The Latest

Scientists and Filmmakers Meet to Discuss Obsolescence and Sustainability at the Sundance Film Festival
The group of scientists and filmmakers speaking at the Discovery Panel at Filmmaker Lodge seemed to want to discuss nothing but dinosaurs. Metaphorically speaking, and otherwise.Moderator Joe Palca of NPR led the discussion with Harvard physics professor Peter Galison, paleontologist Paul Sereno, filmmaker Braden King, neuroscientist Darcy Kelley, and filmmaker Diane Bell, whose film Obselidia was the winner of the Alfred P.

Manifestos of Outrage: Louis C.K. and Gaspar Noe Arrive at Sundance Film Festival’s Cinema Cafe
Gaspar Noe. Louis C.K.

Take 3 of Is There a Doctor in the House?
This is a continuation of wrap-up notes from the mega-panel known as “Is There a Doctor in the House?” Moderated by Eugene Hernandez, indieWIRE Editor-in-Chief; and Peter Broderick, head of Paradigm Consulting and sage in the new distribution landscape, the panel was split into four different sections with different panelists. You can find Take 1 here and Take 2 here. This third group included Richard Abramowitz from Anvil! The Story of Anvil; Sandi Dubowski, director of Trembling Before God; Chris Hyams, founder and CEO of B-Side; Tim League, founder of the Alamo Drafthouse and Cora Olson, producer of Good Dick.

Q&A: Kick In Iran
Part intimate profile of two determined women, part revealing glimpse into life in Iran, and part pulse-pounding sports film, Kick In Iran follows 20-year-old Taekwondo sensation Sara Khoshjamal-Fekri and her trainer Maryam Azarmehr as they train and fight for Olympic gold. Documentarian Fatima Geza Abdollahyan shoots these two fascinating women in their homes, in gender-segregated gyms, at prayer and play, and finally to the Olympic games in Beijing. Even though Iranian women are still discouraged from high-impact athletics, Sara’s success becomes its own agent for change.

David Michod’s ‘Animal Kingdom’ Puts the Family in Crime
The final days of the Sundance Film Festival see packed, final screenings of the more talked-about films. For David Michôd, director of Animal Kingdom, it was a bittersweet moment. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the response,” he said.

Listening to the Story: A Peek Inside Sundance Institute’s Composers Lab
Regardless of the size and type of a film, music plays a crucial role in setting its tone. Whatever plays over the speakers alongside the image, actors, and script, is going to alter how the audience perceives the movie.The trick is enhancing the goals of the film, accompanying what the other aspects of the film are doing, while leaving room for the movie itself.

From the Archives: Digging into Michael Winterbottom’s ‘Shock Doctrine’
To cap off Sundance Film Festival U.S.A.

A Chat with Russell Banks, the Screenwriter Behind ‘Affliction’ and ‘The Sweet Hereafter’
Novelist Russell Banks has been publishing books for nearly 40 years, but in terms of film he’s still something of a newcomer. In 1997, when he was well into his 50s and long suspicious of the business of movies, two of cinema’s most renowned auteurs, Paul Schrader and Atom Egoyan, involved him in the process of adapting his novels Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, respectively. Both films were critically acclaimed, and Banks has remained active within the world of independent film ever since.

How NEXT Began at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
The Filmmaker Lodge was packed with people—and possibilities—as all nine filmmakers from this year’s inaugural NEXT section gathered together for the first time. With Sundance Film Festival’s newly minted Festival director, John Cooper moderating, the conversation was lively, insightful, and frequently silly.Cooper began by explaining the genesis of NEXT, citing the need to “carve out” a protected space in the Festival program for the burgeoning low- and no-budget filmmaking scene.

The Hilarity of Louis C.K.: Hilarious
I was a tad perplexed when I learned that Louis C.K., one of my favorite comics no one knows about, was premiering his standup film Louis C.

2010 Sundance / NHK International Filmmakers Award Winners Announced
Los Angeles, CA (Park City, UT) – Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) today announced the winners of the 2010 Sundance / NHK International Filmmakers Awards. The four winners were selected from 12 finalists by members of an International Jury which included: Violeta Bava, John Carney, Michael Lehmann, Rebecca Miller, Jose Rivera, Elena Soarez, Pablo Stoll and Wesley Strick; and a Japanese Jury that included Masato Harada, Shin-ichi Kobayashi and Bong-Ou Lee.
Originally created to celebrate 100 years of Cinema, the annual award recognizes and supports four visionary filmmakers from Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Japan on their next films.

Seen at Sundance: Sam Taylor-Wood Talks ‘Nowhere Boy,’ Her John Lennon Biopic
A breathless Sam Taylor-Wood almost passed out from excitement at the premiere of her film Nowhere Boy. The biopic of John Lennon’s early, tumultuous life features an uncanny performance by Aaron Johnson, who worked long hours to get Lennon’s signature accent.Taylor-Wood understood early on that the pic would be in the firing line of Lennon worshipers, so research was crucial.

Q&A: Director Chris Morris on ‘Four Lions’
Four Lions, the hotly anticipated debut film by British satirist Chris Morris, courts controversy and laughter in equal measure. But what’s most shocking about this madcap comedy about a group of hapless wannabe suicide bombers is how warm-hearted it is. Pitched somewhere between the Three Stooges and The Office, Four Lions follows four British-born jihadists as they bumble and scheme their way to a potentially violent, and inevitably foolish, end.

Collaborative Vision: Composers on the Power of Music in Film
It would be cliché to list all the films that have been transformed by their scores. You know the ones I mean: Jaws, Indiana Jones, Flash Gordon. BMI’s Sundance Film Festival roundtable discussion “Music and Film: The Creative Process” recognized the importance of a score to the film, and ingeniously brought together not just random composers and directors, but the composer-director pairs who had worked on many of this year’s Festival films.

Talkin’ Bout My Education
Even if you attended all 10 days of the 2010 Festival, 186 movies (even if 73 of them are shorts) is a lot of movies, and that doesn’t include everything else the Festival and Park City offer: the panels, the trippy, immersive New Frontier on Main installations, the parties, and the snow begging you to frolic in it. There’s a way to not let the Festival’s wealth of culture overwhelm you, though: it’s entirely possible to make your own mini festival from the Festival at large. In a film festival that surrounds you with many ways to experience what’s going on in the world beyond just attending movie screenings, it’s easy to pick a topic and follow its thread throughout the Festival.