Sundance Channel greenlights THE WRITERS’ ROOM, premiering July 29th
Sundance Channel Greenlights Critically-Acclaimed Original Scripted Drama RECTIFY for a Second Season
RECTIFY: Daniel’s case isn’t double jeopardy
Damien Echols on RECTIFY’s realism
Let’s watch a movie! What are you in the mood for? Asian horror? A big heist? A road movie? What about a quirky indie? You don’t have to make up your mind just yet, since we’ve got a bit of everything for you this week. So, fire up your DVR and decide between Nick Nolte and Michelle Williams. Don’t worry, unlike some of our subjects, you won’t get killed if anybody makes the wrong choice.
We’re only a few days away from the premiere of PUSH GIRLS (Monday, June 4 at 10P, obviously) and the ladies are taking over daytime TV. Angela and Mia stopped by Ellen today to talk about the show and their own experiences with paralysis. Check it out:
What did you do Memorial Day weekend? Oh, you didn’t stay in and watch the BAFTAs on Sunday night? And you don’t know what the BAFTAs are? Well, it’s the annual awards celebration for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (so, it’s like the Emmy Awards). Anyway, on Sunday the cast of the Sundance Channel original drama APPROPRIATE ADULT, the story of British serial killer Fred West and his relationship with his here.
This week on Sundance Channel we’ve got milkshakes, nymphos, drag queens and terror plots. I really wish they were all wrapped up into one, amazing film. But, until I finish that screenplay, we’ve got to make do with four separate movies.
Sundance Channel’s PUSH GIRLS, Angela, Auti, Mia and Tiphany, are four dynamic, outspoken and beautiful women who, by accident or illness, have been paralyzed from the neck or the waist down. But, that doesn’t stop them from living large in Los Angeles. Have you ever stopped and thought about how accessible some of your favorite hangouts are? Would it be a problem to organize drinks at a favorite bar if one member of your crew was rollin’ in PUSH GIRLS style? Well, the ladies are sharing their list of the most accessible and convenient spots for shopping, dining and entertainment for people living with paralysis. Check out their list, which includes national brands as well as their favorite LA hangouts.
It’s no secret that getting, and keeping, a job in this economy takes more than just luck. After enough rejection, it’s easy to feel entirely locked out of the game. Right now there are millions of Americans out of work and this August, Sundance Channel’s original docu-series GET TO WORK will take you behind inside a groundbreaking back-to-work program in San Diego, a hardcore boot camp that gives hope to the chronically unemployed: those who have no jobs, no direction, and seemingly no chance. It’s a high-stakes make-or-break moment and, for most of the students, this is their last crack at a real future. But it doesn’t come easy: as they push their students to learn workplace skills that will land them a job, the Instructors contend with those who have never learned anything other than bad attitudes and bad behavior. Not everyone makes it to graduation.
I’ve got these neighbors who love “cycling holidays”. They go to different parts of Europe and pretty much spend ten days doing their own little Tour de France, or wherever. They love it because they get to see “the real countryside” and stay at little farms and inns while burning off all of the crazy food and wine they consume. Well, guess what. That sounds like real trouble to me, especially after I watched all of this week’s “now playing” contenders. This week, Sundance Channel is taking you to the mountains of old Europe, the bars of Austin, Texas and Tokyo, Japan. Give what you’re about to see, I’m going to stay right here…and maybe plan a trip to Tokyo.
Storytelling has long been used as a tool for recording people’s history and to pass down wisdom from one generation to the next. But for those who aren’t considered part of society’s in-crowd, sharing personal stories takes on an even greater meaning. Telling your story and listening to narratives from ‘others’ like you, can help you feel connected and grounded in the world. It helps to know that people whose lives look like yours, have been here before and survived. Whether we’re aware of it or not, it’s instinctual for us to want the comfort of seeing our experiences reflected back. Reality TV and the web have given individuals’ voices a much wider reach. But the truth is it’s still a privileged few whose stories are chosen to be told. And unfortunately transgender folks rarely make the cut.
This week you’ve got a choice. Do you want your sex served up David Lynch style, erotic shaman style or Michael Fassbender style? And because we love you, you can pick one or take them all. Plus, Claire Danes rocks some Thai prison chic for the 90s fans out there.
Sometimes I worry that we actually break the news here at SUNfiltered. No, it’s not that we’re the first, it’s that we write about things and then start off some sort of weird butterfly effect. Case in point? Just the other day we supplied you with a TRANSGENERATION primer on proper pronoun use and then Rolling Stone drops the story that Against Me! singer Tom Gabel has
Nobody wants to be that person in a social situation. You know, the one who gets their pronouns all wrong? There you are in a room with people identifying as ze, they or hir and it doesn’t even occur to you to ask. You make a few assumptions about peoples’ genders, are met with blank…
Pining for a place to call your own? This week on Sundance Channel we’ve got Steve Martin dying to get home…and Josie Ho killing to get a home. But, it’s not all trials and tribulations of the unanchored. We’ve also got foxy bounty hunters and listless art school students doing what they do best…shooting people and sleeping around!
We’re not sure how you missed it, but TRANSGENERATION was one of the best looks at coming of age as a trans youth in America. Fortunately for all of you who missed the first go-round, TRANSGENERATION is back. We’ll be airing all of the original episodes throughout the May. So get ready to take a deep dive into the lives of four transgender college students as they take control of their identities. Tune in on Tuesdays at 10P.
