Sundance Film Festival Podcasts

There is a war raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A war of which the vast majority of us are unaware. A war on women. Everyday, women from all over the country are brutally raped, sometimes by many assailants at a time, by soldiers from within and without the country. Whether these women are mutilated by the brutality or forced to raise children by themselves after being shunned by their family and village, they still must deal with the atrocities alone. Though this has been going on for decades, very few of us have ever heard about it. Until now. Lisa F. Jackson, a survivor of rape herself, uses her documentary The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, to bring a voice to the women in Congo who have so far been unable to reach the eyes and ears of the global community. Zoom In Online’s Jim Rohner talked to Lisa during the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival where she shared her thoughts on documenting the horrible stories of these women and the inexplicable hope and inspiration that still lives deep within them. For more information, visit www.thegreatestsilence.org.

In 2007, Hollywood chose to stop production over unresolved new-media revenue issues. Instead, we at the Sundance Film Festival look forward to dealing with this new challenge. How do we quantify the distribution models? How do we share? Join industry and indie prognosticators as we examine subscription models, targeted, advertising, revenue sharing, and other emerging business strategies. Moderated by Scott Kirsner of Variety.

With such distinctive voices and interests, the film work from the Middle East this year reinforces the sense of a vibrant cultural plurality. In combating reductive representations and articulating complex political, religious, and social issues, these filmmakers speak as many voices. Whether exploring Islam or expressing personal stories, each film holds transformative power.

Do critics still matter? Maybe the better question is, what factors contribute to their perceived relevance? What have blogging and "critic-proof" marketing changed? Do they still have the power to help films? And forgetting the box office for two seconds, what about the culture where films are received? So do critics still matter? Ask them.

As the zone between making short films and reaching an audience gets more explosive, new companies and technologies are changing the landscape daily. Sundance has stepped into the void to help get the power and profit into the hands of the filmmakers. Come meet the folks and filmmakers who manage the Sundance shorts deal (iTunes/Netflix/Xbox). Moderated by Sundance's own John Turner.

Nobody calls you when it's good news. The financing fell through, the tax incentive fell through, an actor fell through, a tree fell through (the roof). It's raining. The D.P. needs this thing...from NASA. Producing is tough, and the cap you wear is generally of a problem-solving variety. In this panel, a group of seasoned producers bring a range of problems to the table and share their solutions.

Human rights and documentary are joining forces to powerful effect. Hear from experts working globally about the growing use of filmic storytelling in human-rights work. Panelists include Paul van Zyl (International Center for Transitional Justice), Gillian Caldwell (1Sky Alliance), and Oren Yacobovitch (B’tselem).

The myriad of distribution opportunities facing today’s filmmakers make for a landscape of both opportunity and confusion. How can you maximize your digital rights potential? Where are the best revenue opportunities? Join buyers, sellers, and filmmakers to discuss rights, royalties, and windows in the wild world of digital distribution today. Moderated by Meyer Shwarzstein, CEO of Brainstorm Media.

Which crises demand our attention? It falls to journalists and filmmakers to help us understand. But how do they do that? And how should we respond? Disasters demand solutions. With survival at stake, are you willing to engage? Panelists Naomi Klein, Peter Galison, Tia Lessin, Patrick Creadon, and others discuss the next bad thing and what to do to head it off.

The African-American experience is the subject of many of the documentaries in this year’s Festival. Hosted by Elvis Mitchell, filmmakers, artists, and experts discuss the pivotal questions for African-Americans today and where the most progress is being made.

How do you tell good stories in a world where your computer is a television, your cell phone is a movie screen, and your avatar addresses a global virtual audience? Join visionary new funders, media artists, tech pundits, and program innovators to discuss the development of next-generation content for emerging platforms. Moderated by Wendy Levy of the Bay Area Video Coalition.

Depression, substance abuse, family strife, and suicide—has life always been this funny? Humor seems to be tackling pretty dark stuff. Is the comedy of perversity, taboo, and dysfunction just a means of coping? What are we allowed to laugh at? This panel may not have the answer, but we’ll let them discuss it for a while.

McDonagh is notorious for his particular brand of blistering, postmodern dark comedy, which brilliantly slides into the extremes of ugliness, violence, and brutality in a way that might best be described as grotesquely absurd. Born in London to Irish immigrant parents, he began his career scripting radio plays and has since won two Olivier Awards and been nominated for four Tony Awards. His plays include The Lieutenant of Irishmore, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Pillowman. His first foray into filmmaking was the Oscar-winning short Six Shooter and In Bruges starring Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, and Ralph Fiennes is his first feature.

"American Son" is the story of a young Marine whos forced to navigate a volatile home life, a new love and the dangerous complexities of adulthood during a 96-hour Thanksgiving leave.

