By
Joyce Dundas The icicle in the crown of the independent film industry the
Sundance Film Festival opened on January 18 and runs until
January 28 and this year the selection reflects the huge growth
in popularity of the documentary film. With a new programmer for its documentary strand, Cara Mertes
who was appointed in April 2006, this selection is the strongest
in the festival. Mertes was exec producer for the PBS programme
P.O.V. and as such she has received multiple awards, including
five National News and Documentary Emmys and two Academy Award
nominations. In his opening speech founder of the
festival Robert Redford maintained that Sundance films always
have been politically diverse He said, referring to George
Bush's government: “In
light of what's happened in the past six years, we haven't
adhered to snuffing attempts from the administration.” He
added that documentaries “have become more of a truth
to power in an environment where lying is treated like a political
asset”. The line up Mertes has chosen reflects how the line between
fiction and reality continues to blur and showcases films from
well-established international documentary makers including
Julien Temple, Rory Kennedy and Donal Mac Intyre. The subject matter is just as diverse from several ethnic,
cultural and political viewpoints. Girl 27 deals with a long
forgotten rape case. Filmmaker David Stenn's looks the cover-up
of the rape of underage dancer Patricia Douglas at a wild MGM
stag party in 1937. Nanking directed by Bill Guttentag and
Dan Sturman, examines the Rape of Nanking by the Japanese in
the '30s. War Dance, directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine,
concerns the efforts of three young Ugandan girls and their
refugee camp school to travel to a national music and dance
festival. Unsurprisingly many of the films have a connection to warfare
or an anti-war theme. No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson uses
first-time interviews with participants in the chain of decisions
that led to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, White Light/Black
Rain deals with US destruction of the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki with atomic bombs, one of the most iconic anti-war
moments, and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib directed by Rory Kennedy,
dealing with the abuse by the US army of war prisoners in Iraq. There are also a few quirky subjects in there too. Daniel
Karslake's For the Bible Tells me so explores the way US religious
conservatives continue to stigmatise the gay community. In
My Kid Could Paint That Amir Bar-Lev scrutinises society's
obsession with child prodigies and the debate over what makes
something art. Irene Taylor Brodsky's film deals with her parents
experience of cochlear implants after 65 years of deafness
in Hear and Now. And Zoo from Robinson Devor takes a sensitive
look at the bestiality case in 2005 where a man died after
having sex with a horse. Redford made his speech before introducing the opening film
which is not a documentary but does deal with real-life events.
Brett Morgen's Chicago 10 looks at the aftermath of the anti-Vietnam
protests in 1968 and the subsequent trial which became a circus,
because of the abuse of individual liberties. The film has
already garnered huge praise for his innovative animation technique
and unusual take on the situation. Morgen won the documentary
award at the festival in 1999 with On the Ropes his look at
three young boxers. It's interesting too that veteran documentary maker Nick Broomfield
is included in the dramatic selection with Ghosts, a fictional
film inspired by the fate of the illegal Chinese immigrants
who drowned in Morecambe Bay while working as cocklers. With the recent furore caused by UK
reality tv.show Celebrity Big Brother it seems Sundance has
tapped into international audiences' growing appetite for
product which holds a mirror up to society, no mattter how
unpleasant that may be. It also seems that buyers have recognised
this. According to Variety, North American tv rights to In
the Shadow of the Moon have already been sold to Discovery
Communications and its Discovery Films unit. David Sington's
film brings together the surviving astronauts of the Apollo
moon missions, which anyone who has read Andrew Smith's bestselling
book Moondust will know is a fascinating prospect. My Kid
Could Paint That has also been picked up for tv by A&E
IndieFilms. The festival is also holding several seminars and workshops
with documentary filmmakers in events put together by Mertes.
The first of these is due to be held on Sunday with Mertes
hosting an informal meet-and-greet with documentary funders
and leading festival documentary programmers and there is a
separate lunch with documentary funders on Tuesday. Fully updated information is available at www.sundance.org. |
