, Flint Beverage.

Benavides Born (Director: Amy Wendel; Screenwriters: Daniel Meisel and Amy Wendel) – A high school senior in a forgotten town has earned admission to the University of Texas at Austin but can’t afford to go. Her one shot is a scholarship for winning the State Powerlifting Championship. Cast: Corina Calderon, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Joseph Julian Soria, Julia Vera, Julio César Cedillo.

Circumstance / U.S.A., Iran (Director and screenwriter: Maryam Keshavarz) – A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager’s growing sexual rebellion and her brother’s dangerous obsession. Cast: Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy, Reza Sixo Safai, Soheil Parsa, Nasrin Pakkho.

Gun Hill Road (Director and screenwriter: Rashaad Ernesto Green) – After three years in prison, Enrique returns to the Bronx to find his wife estranged and his teenage son stumbling towards a transformation that will put the fragile bonds of their family to the test. Cast: Esai Morales, Judy Reyes, Harmony Santana, Vincent Laresca, Miriam Colon.

HERE (Director: Braden King; Written By: Braden King and Dani Valent) – On assignment to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia, an American cartographer forms a powerful bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer. Cast: Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal with Narek Nersisyan, Yuri Kostanyan and Sofik Sarkisyan.

Higher Ground (Director: Vera Farmiga; Screenwriters: Carolyn S. Briggs and Tim Metcalfe) – A frustrated young mother turns to a fundamentalist community for answers, but after years of dogma and loss, she must find the courage to ask the questions that will help her reclaim her life. Cast: Vera Farmiga, Joshua Leonard, John Hawkes, Dagmara Dominczyk, Norbert Leo Butz.

Homework (Director and screenwriter: Gavin Wiesen) – Quirky, rebellious George has no ambitions other than to cut his next class. But one day, one girl gives him the perfect reason to figure out who he really is. Cast: Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Elizabeth Reaser with Rita Wilson and Blair Underwood.

The Ledge(Director and screenwriter: Matthew Chapman) – Perched on a ledge, a man says he must jump by noon, while a cop races against time to get to the bottom of it. Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson and Terrence Howard with Christopher Gorham.

Like Crazy (Director: Drake Doremus; Screenwriters: Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones) – A young American guy and a young British girl meet in college and fall in love. Their love is tested when she is required to leave the country and they must face the challenges of a long-distance relationship. Cast: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston.

Little Birds (Director and screenwriter: Elgin James) – Amidst the stark landscape of the Salton Sea, two 15-year-old girls test the limits of their friendship when one follows the other to Los Angeles, only to discover that the boredom of home may be better than learning to survive in the big city. Cast: Juno Temple, Kay Panabaker, Leslie Mann, Kate Bosworth, Kyle Gallner.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (Director and screenwriter: Sean Durkin) – Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult. Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson.

On the Ice (Director and screenwriter: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean) – On the snow-covered Arctic tundra, two teenagers try to get away with murder. Cast: Josiah Patkotak, Frank Qutuq Irelan, Teddy Kyle Smith, Adamina Kerr, Sierra Jade Sampson.

Pariah (Director and screenwriter: Dee Rees) – When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Bronx teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression. Cast: Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker, Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell, Aasha Davis.

Take Shelter (Director and screenwriter: Jeff Nichols) – A working-class husband and father questions whether his terrifying dreams of an apocalyptic storm signal something real to come or the onset of an inherited mental illness he’s feared his whole life. Cast: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Kathy Baker.

Terri (Director: Azazel Jacobs; Screenwriters: Patrick Dewitt and Azazel Jacobs) – Orphaned to an uncle who is fading away, mercilessly teased by his peers and roundly ignored by his teachers, Terri is alienated and alone. When the dreaded vice-principal sees something of himself in Terri, they establish a friendship which opens Terri up to the possibility that life is not something to be endured, but something to be shared, and even enjoyed. Cast: Jacob Wysocki, John C. Reilly, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Bridger Zadina.

The Untitled Sam Levinson Project (Director and screenwriter: Sam Levinson) – A pair of reckless siblings are dragged into a chaotic family wedding by their overwrought mother. Cast: Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, Jeffrey DeMunn, Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Haden Church.

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

This year’s 16 films were selected from 841 submissions. Each is a world premiere.

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 non-violence, 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; Screenwriters: Tiffany Shlain, Ken Goldberg, Carlton Evans and Sawyer Steele) – Connected is 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. How to Die in Oregon 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; Screenwriters: Bill Haney and 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; Screenwriters: Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Jessica Congdon) – Miss Representation 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; Screenwriters: Kate Novack and Andrew Rossi) – 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 LA’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.

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

This year’s 14 films were selected from 1,073 international narrative feature submissions.

