What has been an absence of cinematic dialogue about gun access and violence in the United States was filled with both documentaries and fiction features at Sundance 2016. The Independent’s Maddy Kadish and Neil Kendricks debate the merits and emotional impact of several titles.
Game developer Navid Khonsari and filmmaker Bessie Khonsari join our 10 to Watch list with a genre-merging project, 1979 Revolution, a video game that aims to evoke the empathy of film. Navid and Bessie Khonsari participated in the New Frontier Story Lab at the Sundance Institute in 2014 and 1979 Revolution appeared as an exhibit in Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier and at SXSW in 2015.
Producer Stephanie Langhoff has a dream job working for Mark and Jay Duplass. Her work on The Bronze got her noticed at Sundance – where the film’s much-talked-about sex scene also turned some heads.
Comedian and storyteller, Hasan Minhaj, may be best known as one of the newest correspondents for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but it was his work merging stand-up with storytelling that brought him to our attention. You can read about his latest project, a solo show, Sakoon, and its film adaption, Paint the Town, in 10 to Watch.
Using cameras on mobile phones with some clever adaptations, cinematographer Radium Cheung brought his vast experience and unique sensibilities to Tangerine, the story of a transgendered prostitute in Los Angeles. The result is an eye-popping yet humanistic look at a hard world.
Back in 2011, 10-to-Watch-2013 producer Katie Tibaldi was working on the TV series Are We There Yet when she met…
Mike Luciano and Phil Matarese are on our 10 to Watch list for their series, Animals. Read about their inspiration and how they connected with indie filmmaking powerhouses Mark and Jay Duplass to be the first completed television series to debut at Sundance in hopes of landing a distributor.
Technology always plays a key role in film innovation, featured for the last eight years in Sundance’s New Frontier section. This year, even more than in the past, New Frontier exhibits deployed technology in a way that allowed users to put themselves in the stories.
Staff writer Neil Kendricks assesses the feature-length films that stuck with him at Sundance 2015, including The Bronze, Call Me Lucky, Finders Keepers, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, and Sembene!