(1992) Luke is a gay hustler. Jon is a movie critic. Both are HIV positive. They go on a hedonistic, dangerous journey, their motto "Fuck the world."

"Phoebe in Wonderland" is the fantastical tale of a little girl (Elle Fanning) who won't - or can`t - follow the rules. Confounded by her clashes with the rule-obsessed world around her, Phoebe seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson), even as her brilliant but anguished mother (Felicity Huffman) looks to Phoebe herself for inspiration.

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs? "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" is the journey of director and powerlifter Christopher Bell, who explores one of America's most debated ethical and political gray areas, in an effort to understand why he and his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture while seeking their American dream.

"An American Soldier" follows one of the most successful Army recruiters working in America, Sergeant First Class Clay Usie. Shot in verite style, the film captures Sgt. Usie's day-to-day life -- almost entirely dedicated to his mission of finding new soldiers in his hometown of Houma, Louisiana.

When Dominican-born pitcher Miguel "Sugar" Santos gets his break to come to the United States to play baseball, he finds himself in small-town Iowa, struggling to prove himself on the mound while adapting to a new language and culture.

In 2007 Mobile , Alabama , Mardi Gras is celebrated...and complicated. Following a cast of characters, parades, and parties across an enduring color line, we see that beneath the surface of pageantry lies something else altogether.

"Filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine cousins retrace the Triangle Trade from Rhode Island to Ghana to Cuba, uncovering the North's dreadful secret and gaining a powerful new perspective on the black/white divide."

"American Teen" intimately captures the lives of four teenagers in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. Through cinema verite footage, interviews, and animation, it presents a candid portrait of being seventeen. Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein developed a remarkably close rapport with her subjects. The result is a film that goes beyond the stereotypes of high school to render complex young people trying to find their way into adulthood.

America may be on the brink of a financial meltdown. "I.O.U.S.A." is a documentary film which examines the nation's current fiscal condition and explores ways to avoid an economic disaster.

As previously done in their last film "The Puffy Chair," the Duplass Brothers explore the minutiae of relationship dynamics in this in-depth study of a group of desperate actor friends. And a bag. And a head.

From Oscar-nominated director Alex Gibney comes "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson." Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance": goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. The film is entirely narrated by the words of Thompson himself -- from his letters, articles, manuscripts and books -- and is read - on camera and off, by Johnny Depp.

Adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk ("Fight Club"), "Choke" is a powerful and hilarious film about mothers and sons, sexual compulsion, the terrors of aging, and the dark underbelly of Colonial theme parks.

A single mother and her embattled son struggle to subsist in a small Mississippi Delta township. An act of violence thrusts them into the world of an emotionally devastated highway store owner, awakening the fury of a bitter and longstanding conflict.

Set on the US-Canadian border, "Frozen River" tells the story of Ray Eddy, a desperate trailer mom, who takes up smuggling illegal immigrants when she comes across Lila Littlewolf, a Mohawk smuggler. Ignoring the danger, the two women begin a spree of run illegal immigrants into New York State by driving them across the frozen St. Lawrence River in the trunk of a Dodge Spirit. The money is good so long as the ice holds...

Shot in the war zones of the DR Congo, this film breaks the silence surrounding thousands of women and girls who have been kidnapped, raped and tortured in an intractable civil war. The filmmaker, herself a survivor of gang rape, talks with activists, peacekeepers, physicians and with the rapists themselves. She travels to remote villages to meet rape survivors who have been shamed and abandoned, providing a piercing, intimate look into the horror, struggle and ultimate grace of their lives.

"NERAKHOON (The Betrayal)" is the personal story of a Lao family who survives the ordeals of the Lao secret air war. This ordeal starts with the father joining the CIA, the forced exile of the family to America, continuing after the split of the family. It is an epic immigrant drama, full of humanity,wit and tragedy, poetry and ancient philosophy. Its form is unique, merging the documentary and narrative in a poetic memoir with the viseral edge of cinema verite that unfolds over 23 years.

An aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, armed with a video camera, show what survival is all about when they are trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, and then seize a chance for a new beginning.

Set in New York in the sweltering summer of 1994, "The Wackness" tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist. Things get more complicated when the kid falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctor's daughter. Set against the backdrop of the greatest year in hip hop history, "The Wackness" is a coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, music--and what it takes to be a man.

"Good Dick" is a love story set in Los Angeles about a lonely girl who is drawn from her strange hermitic life by a persistent video store clerk who is determined to make her fall in love with him.

Amy Redford's film depicts the transformation of a woman after she is diagnosed with a terminal disease, fired from her thankless job and abandoned by her boyfriend. Given two months to live, she throws caution to the wind to pursue her dreams, which include romance, good chinese food and learning to play the electric guitar.

