In documentaries as in life, there are few things as fascinating as a world in flux. For Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times, director Andrew Rossi followed the staff of the grey lady’s Media Desk from 2009-2010, chronicling an industry and institution in crisis through the eyes of reporters assigned to do the same. Effortlessly and entertainingly, Rossi’s film manages to tell the larger story of rampant newspaper closings and online threats to traditional journalistic models, as well as the moment-by-moment, deadline-by-deadline reality of running the most vital news organization in the world.

Days …

“They told me it would be a down home, laid back event,” juror Barry Jenkins said as he elicited teenage girl-like screams from announcing some of the Short Film awards. The Sundance Film Festival Awards for Best Short Film were just announced at the yearly shorts award party at the, ahem, very striking Jupiter Bowl.
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Park City, UT –The 2011 Sundance Film Festival this evening announced the jury prizes in shorts filmmaking and gave honorable mentions based on outstanding achievement and merit. The awards were presented at a ceremony held in Park City, Utah. These award recipients will also be honored at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony hosted by Sundance Alum Tim Blake Nelson on Saturday, January 29.

From the way Hollywood deals with matters of faith, you’d think it was a closed case. Either belief is passively assumed, an unchallenged fact of existence—think of all those hackneyed, string-scored, skyward-glancing, safely vague happy endings—or it’s something to be feared and vilified. In other words: inspirational treacle or horror.

PARK CITY, UT –Sundance Institute today announced a new program to connect its artists with audiences by offering access to top-tier creative funding and marketing backed by the Institute’s promotional support.  These essential services will act as building blocks for future program components which aim to provide filmmakers access to a broad and open array of third-party digital distribution platforms. Adding to the nonprofit Institute’s acclaimed programs for Screenwriters, Directors, Film Composers, Producers and Theatre artists around the world, the new services were developed based on research and input from filmmakers, industry advisors, its Technology Committee and its Board of Directors, including President Robert Redford.

There’s never been a film quite like Bengali Detective. It has the jack-of-all-eclecticism of a big budget Bollywood musical—part detective story, part underdog yarn, part ensemble city tale—except for one unlikely detail: it’s all real. “It’s always been a dream of mine to make a documentary that could step into genre,” says Phil Cox, a 36-year-old Londoner whose second feature is a long way from the embedded combat reporting that established him as a filmmaker to watch (Cox’s reports from Darfur, broadcast on Channel 4, are credited with alerting the world to the genocide crisis there).

Whenever a movie star moves behind the camera to direct, expectations always seem to be both great and small. A high profile brings an outsized level of interest, but also a suspicion of vanity, that a pretty face is straining to be taken seriously. But then there are the actor’s actors, the kinds of professionals for whom the transition seems completely natural and inevitable.

In the indie film world, you’ll often find talented people having more than one job. When you see Brit Marling on screen, you’ll see a vibrant young actress in a strong role and innovative narrative. But Marling also helped write that story and make the film exist as one of the producers.

Last year’s Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Short Film went to Drunk History: Douglass and Lincoln, the latest chapter in an online comedy series in which famous actors re-enact historical accounts from intoxicated narrators.

While the film’s title will no doubt cause many a pulse to quicken in anticipation of another sensual bloodbath by gorgeous, misunderstood creatures of the night, Vampire is a film that skillfully transcends current sensationalism and the growing public obsession with vampires. At times the film even takes a sideways, humorous look at a cultural phenomenon that is more often laughable than significant, but Vampire is by no means a retelling of the same old story. Set somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, the story focuses immediately on Simon, a nondescript and seemingly ordinary high school teacher who has a penchant for not only drinking human blood, but also aiding in the suicide of willing young women and then taking their essence home in jars.

Motion pictures are significant cultural, historical, and aesthetic artifacts, yet 50% of all films made before 1950 no longer exist, says These Amazing Shadows co-director Paul Mariano. His film documents the National Film Registry’s work to preserve significant films for future generations and highlights the need for such preservation: film reflects and challenges our culture; it binds us together; and it will stand as a critical record to future generations of who we are and how we live. Mariano and his co-director Kurt Norton and Library of Congress film preservationist George Willeman answered questions following the Sundance Film Festival premiere in Park City.

PARK CITY, UT — Sundance Institute and Mahindra today announced the winners of the inaugural Sundance Institute|Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, in recognition and support ofemerging independent filmmakers from around the world. The winning directors and projects are: Bogdan Mustata, WOLF from Romania; Ernesto Contreras, I DREAM IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE from Mexico; Seng Tat Liew, IN WHAT CITY DOES IT LIVE? from Malaysia; and Talya Lavie, ZERO MOTIVATION from Israel. The awards were presented at a private ceremony at the Sundance Film Festival, currently underway in Park City, Utah.

You might recognize Joshua Leonard. “I think of myself as a guy who was lucky enough to make a living as an actor for the last decade – but only as of the last few years have I felt I was any good at it,” Leonard admits. His many roles include two textbook examples of independent cinema – the early benchmark The Blair Witch Project (which screened at the 1999 Festival) and the recent breakout Humpday (which screened at the 2009 Festival).