3 Sundance Filmmakers Contributing to the Dialogue Around Police Violence

Freedom Summer and Fruitvale Station

Nate von Zumwalt

As the national dialogue surrounding police violence continues unabated following two Grand Jury decisions to not indict officers in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, we turn to film to reflect on how we’ve arrived at the present climate. These three Sundance Institute alumni have already added their voices to the ever-growing conversation about the indelible connection between police brutality and race in America. We hope they will help illuminate the issues at hand in a time of grief and confusion.

Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station recalls the last night in the life of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who was shot dead by BART officers at the Fruitvale stop on New Year’s Day in 2009.  The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Watch it on iTunes.

Stanley Nelson’s Freedom Summer

Freedom Summer hearkens back to the civil rights movement in 1964 when, despite the best efforts of local civil rights activists, Mississippi remained committed to segregation. Nelson’s 2014 Sundance Film Festival selection captures the volatile months of that summer. Watch it on iTunes

Terrence Nance’s #BlackoutBlackFriday Films

Terrence Nance, whose stunning New Frontier film An Oversimplification of Her Beauty screened in the New Frontier section of the 2012 Festival, shares a pair of emotionally disparate shorts with a single resounding message: police brutality is real. The films were released the week of Thanksgiving with the group Blackout for Human Rights, a network that commits their resources to address the violation of human rights against Americans. Watch the films below.

 

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From the Archives: Revisit Robert Redford’s Words of Wisdom

To much of the world Robert Redford is Roy Hobbs, Bill McKay, Jeremiah Johnson, or invariably, The Sundance Kid. He is an artist, an activist, and a creative leader. But Robert Redford also inhabits another world, one where he’s known simply as “Bob.

From the Archives: Sundance Institute Founder Robert Redford on Why He’s Always Believed in the Power of Documentary Filmmaking

The Sundance Film Festival’s longstanding commitment to documentary has been driven by the personal connection founder and president Robert Redford feels for the form. Leading up to the premiere of Chicago 10, the second doc to ever open the Festival, we talked to Redford about the past, present, and possible future of documentaries.You made an early commitment to documentary.

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