(Feb 14, 2005)
Africa Rises Between Sex and Soccer - by Steve Ayorinde/Talent Press The order of importance is not given. Nor is it needed anyway. But the good news for black brothers and sisters at the Berlinale is that Africa is the focus this year, curiously sandwiched between sex and soccer. The soccer bit is understandable, given Germany's preparation as the host of the FIFA World Cup in 2006....
(Jan 27, 2005)
CRITIC'S DIARY: Sundance Docs "Doll," "Daniel Johnston,” and "Grizzly" Celebrate Independent Vision - By Stephen Garrett Annually at Sundance screenings, audiences watch a quick festival trailer that celebrates, in its own quirky way, the pursuit of independent filmmaking. But this year’s trio of shorts, produced by celebrated online filmmaking studio JibJab, have been unusually inappropriate—pushing edgy sarcasm to the point of outright mockery. It starts with the letters in the word “Independent” dissolving...
(Jan 25, 2005)
CRITIC'S DIARY: Dramatic Competition Bounces Back With Accomplished "Hustle & Flow," "The Squid and The Whale," and "The Dying Gaul" - By Stephen Garrett With all but one of the Dramatic Competition films unspooled, Sundance has recovered fitfully from a soft start with a handful of accomplished works showing that the pulse of independent American film is still steady and strong. Among the first to give the festival its muscle is "Hustle & Flow", Craig Brewer’s improbably earnest drama about a...
(Jan 24, 2005)
Deal for LaChapelle's "Rize"; Film Documents Pure Positivity of Krumpers and Clowns - by K Beck Lions Gate Films has acquired worldwide rights to David LaChapelle's first feature documentary "Rize", a film about the emergence of an urban dance movement from Los Angeles that took Sundance by storm this weekend in Park City. “A dynamic combination of music and dance, 'Rize' brings a heretofore unknown culture to the screen,” said Tom Ortenberg, Lions...
(Jan 24, 2005)
In Times of Global Conflict, New Documentaries Search for Common Ground - by Jonny Leahan "There comes a moment in time when human behavior is capable of the most ferocious and irrational activity. This capacity to go berserk, to have no semblance of feeling for the human condition at all -- apparently it lies in us.” - Stephen Lewis, UN Envoy for Africa, in “Shake Hands with the Devil” While it’s true...
(Jan 23, 2005)
CRITIC'S DIARY: Dramatic Competition Mostly Tepid, But High School Dark Comedies Stand Out - by Stephen Garrett Mostly balmy weather in the Wasatch mountains has given way to mostly tepid dramatic competition selections at the beginning of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. No breakout movie has yet to emerge from the line-up: the fare has been engaging in fits and starts, with admirable aspects and worthy intentions giving way to executions that solidly...
(Jan 22, 2005)
Taking Sex Out of The Closet and "Inside Deep Throat" - by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE Here's a crazy scenario... An aspiring Queens filmmaker, who works in his day job as a hairdresser, gets an idea for a movie that eventually goes into production costing $25,000 and turns into a cultural phenomenon grossing over $600 million in three decades. This seemingly pie-in-the-sky dream did in fact happen, and the director himself, Gerard Damiano,...
(Jan 21, 2005)
Tim Kirkman: A Sundance Virgin, At Age 38 - By Eugene Hernandez Minutes before his world premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival on Friday, director Tim Kirkman took the stage at the Raquet Club Theater to introduce his debut narrative feature. But first, clutching a small camera and smiling, he took a picture of the audience. Kirkman is an experienced indie filmmaker who has directed two feature...
(Jan 21, 2005)
Bullets, Blind Teenagers, and the Virgin Mary: A Sundance Shorts Top Ten - by Tim LaTorre The Sundance shorts line up must be one hell of a difficult program to select. Consider this: the programming staff had to view 3,887 submissions and choose 82 to present at the festival. For those of you who don’t like to do the math, that’s about 2% of the shorts that made it though. Not a bad...
(Jan 20, 2005)
Lost in America: Sundance Shines on Complex Nation - by Anthony Kaufman/indieWIRE If last year's Sundance sensation "Napoleon Dynamite" hailed from Preston, Idaho, the next big thing in American film could emerge from the unlikeliest corners of the United States. This year's Sundance crop only confirms American indie production is no longer rooted in the blue-state coasts, but goes far beyond the borders of New York and California to...
