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5 Reasons Why Michael J. Larnell Chose to Creatively Release ‘Cronies’
Michael J. Larnell’s stark ode to St. Louis is an earnest depiction of a day in the life of three friends as they rove aimlessly through their hometown smoking “squares,” pursuing girls, and testing their luck.
Dispatches from Sundance Institute’s YouTube Creators Intensive
For some reason, staring at the lamp on my desk doesn’t always get me jazzed for a long night of writing. Despite the pleasing geometry of its triangular IKEA frame, it’s always been a rather underwhelming view. It’s a sad reality here in Brooklyn that home offices are crammed with a clutter of things that didn’t make the grade for the rest of your apartment: futons, art that wasn’t quite nice enough to put up in your living room, a corner full of guitars, and a bookshelf that you just gave up on and started stuffing books into horizontally.
A Climate Change Film that Never says “Climate Change”: “Collisions” at the Skoll World Forum
Arriving in Oxford this year with the Sundance Institute delegation had the feeling of a homecoming. I have been lucky to have participated in the Skoll World Forum through their Stories of Change partnership four times, since Maren Grainger-Monsen and I brought the social change makers and stars of our documentary film The Revolutionary Optimists to participate in a panel on youth leadership. Experiencing their meaningful interactions with the Stories of Change community was exciting, and I have been lucky enough to work on film projects now with several Skoll Awardees—GoodWeave, Healthcare Without Harm, and Health Leads among them.
Lynette Walworth on Finding Storytellers for the Stories That Need to Be Told
At this year’s Skoll World Forum, I spoke on a panel about Empathetic Storytelling and the Moral Imagination and referenced Bruegel’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” and the Auden poem “Musee des Beaux Arts’ that is now its companion.
The tiny white legs of Icarus disappearing into the sea are the subject of the work but, off to one side and barely visible, they will pass into the depths unnoticed unless someone calls attention to them. That act of drawing the eye to the urgent unwitnessed is an essential work of many documentary filmmakers.
Slithering Screens: Can Virtual Reality Be a Communal Experience?
In recent years as virtual reality has continued its foray into the creative zeitgeist, any number of interactions with the growing form could feel revolutionary. Whether it’s the real-time coalescence of story and technology, or the heady realization that the medium is still in its nascent stages, VR never lacks one thing: mystique. On Monday night at MoMA’s kick-off to “Slithering Screens,” a five-night retrospective exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of New Frontier at Sundance Institute, that truth was still extant.
20 Films That Remind Us to Protect Our Home
There is a quote that routinely makes the rounds online through inspo posts and Instagrams. It’s attributed to Lily Tomlin on any number of quote-aggregator sites, meaning it almost definitely was never uttered by Lily Tomlin. Reflecting on some unknown injustice, the pithy little line says, “Somebody should definitely do something about that.
Sundance Institute Announces Major New Initiatives for Films on Climate Change and the Environment
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today a new initiative for films and emerging media projects exploring stories related to the urgent need for action with regard to the environment, conservation and climate change. Building on more than three decades of the Institute’s championing of independent stories focused on the environment, these grants to support new projects are led by founding support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and include additional support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kendeda Fund, Discovery Channel, Code Blue Foundation and the Joy Family Foundation.
Robert Redford, President & Founder of Sundance Institute, said, “We want this financial and creative support to stimulate the next wave of independent film and visual storytelling that inspires action on one of the most urgent issues of our time: the long-term, sustainable health of our planet.
Afghan Rapper Sonita Performs “Brides for Sale” at the Skoll World Forum
“I had friends who had bruises on their faces because [they were] fighting to escape child marriage.”
That’s how writer, rapper, and activist Sonita Alizadeh initiated a candid conversation with Tabitha Jackson (Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program) at the 2016 Skoll World Forum Closing Ceremony. Sonita, whose story is the subject of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary of the same name, preceded the conversation with a performance of her song “Brides for Sale.
Sundance Film Festival: London Programme Announced: Picturehouse Central Hosts Films 2 – 5 June 2016
Picturehouse Central, 20 April 2016 — Sundance Institute and Picturehouse announced today the programme of feature films, short films and panel discussions for the Sundance Film Festival: London, taking place 2-5 June at new host venue, Picturehouse Central, in the heart of the West End. Festival passes will be available at sundance.org/london on Thursday 5 May and individual tickets will be on sale from 9:00 a.
Calling All Creators to Apply for the YouTube New Voices Lab
Sundance Institute is seeking applicants for the YouTube New Voices Lab set to take place November 10-12, 2016, at YouTube Space Los Angeles. The Lab is designed to support a group of 10 creators, developing scripted short-form episodic content for digital platforms (up to 25 minutes in length per episode). Click here to apply.
Skoll World Forum: Where Filmmaking Meets Changemaking
On a morning walk from our hotel to the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, you can take a scenic path along the river where a number of rowing teams cut through the water as they train. The primary sport for the pedestrian is to avoid being hit by coaches peddling bikes on the same narrow dirt path, observing and occasionally shouting out words of instruction to their crew in the water. It’s a particularly apt illustration of collaboration and teamwork – the idea of encouraging someone to be just a little bit better, a little bit stronger.
Liberating My Inner Blerd (Black Nerd) at the New Frontier VR Lab
Walking into Youtube Space LA was a return to kindergarten. Brightly colored buildings in the “Silicon Beach” office park welcomed us as we checked in using tablets. “Shouldn’t Google already know where I am, I just used Maps to get here,” I joke to the check-in table, a cover for the intimidation I felt as a filmmaker entering FREAKING GOOGLE, the heart of the tech world.
Sundance Q&A: The Party, The Afterparty, and the Hangover Coalesce in ‘Belgica’
At this year’s Sundance
Film Festival, Belgian director Felix van Groeningen revealed the personal
connection behind the brotherly descent into sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll that
is Belgica. “It’s inspired
by a real bar, which my father started in 1989 and was sold to two brothers in
2000,” he said during the post-screening Q&A. Yet it’s the story of these
brothers, rather than of Van Groeningen’s father, that motivates the film.
Sundance NEXT Fest Lights Up Downtown LA August 12–14
(L-R) Greta Gerwig and Miranda July, Credit: Frazer Harrison; Sundance NEXT FEST Marquee, Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez; Toro y Moi and Neon Indian, Credit: Frazer Harrison.
LOS ANGELES — The Sundance Film Festival sheds its bulky sweaters and mountain parkas to reveal Sundance NEXT FEST, August 12-14 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles.
Master Class Takeaways: A Short Film Is Not a Trailer for a Feature
An unseasonably windy morning blows in Charlotte as an eclectic group of filmmakers enter the Bechtler Modern Art Museum. With a registration list cut off at 375, the Wells Fargo Auditorium inside the Bechtler fills up, and there are folks who have come hoping to fill a vacant seat. Filmmakers are networking prior to the start of the program, greeting each other with hugs and handshakes.