sundance

Animated album covers

This single serve Tumblr devoted to animated album covers is strangely addictive. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it.

A new financial model for growing coffee in a warming world

The global Fair Trade movement has done a stellar job of highlighting the economic plight of coffee farmers in the developing world, many who barely eke out a living growing one of the world’s most heavily traded commodities. And while Fair Trade has always had an environmental element to it, that may become more pronounced as these farmers become some of the first victims of global climate change.

10,000-page poem published

Who says poetry is dead? Those quarter-pagers in The New Yorker about the smell of winter on a haystack, those aren’t poems. This is a poem: “Poetry City Marathon” by David Morice, who sometimes goes by Dr. Alphabet. Last year Morice wrote a 100-page poem every day for 100 days. Yep, that’s 10,000 pages, and now the University of Iowa (where Morice got his MFA) is publishing it.

Sundance documentaries get no love

An image from Andrew Rossi’s Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times

One thing that has been nagging us as we consider this year’s Sundance, now that we have time to gather a bit of perspective, is this: for all the talk of movie deals; and all the hooplah made over more commercial-minded films like My Idiot Brother, which, though a very good film, and a very fun film, is not by no measure a great film; why was there so little discussion about the documentary entries at the festival? A category, which in our humble estimation, was exceedingly superior to the feature film category.

Social networking leads to Oscar nominations, casual sex

The movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK scored eight Oscar nominations last week, but that’s not the only way in which social networking, lower case, is scoring. According to a poll conducted by Men’s Fitness and Shape magazines (not exactly the ivory towers, we know, but the sex and dating research coming out of there is often just [...]

Cee-Lo in sign language

One of my favorite songs of 2010 was Cee-Lo’s anthem “Fuck You” which I blogged here. Going viral is this video of a student in an American sign language class at her college doing Cee-Lo’s song for her final.

Sundance 2011 = Officially Over

(Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images)

It’s been a long week—exhilarating, grueling, and never, ever dull—but Sundance 2011 is officially over. The stars, the studio executives, and the filmmakers have all packed up their North Face gear and headed home, wherever that may be.

Looking back on the last several days, there were some amazing, quintessentially Sundance-ian moments. We got to meet Robert Redford! We got to talk to young, idealistic, and extremely talented new artists (Brit Marling, Mike Cahill, for instance) whom we will certainly be hearing more from, and who are a reminder of Sundance’s real purpose (beyond an excuse to see a lot of great movies in the middle of a snowy paradise). As Marling told us, just following the premiere of ANOTHER EARTH, “I feel so lucky to be a part of this. Sundance is bringing together all these people and you know, brings them all into this little, this tiny town in the middle of the snow, and everyone can just talk and revel in ideas and make them into realities. It’s pretty awesome.”

A Banner Year for Sundance Film Festival Deals

On the final day of the Sundance Film Festival, the scorecard stands at 30. That’s how many films were picked up for domestic distribution during the festival.

“This is probably the best in the last three years for films that actually sell during the festival,” Arianna Bocco, head of acquisitions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films in New York, told Crain’s New York Business. “It’s clear that it went from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market.”

Sundance Film Festival: Praise for HAPPY, HAPPY

For those who weren’t paying close attention, Anne Sewitsky’s HAPPY, HAPPY may have seemed to come out of nowhere when it collected the World Cinema Jury Prize for a dramatic film at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night. But, in fact, the Norwegian film about love and infidelity had been quietly gathering glowing reviews.

And the winner is… Drake Doremus’ LIKE CRAZY

Director Drake Doremus accepts the Grand Jury Prize: U. S. Dramatic for ‘Like Crazy’ at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Awards Night Ceremony at Basin Recreation Field House on January 29, 2011 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Fred Hayes/Getty Images)

And the winner is… Drake Doremus’ LIKE CRAZY, which was just awarded the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s awards ceremony.

The film arrived at Sundance with tremendous buzz—Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan was particularly laudatory—and went on to be rapturously received. It was quickly picked up for distribution by Paramount Pictures and Indian Paintbrush for $4 million, a sale that kicked off a week-long flurry of deals and acquisitions, the likes of which haven’t been seen in Park City since the 1990’s.

Along the way, there were other films that captured audiences’ hearts—MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE; HIGHER GROUND; THE GUARD—but LIKE CRAZY, which stars up-and-comers Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones as college students in Los Angeles whose romance is interrupted by the INS (Jones plays a Brit who overstays her visa), was a persistent favorite throughout the week, thus its win is not much of a surprise.

Why Didn’t You Hear More About HOW TO DIE IN OREGON?

The Sundance Film Festival jury obviously found much to admire about Peter D. Richardson’s HOW TO DIE IN OREGON, a documentary about physician-assisted suicide in a state where it is legal. After all, it presented the film with the festival’s Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary category on Saturday night. But audiences outside of Park City may not have heard a whole lot about the film.

Director Doug Liman Takes Our Questions

Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam (L) and Director Doug Liman attend the Skoll Closing Dinner at the High West Distillery during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2011 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Filmmaker Doug Liman has tackled tough topics before: His recent film FAIR GAME, inspired by the experiences of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose cover was blown by a White House press leak, looks at the devastating consequences of unchecked political power.

In RECKONING WITH TORTURE: MEMOS AND TESTIMONIES FROM THE ‘WAR ON TERROR,’ the special performance he teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union and PEN American Center, as well as the Sundance Film Festival, to present at this year’s festival, Liman again considers those consequences. In the hectic run-up to the event, he took a few minutes to answer SUNfiltered’s questions via email, sharing his thoughts on torture, secrecy and taking a stand.

