The Latest
Sundance NEXT FEST adds Special Guests, Music Video World Premieres and Virtual Reality Flight Simulator
Los Angeles, CA — A tidal wave of new ideas washes ashore for Sundance NEXT FEST at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles this weekend, including newly added special guests, three world premiere music videos and a full-body, mind-blowing virtual reality flight simulator, Birdly. Sundance NEXT FEST, August 7-9, is a weekend celebration of the renegade spirit of independent artists, featuring what’s new and next in film and music. Tickets ($15-25) are on sale now at sundance.
‘Marwencol’ Director Jeff Malmberg Shares His Sundance Lab Experience
Arriving at the Sundance Institute Documentary Edit & Story Lab as an advisor on my first day, fellow advisor and editor Kate Amend greeted me with a hearty, “Welcome to paradise.” She said it in a way that seemed to reference more than just the beautiful surroundings. I didn’t know exactly what she was alluding to, but I had heard this kind of thing many times before.
Jason Segel Enlisted Book Club Buds to Channel David Foster Wallace in ‘The End of the Tour’
Judging from conversations and Twitter activity in the moments before the world premiere screening of The End of the Tour at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, there was as much trepidation as there was excitement about the prospect of the life of the late, great author David Foster Wallace being dramatized on film. Yet even though the film, and actor Jason Segel in particular, made great pains to evoke Wallace’s singular way of talking, thinking, and being, it turned out that The End of the Tour is far from a biopic—it documents just a few days at the end of the author’s press tour for Infinite Jest—and rather uses writer David Lipsky’s best-selling account of his time reporting an ultimately unpublished profile of Wallace for Rolling Stone as a jumping off point for a rumination on fame, American manhood, and loneliness, among many other things. It’s also, despite a bigger budget and stars like Segel, Jesse Eisenberg, and Joan Cusack, very much a deeply felt James Ponsoldt (Smashed, The Spectacular Now) film.
5 Questions With Television Editor Erica Freed Marker
Erica Freed Marker is the recipient of the 2015 Sally Menke Memorial Editing Fellowship. The fellowship honors the memory of the beloved Sundance Institute mentor and prolific editor Sally Menke by supporting an emerging narrative editor’s understanding of craft, expanding their artistic community, and providing momentum to their editing career through participation in the Directors Lab and year-round mentorship from several accomplished editors. This year, Marker will work closely with Dylan Tichenor (co-editor, Zero Dark Thirty, The Town, There Will be Blood) and two other editing mentors.
Six Directors Selected for Sundance Institute | LUMA Foundation
New York, NY — Six theatre directors will participate in the third Sundance Institute | LUMA Foundation Theatre Directors Retreat in Arles, France, July 31 through August 12. 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.
On “Being Real”: 5 Reasons You Can’t Miss ‘Cronies’ at NEXT FEST
There is a millennial-borne obsession with “being real” that deserves to be checked, and Cronies is the perfect film to do the checking. Michael J. Larnell’s stark ode to St.
In a Summer of Blockbusters, Don’t Forget the Indies
If you’ve been to the movies this summer, you’ve probably had a lot of fun watching dinosaurs behave badly, deadly robots travel through time or the earthquake-induced, computer-generated destruction of California. These films and other blockbusters have a place in our culture, but don’t miss checking out what is in many ways a banner season for risk-taking and refreshing independent movies.
Some of my favorite new independent films are in theaters now or opening soon.
‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ Pushes Ezra Miller to the Brink
Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez may not be the second coming of Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the groundbreaking psychologist at the helm of the Stanford Prison Experiment, but that doesn’t preclude his new film from channeling the same chilling tenor as those controversial events.
One could speculate that every film screening is an “experiment” of sorts, as a number of audience members intimated during The Stanford Prison Experiment’s Q&A session at the film’s Sundance premiere, but Alvarez is loath to concede that his film manipulates with the same scheming tendencies as the experiment itself.
Sundance Institute Selects Projects and Panelists for Creative Film Producing Labs and Summit, July 27 – August 3
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the participants for its weeklong Creative Film Producing Initiative at the Sundance Resort in Utah, July 27 – August 3, including nine 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 Feature Film Creative Producing Lab (July 27 – July 31) identifies emerging producers and, under the guidance of Creative Advisors, allows them to develop their creative instincts and evolve their communicating and problem-solving skills at all stages of their feature film project.
Sundance Institute Selects Two Projects for Native Filmmakers Lab
Park City, UT — Razelle Benally (Navajo/Oglala Lakota) and Randi LeClair (Pawnee) have been selected for the Sundance Institute Native Filmmakers Lab, where the two writers will receive grants for production and targeted support during a residential Lab to prepare for production of their short films. The Lab takes place in Santa Fe, New Mexico July 10-14. The Lab is a highlight of the Institute’s year-round work with Native American and Indigenous filmmakers and is one of the 24 residential labs the Institute hosts each year to discover and foster the talent of emerging independent artists in film, theatre, new media and episodic content.
16 Social Media Tips For Indie Filmmakers
Earlier this summer, Sundance Institute and the Austin Film Society presented our second annual #ArtistServices workshop in Texas. Aimed at empowering creators navigating the changing business of distribution and marketing, the day-long event featured one session focused on the back-end management of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, and posed the question, “How do indie artists harness and navigate the shifting landscape while balancing their time and creative energy?” Here are a few of the takeaways we hope might help you.
1) Honor The Platform
“Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Sundance Institute Selects Acting Company and Creative Advisors for 2015 Theatre Lab at Sundance Mountain Resort
New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the acting company and creative advisors that are participating in its 2015 Theatre Lab, which kicked off yesterday and runs through July 26 at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece 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.
The Theatre Lab supports both emerging and established theatre-makers developing new work for the stage, with a focus on assuring that the playwright’s deepest impulses and visions can be realized.
Vassiliki Khonsari on Musing Mysteries at the New Frontier Story Lab
Amidst the dramatic drops and amber foliage of Utah’s natural offerings, the Sundance mountain stands proud, a modern day Mount Olympus where good things happen. It is here that the muses of contemporary storytelling orchestrate a transformative experience. Advisors, staff and peers—one more brilliant, generous and different than the other—are at your humble disposal over the course of those five days, both in mind and in space.
What To Watch In July: ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment,’ ‘Cartel Land,’ and more
A perilous journey into the world of drug cartels, a simulated prison experiment that reduces Ezra Miller to a weeping boy, and a Christmas Eve spent with transgender prostitutes in Los Angeles. Yeah, July has something for everyone.
Those three Sundance favorites—Cartel Land, The Stanford Prison Experiment, and Tangerine, respectively—headline a slate that further catapults us into summer moviegoing season.
Sundance Institute and Kaufman Music Center Bring Carol Burnett’s Play Hollywood Arms Back Onstage After 15 Years for One Night Only, September 21
New York, NY — Sundance Institute in collaboration with Kaufman Music Center will present An Anniversary Concert Reading of Hollywood Arms at Merkin Concert Hall September 21. Carol Burnett and Philip Himberg, Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, will introduce the special concert reading of the Broadway production of Burnett’s autobiographical play, Hollywood Arms, written with her daughter Carrie Hamilton. The reading is directed by Sundance alum, Mark Brokaw, the recipient of Drama Desk, Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards, and stars Michele Pawk (Hairspray, Cabaret, Mamma Mia!) in her Tony-winning role as well as Tyne Daly, Emily Skeggs, Sydney Lucas and others to be announced.