Abraxas / Japan (Director: Naoki Kato; Screenwriters: Dai Sako and Naoki Kato) – After botching a speech on career guidance at a local high school, a depressed Zen monk with a heavy metal past realizes that only music can revive his spirit. Cast: Suneohair, Rie Tomosaka, Manami Honjou, Ryouta Murai, Kaoru Kobayashi. International Premiere

All Your Dead Ones (Todos Tus Muertos ) / Colombia (Director Carlos Moreno; Screenwriters: Alonso Torres and Carlos Moreno) – One morning, a peasant wakes to find a pile of bodies in the middle of his crops. When he goes to the authorities, he quickly realizes that the dead ones are a problem nobody wants to deal with. Cast: Alvaro Rodríguez, Jorge Herrera, Martha Marquez, Harold Devasten, John Alex Castillo. World Premiere

The Cinema Hold Up (Asalto Al Cine) / Mexico (Director: Iría Gómez Concheiro; Screenwriters: Iria Gómez Concheiro and Juan Pablo Gómez) – Four childhood friends in Mexico’s Guerrero colony toy with the idea of robbing a cinema. Each hopes that the heist will hurtle them past life’s obstacles, only to realize that the caper risks the only thing they have: their friendship. Cast: Gabino Rodríguez, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Ángel Sosa, Paulina Avalos. World Premiere

A Few Days of Respite (Quelque Jours de Repit) / Algeria, France (Director and screenwriter: Amor Hakkar) – A pair of gay men who have escaped from Iran seek safe harbor in a small French village, where a lonely middle-aged woman offers aid. Cast: Marina Vlady, Samir Guesmi, Amor Hakkar. World Premiere

The Guard / Ireland (Director and screenwriter: John Michael McDonagh) – A small-town cop in Ireland has a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a fondness for prostitutes and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international drug-smuggling ring that has brought a straight-laced FBI agent to his door. However, a surreal chain of events pulls him into the action. Cast: Don Cheadle, Brendan Gleeson, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot, Fionnula Flanagan. World Premiere

Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig) / Norway (Director: Anne Sewitsky; Screenwriter: Ragnhild Tronvoll) – A perfect housewife, who just happens to be sex-starved, struggles to keep her emotions in check when an attractive family moves in next door. Cast: Agnes Kittelsen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Maibritt Saerens, Joachim Rafaelsen. International Premiere

Kinyarwanda / Rwanda, USA (Director and screenwriter: Alrick Brown) – Based on accounts from survivors, Kinyarwanda tells the story of Rwandans who crossed the lines of hatred during the 1994 genocide, turning mosques into places of refuge for Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis. Cast: Edouard Bamporiki, Cassandra Freeman, Cleophas Kabasiita, Hadidja Zaninka, Kennedy Mazimpaka, Hassan Kabera. World Premiere

Lost Kisses (I baci mai dati)/Italy (Director: Roberta Torre; Screenwriters: Roberta Torre and Laura Nuccilli) – A 13-year-old girl in the deprived outskirts of a sprawling Sicilian city becomes a local celebrity to her needy community when word spreads that she just might be able to perform miracles. Cast: Donatella Finocchiaro, Pino Micol, Giuseppe Fiorello, Carla Marchese, Martina Galletta, Tony Palazzo. International Premiere

Mad Bastards / Australia (Director: Brendan Fletcher; Screenwriters: Brendan Fletcher in collaboration with Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait and John Watson) – In a frontier town of northern Australia’s Kimberley Region, an urban street warrior meets his match in a local cop. Performances and stories from real people in Kimberley are woven through the music of legendary Broome musicians, The Pigram Brothers. Cast: Dean Daley-Jones, Greg Tait, John Watson, Ngaire Pigram, Lucas Yeeda. International Premiere

Restoration (Boker Tov Adon Fidelman) / Israel (Director: Yossi Madmoni; Screenwriter: Erez Kav-El) – Aided by a young and mysterious apprentice, an antique furniture restorer struggles to keep his workshop alive, while his relationship with his own estranged son, who is trying to close down the shop, begins to disintegrate. Cast: Sasson Gabay, Henry David, Nevo Kimchi, Sarah Adler. World Premiere

The Salesman (Le Vendeur) / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Sébastien Pilote) – Car salesman Marcel Lévesque operates by the rules of a bygone era, turning on the charm to make his quota. But the increasing decline of his fading industrial town threatens to plummet this peddler of dreams into an unfriendly reality. Cast: Gilbert Sicotte, Nathalie Cavezzali. World Premiere

Ticket to Paradise (Boleto al Paraiso) / Cuba (Director: Gerardo Chijona Valdes; Screenwriters: Gerardo Chijona Valdes, Francisco Garcia Gonzalez and Maykel Rodriguez Ponjuan) – A teenage girl running away from her father’s sexual harassment meets a young rocker who has escaped to Havana with his misfit group of friends. Set in 1993, during a period of acute shortages in Cuba, the local AIDS hospice begins to look like an unlikely refuge to the hopeless teens. Cast: Miriel Cejas, Héctor Medina, Dunia Matos, Jorge Perugorria, Luis A. Garcia. International Premiere

