Category: Special Edition

There is hardly an element of thrift associated with today’s moviegoing—I mean, really, who isn’t clandestinely stashing Sno-Caps and licorice to save a bill or two at the theater? But as with most things, a little extra work can often yield important savings. At the Sundance Film Festival, there are plenty of ways to preserve frugality while still getting to see everything on your festival checklist.
If you’re a Utah local, the Townie Tuesday and Best of Fest screenings are free programs and an unprecedented benefit—not to mention a hearty thank-you to the state of Utah for offering its home every year.

Navigating the world of ticketing at the Sundance Film Festival can seem a daunting emprise. Fortunately, Sundance’s own expert in the field, Linda Pfafflin, knows the ins and outs better than anyone, and for the last few years, she’s made herself a resource for audiences looking for seats. Below, she shares some of the lesser-known avenues into the films you’d never thought you had a chance at seeing—and those you’d never thought to try.

The holidays seem to invariably arrive wrapped in complaints — about premature decor, about delayed shipping, about… family. That last one we hope to preempt this Thanksgiving, if only by way of the old “it could be worse” adage. Dysfunctional families have long made for well-trodden material among indie filmmakers, but these 5 recent Sundance Film Festival selections feature families (I use that term loosely) that straddle everything from the bizarre to the macabre to the downright depressing.

There seems to be a faction of horror flick aficionados who loathe anything less than gratuitous violence in their films. A caveat for those fans: while this list may not be for you, our prior years’ Haunted Collections do pander to your macabre desires—check them out here and here. For Halloween this year, we’ve culled our selections strictly from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, which featured a dynamic group of what we’ll call “horror-adjacent” films across various program categories—Competition, Spotlight, and of course the Midnight Section.

Something about the notion of Labor Day has always seemed archaic to me. Then again, the guy who questions a day off is no better than the seventh grader who reminds the teacher that homework hasn’t been collected—exactly 10 seconds before the bell rings. Thank you, young comrade.

Among the niche genres of filmmaking, documentary shorts’ unheralded treasure trove of filmmaking is as well stocked as any. It’s also fertile terrain for this year’s edition of Shorts Lab L.A.

“These works are like our children,” says Steve James, surely echoing the sentiment of any filmmaker who’s toiled over their art. “We put so much of ourselves into them, it’s unfathomable to contemplate that they might disappear and be forgotten.” Yet somehow, the prospect still remains that independent films with invaluable cultural or social significance become lost or damaged.

Each June for the past few years, we’ve spent some time looking back on the LGBT characters we know and love (see here and here and the 13 million Google results for ‘Sundance gay’) in celebration of LGBT Pride Month. But what about our heterosexual allies and friends, many of whom have helped us get where we are today? In their honor and as a nod to the heterosexual characters who have entertained us on screen, here’s a list of five gay-friendly films that don’t actually have any LGBT content. Heathers (1989)High school is a complicated time for everybody (hang in there, kids – it really does get better), but for those of us who are LGBT, it can be especially difficult as we start to figure ourselves out.

In an era of incessant dispute concerning the Earth’s environment, one thing remains indisputable about our planet: It is the only one we have. Upon Googling “global warming,” even the first search result cannot evade controversy. According to Wikipedia, “Global warming refers to an unequivocal and continuing rise in the average temperature of Earth’s climate system.

To say it in 2014 is to almost belabor the point, but here it goes: Long gone are the days of documentary film as didactic, linear storytelling. No, that’s not to say that those docs on VHS stuffed into your high school curriculum weren’t properly edifying or even at times engaging, but the documentary format today is a place that refuses to comply with categorization. On April Fools’ Day, rather than trying to dupe or deceive, we’ll let these five documentaries make the case that the well-worn maxim “the truth is stranger than fiction” is, well…true.

Allow us to refresh you. Memento made its U.S.

❤️ Enough with the cloying tendencies of Valentine’s Day. Surely there are plenty of lonely souls out there whose emotional vacancies are waiting to be filled by film. Rather than pander to the happy couples on a holiday that caters to them, we’re choosing our favorite jilted lovers from Sundance films to offer you some company this Valentine’s Day—even if that means fictional company.