It’s time once again to journey to the mountaintop for the Sundance Film Festival! Sundance 2020 kicks off January 23, and SAGindie will be there hosting and attending events, watching movies, and shivering. If you want to track our exploits, you can do so on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but if you’re more interested in what films we plan to see while in Park City, we’ve got a handy list for you below!
——
Darrien’s Picks:
Here are the films that I am most looking forward to:
BAD HAIR
(Midnight, Directed by Justin Simien. When an ambitious young woman is pressured into getting a weave in order to succeed in 1989’s image-obsessed world of music television, her career flourishes, though it comes at a cost much greater than money.)
ZOLA – Can’t wait to see how this story is told
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Janicza Bravo. 2015: @zolarmoon tweets “wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” Two girls bond over their “hoeism” and become fast friends. What’s supposed to be a trip from Detroit to Florida turns into a weekend from hell.)
DOWNHILL – Because I missed the original
(Premieres, Directed by Nat Faxon & Jim Rash. Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps, a married couple is thrown into disarray as they are forced to re-evaluate their lives and how they feel about each other.)
RUN SWEETHEART RUN
(Midnight, Directed by Shana Feste. A blind date turns violent and the woman has to get home through Los Angeles, with her date in pursuit.)
SYLVIE’S LOVE – I try to see something with Tessa Thompson in it every year. She’s that good.
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Eugene Ashe. Years after their summer romance comes to an end, an aspiring television producer and a talented musician cross paths, only to find their feelings for each other never changed. With their careers taking them in different directions, they must choose what matters most.)
Eliza’s Picks:
BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS – Number one with a bullet
(U.S. Documentary Competition, Directed by Bill Ross & Turner Ross. In the shadows of the bright lights of Las Vegas, it’s last call for a beloved dive bar known as the Roaring 20s. A document of real people in an unreal situation facing an uncertain future: America at the end of 2016.)
ZOLA
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Janicza Bravo. 2015: @zolarmoon tweets “wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” Two girls bond over their “hoeism” and become fast friends. What’s supposed to be a trip from Detroit to Florida turns into a weekend from hell.)
OMNIBOAT: A FAST BOAT FANTASIA
(NEXT, Directed by The Daniels, Hannah Fidell, Alexa Lim Haas, Lucas Leyva, Olivia Lloyd, Jillian Mayer, The Meza Brothers, Terence Nance, Brett Potter, Dylan Redford, Xander Robin, Julian Yuri Rodriguez, Celia Rowlson-Hall. It’s not just a speedboat ride, it’s a Miami adventure.)
THE MOLE AGENT
(World Cinema Documentary Competition, Directed by Maite Alberdi. When a family becomes concerned about their mother’s well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83-year-old man who becomes a new resident—and a mole inside the home. Sergio struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents.)
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
(U.S. Documentary Competition, Directed by Kirsten Johnson. With this inventive portrait, a cameraperson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, they confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.)
Colin’s Picks:
SAVE YOURSELVES!
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson. A young Brooklyn couple heads upstate to disconnect from their phones and reconnect with themselves. Cut off from their devices, they miss the news that the planet is under attack.)
ZOLA
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Janicza Bravo. 2015: @zolarmoon tweets “wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” Two girls bond over their “hoeism” and become fast friends. What’s supposed to be a trip from Detroit to Florida turns into a weekend from hell.)
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
(Premieres, Directed by Emerald Fennell. Everyone said Cassie was a promising young woman… until something abruptly derailed her future. Nothing in Cassie’s life is as it appears: She’s smart, cunning, and living a double life by night. Now, Cassie has a chance to right the wrongs of the past in this thrilling take on revenge.)
THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF
(World Cinema Documentary Competition, Directed by Benjamin Ree. An artist befriends the drug addict and thief who stole her paintings. She becomes his closest ally when he is severely hurt in a car crash and needs full-time care, even though her paintings are not found. But then the tables turn.)
PALM SPRINGS
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Max Barbakow. When carefree Nyles and reluctant maid of honor Sarah have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated the next morning when they find themselves unable to escape the venue, themselves, or each other.)
DINNER IN AMERICA
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Adam Rehmeier. An on-the-lam punk rocker and a young woman obsessed with his band go on an unexpected and epic journey together through the decaying suburbs of the American Midwest.)
Shefali’s Picks:
Story-wise, I’m most intrigued by…
- THE 40-YEAR-OLD VERSION
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Radha Blank. A down-on-her-luck New York playwright decides to reinvent herself and salvage her artistic voice the only way she knows how: By becoming a rapper at age 40.) - ZOLA
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Janicza Bravo. 2015: @zolarmoon tweets “wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” Two girls bond over their “hoeism” and become fast friends. What’s supposed to be a trip from Detroit to Florida turns into a weekend from hell.)
For acting, I can’t wait to see…
- MINARI – with Steven Yuen
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Lee Isaac Chung. David, a seven-year-old Korean American boy, gets his life turned upside down when his father decides to move their family to rural Arkansas and start a farm in the mid-1980s, in this charming and unexpected take on the American Dream.) - NINE DAYS – with Winston Duke and Zazie Beetz
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Edson Oda. In a house distant from the reality we know, a reclusive man interviews prospective candidates– personifications of human souls — for the privilege that he once had: To be born.)
The descriptions don’t give too much away, but these seem like they could be really fun and different…
- SPREE
(NEXT, Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko. Kurt Kunkle, a rideshare driver thirsty for followers, has figured out a deadly plan to go viral. As his disturbing livestream is absurdly embraced by the social media hellscape, a comedienne emerges as the only hope to stop this rampage.) - SAVE YOURSELVES!
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson. A young Brooklyn couple heads upstate to disconnect from their phones and reconnect with themselves. Cut off from their devices, they miss the news that the planet is under attack.)
Carlos López Estrada’s new film also seems like it will bring together a diverse group of different voices and stories…
- SUMMERTIME
(NEXT, Directed by Carlos López Estrada. In the heat of the summer, the lives of 25 strangers collide. A love letter to Los Angeles written and performed by a collective of young spoken-word poets.)
I’m pretty excited to see Josephine Decker’s new film and expect to see more of her visionary directing and cinematography like her last film Madeline’s Madeline, which I really enjoyed…
- SHIRLEY
(U.S. Dramatic Competition, Directed by Josephine Decker. A young couple moves in with famed author Shirley Jackson and her Bennington College professor husband, Stanley Hyman, in the hope of starting a new life but instead find themselves fodder for a psychodrama that inspires Shirley’s next novel.)
WILL WE SEE YOU AT SUNDANCE THIS YEAR? LET US KNOW WHAT MOVIES YOU’RE EXCITED FOR!
——
If you’re an independent filmmaker or know of an independent film-related topic we should write about, email blogadmin@sagindie.org for consideration.
