NEXT FEST is officially going down next weekend, August 12-14 (fun fact: Next Weekend was the name of the first iteration of NEXT FEST back in 2013). We’ve got the original Queen of Bounce (and twerk), a sonically indefinable talent in Shamir, a slate of indie films direct from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and a Pokémon Go gym. OK, not that last part.

Los Angeles, CA — Three music videos, a full slate of VR experiences, a youth talent show and more join the lineup for Sundance NEXT FEST, alongside short film screenings hosted by Nick Kroll, music acts including “Queen of Bounce” Big Freedia, and the Los Angeles premieres of some of the most talked-about films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Sundance NEXT FEST takes place August 12-14 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. More info and tickets ($15-25) at sundance.

The music video for Mark Pritchard’s “Beautiful People,” a buoyant and elegiac record featuring vocals by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke – though you’d hardly know it – will make its world premiere at Sundance NEXT FEST, taking place August 12-14. The video will precede the Los Angeles premiere of Under the Shadow on Sunday, August 14, in the 4 p.m.

Big Freedia lets out a teasing chuckle while revisiting how she reminded the world of the real queen of Bounce, a New Orleans-bred musical style know for its frenetic bass beats, call-and-response lyrics, and twerking. “It felt really good once I took my crown back and I’m happy about how things are going in my life and in my career,” she says with a hint of mockery. There’s a sense that the crown is less proverbial than it is real, and the unapologetic confidence that Big Freedia possesses would suggest that she quite literally plucked it from the head of Miley Cyrus when the latter became the unofficial – and according to Freedia, unqualified – ambassador of twerking a few years back.

Creative Producing Summit 2015
Credit: Jonathan Hickerson

Creative Producing Summit 2015
Credit: Brandon Cruz

Creative Producing Summit 2015
Credit: Jonathan Hickerson

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the participants for its weeklong Creative Film Producing
Initiative
at the Sundance Resort in Utah, August 1-8, including eleven feature film and documentary projects for the
Creative Producing Labs, and more than 50 industry leaders for the Creative Producing Summit. The
Institute’s Creative Producing Initiative encompasses a year-round series of Labs, Fellowships, granting and events focusing on
nurturing the next generation of independent producers and renewing the community of veteran producers who sustain the vibrancy and
vitality of independent film.

The Creative Producing Labs for Feature Film and Documentary will take place concurrently this year (August 1-5), with an added tailored
track for two producers outside of the Lab Fellowship.

It’s a tall order to merely get past the title of White Girl, Elizabeth Wood’s tenacious directorial debut, without detecting hints of—or being smacked in the face by—the film’s controversy. White Girl. Is it a drug reference? A bold commentary on race and privilege? A reach for provocation? Perhaps all three, but not without leading viewers on an unflinching exploration of race, socio-economic class, and drug culture, filtered through the blurred lens of a part-sympathetic, part-maddening young woman played by the fresh-faced Morgan Saylor.

New York, NY — Six theatre directors will participate in the fourth Sundance Institute | LUMA Foundation Theatre Directors Retreat in Arles, France, July 18 through July 31. The Retreat is part of the Institute’s year-round work with the theatre community and is one of 24 residency Labs the Institute hosts each year for independent artists in theatre, film, new media and episodic content.

Under the supervision of Theatre Program Artistic Director Philip Himberg, Producing Director Christopher Hibma and Program Associate Anne Kauffman, the Retreat is the only theatre director-centered residency of its kind.

The Stories of Change Convening at the Skoll World Forum in April brought seven Sundance Institute Storytelling Fellows together with Skoll Awarded Social Entrepreneurs to explore storytelling potential. Here are some post-Forum reflections on story and change from our Fellows.
On the relationship between change and stories filmmaker Jerry Rothwell asks, “How do we square the visionary idealism required to imagine a better world, with the pragmatic politics that might take us there? What’s the relationship between demanding change (campaigning, protesting, speaking out) and making change (through community action, government, political parties)? How does a movement relate to the organizations it gives birth to? And what part do stories and images play in this process?”
Rothwell points out the kinds of stories that inspire change.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today its return to Cuba with film screenings and filmmaker discussions open to the public as part of Sundance Film Forward, July 14-16. Local artists, students, and film lovers are invited to attend public events at venues across Havana, including Cine Yara and Casa del Festival.

Sundance Film Forward will host free screenings of acclaimed independent films Me and Earl and the Dying Girl with novelist/screenwriter Jesse Andrews and Meru with director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

Riley Keough and Jena Malone in Lovesongcourtesy Sundance Institute

Sundance NEXT FEST marqueecredit: Alberto E. Rodriguez

Shamircredit: Matthew Parri Thomas

Los Angeles, CA — The snow-packed gems of the Sundance Film Festival will thaw in the summer heat of downtown LA with Sundance NEXT FEST, August 12-14 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. The program, announced today, features some of the most talented new film and music artists on the verge of breaking out.