Tyrannosaur / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Paddy Considine) – For Joseph, a man plagued by self-destructive violence and rage, a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker with a devastating secret of her own. Cast: Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan, Olivia Colman. World Premiere

Vampire / Japan, Canada (Director and screenwriter: Iwai Shunji) – On the surface, Simon seems like a fairly normal, average young man, devoted to his teaching job and ailing mother. Secretly, he is compelled to hunt through online chat rooms and message boards, searching for the perfect girl who will ensure his own survival. Cast: Kevin Zegers, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rachel Leigh Cook, Kristin Kreuk, Aoi Yu and Adelaide Clemens. World Premiere

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

This year’s 12 films were selected from 796 international documentary submissions.

An African Election / Switzerland, U.S.A. (Director: Jarreth Merz) – The 2008 presidential elections in Ghana, West Africa, serve as a backdrop for this feature documentary that looks behind the scenes at the complex, political machinery of a third-world democracy struggling to avoid civil war and establish stability for good. North American Premiere

The Bengali Detective / India, U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Phil Cox) – Chubby, dance-obsessed private-detective Rajesh Ji and his motley band of helpers tackle poisonings, adultery and the occasional murder on the frenzied streets of Kolkata. World Premiere

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 / Sweden, U.S.A. (Director: Göran Olsson) – From 1967 to 1975, Swedish journalists chronicled the Black Power movement in America. Combining that 16mm footage, undiscovered until now, with contemporary audio interviews, this film illuminates the people and culture that fueled change and brings the movement to life anew. World Premiere

Family Portrait in Black and White / Canada (Director: Julia Ivanova) – In a small Ukrainian town, Olga Nenya, raises 16 black orphans amidst a population of Slavic blue-eyed blondes. Their stories expose the harsh realities of growing up as a bi-racial child in Eastern Europe. World Premiere

The Flaw / United Kingdom (Director: David Sington) – Within a few months in 2008, several American financial institutions failed, and before you knew it the U.S.A. was in the red. An imaginative blend of archive, animation and personal stories delivers a devastating indictment of the unfettered capitalism which has led to crippling, catastrophic income inequality in the land of the free. North American Premiere

The Green Wave (Irans grüner Sommer) / Germany (Director: Ali Samadi Ahadi) – Animated blogs and tweets tell the story of democracy under fire and hopes dashed as protesters are arrested, tortured and raped during Iran’s tumultuous elections of June 2009. North American Premiere

Hell and Back Again / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Danfung Dennis) – Told through the eyes of one Marine from the start of his 2009 Aghanistan tour to his distressing return and rehabilitation in the U.S., we witness what modern “unconventional” warfare really means to the men who are fighting it. World Premiere

KNUCKLE / Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Ian Palmer) – An epic 12-year journey into the brutal and secretive world of Irish Traveler bare-knuckle fighting, this film follows a history of violent feuding between rival clans. World Premiere

Position Among the Stars (Stand Van De Sterren) / Netherlands (Director: Leonard Retel Helmrich) – The effects of globalization in Indonesia’s rapidly changing society ripple into the life of a poor Christian woman living in the slums of Jakarta with her Muslim sons and teenage granddaughter. International Premiere

Project Nim / United Kingdom (Director: James Marsh) – From the Oscar-winning team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who was taught to communicate with language as he was raised and nurtured like a human child. World Premiere

Senna / United Kingdom (Director: Asif Kapadia; Screenwriter: Manish Pandey) – The story of the legendary racing driver and Brazilian hero Ayrton Senna takes us on the ultimate journey of what it means to become the greatest when faced with the constant possibility of death. North American Premiere

Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure / Australia, U.S.A. (Director: Matthew Bate) – When two friends tape-recorded the fights of their violently noisy neighbors, they accidentally created one of the world’s first ‘viral’ pop-culture sensations. World Premiere

Festival Sponsors

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors-Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura, Sundance Channel and Chase SapphireSM; Leadership Sponsors-Bing™, Canon, DIRECTV, Honda, Southwest Airlines and YouTube™; Sustaining Sponsors-FilterForGood®, a partnership between Brita® and Nalgene®, L’Oréal Paris, Stella Artois®, Timberland, and Trident Vitality™. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations will defray costs associated with the 10-day Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s year-round programs for independent film and theatre artists. In return, sponsorship of the preeminent Festival provides these organizations with global exposure, a platform for brand impressions and unique access to Festival attendees.

About Sundance Film Festival

Supported by the nonprofit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water and Napoleon Dynamite and, through its New Frontier initiative, has brought the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julian, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp and Matthew Barney. www.sundance.org/festival

Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. www.sundance.org