Sundance Film Festival Awards: Who Won? What Did They Say?

If you missed the Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony last night, no matter. You can experience it, minute by minute, for the first time or all over again, on the Sundance Film Festival’s blog. Writer Eric Hynes fills you in not only on who won the awards, but who presented them, what award presenters and winners said, and even, in some cases, what they wore.

Sundance Film Festival Trend: Hard Times

As the 2011 Sundance Film Festival heads into its awards ceremony tonight and then, tomorrow, its final day, the festival-film trends are still emerging. The Los Angeles Times’ Steven Zeitchik has spotted another one: economic hardship, which he calls “a veritable through-line” in many of this year’s selections.

Isabelle Fuhrman shines in SALVATION BOULEVARD

Actress Isabelle Fuhrman attends ‘Salvation Boulevard’ Preimiere on January 24, 2011 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Colby D Crossland/Getty Images)

For a number of young ladies, this year’s Sundance was a kind of coming-out party, during which they were declared the latest “It” girls to prance through Park City. Among them: Elizabeth “Lizzie” Olsen, Brit Marling, and now, as the festival begins to wind down, Isabelle Fuhrman, the star of SALVATION BOULEVARD, George Ratliff’s adaptation of Larry Beinhart’s comic novel about a mega-church community. The film, which was just picked up for distribution by IFC Films and Sony Pictures, also stars Pierce Brosnan and Marisa Tomei.

Just 12-years-old, Fuhrman was until now best-known as the haunting face staring down from posters for the 2009 horror film ORPHAN. (You remember: the pale white face; the ribboned pig tails; the death stare.)

Over the past few days in Utah, she’s been understandably a much more happy camper. Sundance Channel caught up with Fuhrman getting ready for the SALVATION BOULEVARD premiere, and she’s been keeping fans up to date on what it’s like to be a tween star at Sundance via Facebook and Twitter.

Put A Egg On It #3

You Gotta See The Tasty Man! from Put A Egg On It on Vimeo. Put A Egg On It, the funny, Brooklyn-based zine about food is launching issue #3 on February 1st. The above commercial captures the oddness and quirkiness of the zine’s makers. The previous two issues have been hits, with issue #2 receiving [...]

Sundance Film Festival Awards!

Park City, UT–The Jury, Audience, NEXT! and other award-winners were announced tonight at the award ceremony for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival which was hosted by Tim Blake Nelson

Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Like Crazy

Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:
How To Die In Oregon

Sundance Film Festival: RECKONING WITH TORTURE

The Sundance Film Festival is defined not only by the movies and parties and deals that so often grab headlines, but also by its social conscience. The festival provides an opportunity for the independent-film community to come together, to harness its power and creativity, to make a difference in the world, often in profound ways.

In that spirit, filmmaker Doug Liman (THE BOURNE IDENTITY, MR. AND MRS. SMITH, FAIR GAME) has teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union and PEN American Center, as well as the Sundance Film Festival, to present a special performance of RECKONING WITH TORTURE: MEMOS AND TESTIMONIES FROM THE ‘WAR ON TERROR.’

Sundance Film Festival: Surveying the Documentaries

Many worthy non-fiction films are vying for attention at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, tackling subjects as wide-ranging as extreme environmentalism (Marshall Curry’s IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT), pre-Web viral culture (Matthew Bate’s SHUT UP LITTLE MAN!: AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE), terminally ill people who legally choose to end their [...]

Backstage with Isabelle Fuhrman before the premiere of SALVATION BOULEVARD

SUNcovered joins actress Isabelle Fuhrman for the premiere of SALVATION BOULEVARD. Want to see more? Check out clips from the festival here. Be sure to satisfy all your festival needs with the latest buzz, top stories, and celebrity interviews from Sundance Channel’s coverage of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons on MARGIN CALL

The cast of MARGIN CALL sits down for an interview at the Honda Power of Dreams Studio, Sundance Channel HQ. Want to see more? Check out clips from the festival here. Be sure to satisfy all your festival needs with the latest buzz, top stories, and celebrity interviews from Sundance Channel’s coverage of the 2011 [...]

Vera Farmiga, Amy Wendel, Tiffany Shlain nominated for Women of Vision Award

L’Oreal awards a female filmmaker for her work. Let’s see who wins! Want to see more? Check out clips from the festival here. Be sure to satisfy all your festival needs with the latest buzz, top stories, and celebrity interviews from Sundance Channel’s coverage of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance Film Festival: The Money Angle

While the majority of Sundance Film Festival observers have likely been focused on the emotional and artistic impact of this year’s festival films, as well as the larger the cultural implications, with brief pauses to note the deals being made, Bloomberg, understandably, is more interested in the money: the films that focus on it and the financing behind them.

Sundance Film Festival Deals: PARIAH

Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to PARIAH, Dee Rees’ coming-of-age film about a lesbian teenager in Brooklyn struggling to find her identity and a sense of belonging, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. (The film was executive produced by Spike Lee.) The deal, reportedly under $1 million, [...]

Meet The Black Spark

I don’t quite know what to make of the Black Spark. His website, and videos (which have gone missing, most likely to reappear on his new site), are creating much buzz in the gay world. He makes films. Beautifully shot, artistic films. That also include graphic sexual scenes. Anal sex. Cum shots. Some nasty stuff. [...]