We’re not going to focus on the negative portrayals of transsexuality, like in PSYCHO, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and the, thankfully cancelled, sitcom Work It. And we’re not focusing on the history of transitioning stories that takes us all the way back to the 1930s when an intersexed, Bohemia-born Zdenka Koubkova went from female running/jumping champion to male cabaret performer. Nor are we going to look at transgender issues in the news, like when the Girls Scouts of Colorado let their first transgender girl into the organization last year or when, two years ago, a federal court ruled in favor of a woman who was fired from her job after coming out as trangender. Nope. In honor of TRANSGENERATION coming back to the Sundance Channel, we’re looking at the top ten positively positive, purely pop-culture gender-bending movies, moments and movers & shakers of the past few decades:
Last week we featured FIGHT CLUB and now Brad Pitt is engaged. What’s going to happen to Dustin Hoffman after we all watch TOOTSIE on Sunday? He needs some good news after they cancelled Luck, so fingers crossed! We’ve also got a Japanese horror classic, a French student prostitution romp and the indie dream combo of Bernal and Williams.
The Sundance Channel original series PUSH GIRLS premieres on June 5th, but you don’t have to wait until then to meet the cast. We’ve got a special sneak peek right here:
Sundance Channel’s original series PUSH GIRLS' star Chelsie Hill, 20, was paralyzed in high school after a car crash caused by drunk driving. She has since made it her mission to share her story with other teenagers to help prevent future tragedies. Find out how Chelsie is fighting to make sure other teens don’t end up in the same situation and check out her story in
Rookie’s Tavi Gevinson took to TedxTeen to find out what happened to complicated (read: interesting) teenage girls on TV. Frankly, they’ve been hard to find since the 90s. The two shows she holds up for the their shining examples of awesomely interesting ladies figuring their teen selves out? FREAKS & GEEKS and MY SO-CALLED LIFE, which you can watch on Sundance Channel.
Thanks, Tavi. I’m sure Angela Chase would have something insightful to say:
It’s worth asking again – who exactly is re-watching TITANIC? Apparently everyone, since it’s currently number 3 at the box office (btw, this centennial thing is getting completely out of hand). It makes perfect sense though; films truly worth re-watching are cult films, and TITANIC has definitely become one of those. As has David Fincher’s anti-establishment opus FIGHT CLUB. The 1999 film achieved cult status and more – it’s become a cultural touchstone of both male buffoonery and thoroughly artful storytelling. A story rife with psychological parables and higher thinking, not to mention some pretty hard-boiled violence, this was definitely a worthy entry in a year that included releases like MAGNOLIA, BEING JOHN MALKOVITCH and AMERICAN BEAUTY.
Yep, Tyler Durden is definitely going to be on our asses… we’ve clearly been breaking the First Two Rules of Fight Club. But without further ado, the Top 10 Reasons to Re-watch FIGHT CLUB are:
I like to do a quick scan of Facebook and Twitter before I go to bed. I just can’t sleep if I think I might be last person to know about some sort of Kardashian disaster, a North Korean look like Rafael Nadal. So you can imagine my horror, and concern, when I saw this tweet from Newark Mayor Cory Booker:
@CoryBooker Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation. We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok
And thanks to BRICK CITY Executive Producer, Politico) on how the mayor is now a full-fledged superhero! When Booker got home last night, he saw smoke and flames pouring out of the building next door. So he ran in (with his security detail, natch) to look for anybody who might be trapped. Since the building’s residents are his neighbors, Booker knew who he was looking for…a woman who lived in the apartment that was on fire
It’s sexy fight time! Need we say more? This week on Sundance Channel we’ve got every college dude’s favorite movie, a look at a look at the sexual phenomenon of “dogging”, and a martial arts spectacular. That’s all sexy and fun, but we also want to keep you grounded, so stick around for a novel approach to documentary storytelling, too.
Everybody knows
TITANIC 3D isn’t the only movie making waves this week (yeah, I said it). Sundance Channel has plenty of wet and wild indie fare you won’t even have to leave home to watch. And while some of it may only be metaphorically oceanic, it’s all pretty deep, man. Make sure to tune in for a killer surf doc and an experiment in improvisation from an indie favorite.
HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW DOCU-SERIES PUSH GIRLS
SET TO PREMIERE TUESDAY, JUNE 5TH ON SUNDANCE CHANNEL
Channel offers a “Sneak Peek” at series on April 17th at 10 pm et/pt
Sundance Channel will offer viewers an unfettered, uncensored glimpse at what it means to be sexy, ambitious and living with paralysis in Hollywood, with the highly anticipated docu-series, PUSH GIRLS, set to premiere on Tuesday, June 5th at 10 PM. The 14-part series traces the lives of four dynamic, outspoken and beautiful women who, by accident or illness, have been paralyzed from the neck or the waist down. From executive producer Gay Rosenthal (Little People, Big World, Ruby), PUSH GIRLS captures the daily challenges and personal triumphs of these women, and will shatter all expectations of what life in a wheelchair can be.
Jim Jarmusch and Steven Soderbergh are here to help you. How? By giving your eyes a break from processing color and entertaining your brain for a bit.