Water is the very essence of life. It sustains every living being on this planet and without it, there would be nothing. Literally. In "FLOW: For Love Of Water," filmed in twelve countries and with amazing interviews, Irena Salina reveals the uncomfortable reality that water is a resource we have grown dangerously accustomed to taking for granted. The film is a compelling catalyst for people everywhere to realize the time has come to turn the tide. The time is now.

This exhilarating documentary from the emerging Palestinian Hip Hop scene is heartbreaking, humorous, and unlike anything else you`ve seen on contemporary life in Israel and Palestine. Saturated with the style and sound of Palestine`s first rappers, the film brings us close to its young protagonists as they make history armed with only their voices.

"Patti Smith: Dream of Life" is a plunge into the philosophy and artistry of cult rocker Patti Smith. This portrait of the legendary singer, artist and poet explores themes of spirituality, history, and the human condition. Known as the godmother of punk, She emerged in the 1970's, galvanizing the music scene with her unique style of poetic rage, music, and trademark swagger.

A murder witness on the run from the inner-city must stand his ground in a tiny Texas behindhand town in order to keep his dreams alive.

A recent college graduate runs afoul of his gangster father when he falls into a dangerous relationship with a free-spirited couple during the last summer of his youth.

Part love story, part gritty road movie, "Reversion" is the allegorical tale of Eva, a woman desperately trying to avoid a future in which she kills the man she loves. It is a world in which the past, present, and future unfold simultaneously; a world in which a genetic mutation has left a swath of humanity devoid of morality. Shot across the landscape of Los Angeles, the film chronicles Eva's journey from East Hollywood to the Pacific Ocean as she searches for a way to escape her destiny.

Don and Jana lost their daughter in a car accident several years ago. The only way they can now relate to each other is by meeting as different characters through a series of personal ads. "Blind Date" is the second in a trilogy of remakes of films by the Dutch director Theo van Gogh.

"January 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Roman Polanski`s flight from the United States. Polanski fled after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with an underage girl and serving time in jail. Marina Zenovich`s new documentary reopens this complex and controversial case and challenges many of the myths which have built up around it."

Born in Kisumu, Kenya, Christopher Zalla spent much of his youth overseas and worked for nine summers as a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska's Bering Sea. Zalla received his MFA with honors in directing from Columbia University's graduate film program, where he served as a teaching assistant and the faculty awarded him a full research assistant fellowship for merit as a top student. Prior to Padre Nuestro, he wrote "Marching Powder" for Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment. Zalla is fluent in Spanish and lives in New York City.

Virginia native Adam Bhala Lough's recent work includes the feature Bomb the System (2003), music videos for MF Doom and Joe Strummer, and Farmhouse (2005), an experimental short for Jim Jarmusch. Current projects include the documentary Upsetter: The Music and Genius of Lee Scratch Perry and Mother and Child, a multichannel video installation. Bhala Lough lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

On July 17, 2007 participants in the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab (an annual three-week workshop for new plays held in Sundance, Utah) were given a platform to speak their mind about new play development during an event called LABthink. Led by Philip Himberg, Producing Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, three topics were discussed: Technology, Future Audiences and the Actor's Role.

Marco Williams's I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education was the recipient of the 2005 Beacon Award, and his MLK Boulevard: The Concrete Dream won the 2004 National Association of Black Journalists' Salute to Excellence Award. His Two Towns of Jasper, which screened at Sundance in 2002, earned a Peabody Award and the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton in 2004. In 2006, Williams's Freedom Summer was broadcast as part of the Emmy Award-winning History Channel series Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America.

A modern day musical set on the streets of Dublin. Featuring Glen Hansard from the Irish band "The Frames," the film tells the story of a street musician and a Czech immigrant during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story. "Once" premiered at Sundance in Park City, Utah in January 2007.

Craig Zobel was raised in Atlanta and graduated from the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Zobel coproduced David Gordon Green's debut feature, George Washington, and was both the second-unit director and production manager on Green's All the Real Girls and Undertow. Zobel is one of the founding creators of the cartoon Web site Homestar Runner. The Great World of Sound is Zobel's debut feature. He lives in New York.

Join the filmmakers behind "Four Sheets to the Wind," "Eagle vs. Shark" and others as they rally at the Festival for Native Films. Filmed in Park City, Utah in January 2007.

War/Dance is Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's directorial debut at Sundance. The husband and wife team has filmed in more than 30 countries to bring powerful human stories to the screen. They met while directing films for National Geographic and formed Fine Films in 2003. Honors include an Emmy, a Chris Award, and honorable mentions at the New York Film Festival and the Missoula Wildlife Film Festival. The Fines live in the Washington, D.C., area with their two-year-old son.