The Sundance Film Festival is on the horizon with its January 17 start date in sight. Yesterday we brought you the Competition and Next announcements and today we're right back at it with all the films in the Park City at Midnight, Spotlight, and New Frontiers programs.
The highlight of the list is the inclusion of the sequel to this year's V/H/S (see our review and our interview from last January's fest), now awesomely titled S-VHS. Along with the announcement it will be playing comes the full lineup of directors involved. Adam Wingard is the only director back in the chair and long-time collaborator Simon Barrett will finally get a chance to play the boss with a director's credit as well. If that wasn't exciting enough, Gareth Huw Evans (The Raid), Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre), Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), and two of the men who started it all, Eduardo Sanchez & Gregg Hale (The Blair Witch Project), are all listed as directors. No doubt this will be another fun night of mayhem in Park City.
There is plenty to look over (including Calvin Lee Reeder's The Oregonian follow-up The Rambler, a hilarious sounding haunter horror from The State alumni Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon titled Hell Baby, and some festival faves in the Spotlight section). Take your time and tell us what you are most excited for. We'll be back next week with all the rest of the films unspooling at the fest.
PARK CITY
AT MIDNIGHT
From horror flicks to comedies to
works that defy any genre, these unruly films will keep you edge-seated and
wide awake. Each is a world premiere.
Ass
Backwards /
U.S.A. (Director: Chris Nelson, Screenwriters: June Diane Raphael, Casey
Wilson) -- Loveable losers Kate and Chloe take a road trip back to their
hometown to claim the beauty pageant crown that eluded them as children, only
to discover what really counts: friendship. Cast: June Diane Raphael, Casey Wilson, Vincent
D'Onofrio, Alicia Silverstone, Jon Cryer, Brian Geraghty.
Hell
Baby / U.S.A.
(Directors and screenwriters: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon) -- An expectant
couple moves into the most haunted fixer-upper in New Orleans - a house with a
demonic curse. Things spiral out of control and soon only the Vatican's elite
exorcism team can save the pair - or can it? Cast: Rob Corddry, Leslie Bibb, Keegan Michael
Key, Riki Lindhome, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel.
In
Fear / United
Kingdom (Directed and story by: Jeremy Lovering) -- Trapped in a maze of country
roads with only their vehicle for protection, Tom and Lucy are terrorized by an
unseen tormentor exploiting their worst fears. Eventually they realize they've
let the evil in - it's sitting in their car. Cast: Alice Englert, Iain De Caestecker, Allen
Leech.
kink (documentary) / U.S.A. (Director: Christina Voros) -- A
story of sex, submission and big business is told through the eyes of the
unlikely pornographers whose 9:00-to-5:00 work days are spent within the
confines of the San Francisco Armory building, home to the sprawling porn
production facilities of Kink.com.
The
Rambler /
U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Calvin Lee Reeder) -- After being released
from prison, a man known as "The Rambler" stumbles upon a strange mystery as he
attempts the treacherous journey through back roads and small towns en route to
reconnecting with his long-lost brother. Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Lindsay Pulsipher,
Natasha Lyonne, James Cady, Scott Sharot.
S-VHS / U.S.A., Canada (Directors: Simon Barrett, Adam
Wingard, Edúardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, Jason
Eisener, Screenwriters: Simon Barrett, Jamie Nash, Timo Tjahjanto & Gareth
Huw Evans, John Davies) -- Searching for a missing student, two private
investigators break into his abandoned house and find another collection of
mysterious VHS tapes. In viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they
realize there may be terrifying motives behind the student's disappearance. Cast:
Adam Wingard, Lawrence Levine, L.C Holt, Kelsy Abbott, Hannah Hughes.
Virtually
Heroes / U.S.A.
(Director: GJ Echternkamp, Screenwriter: Matt Yamashita) -- Two self-aware
characters in a Call of Duty-style video game
struggle with their screwy, frustrating existence. To find answers, one
abandons his partner and mission, seeking to unravel the cheat codes of life. Cast:
Robert Baker, Brent Chase, Katie Savoy, Mark Hamill, Ben Messmer.
We
Are What We Are /
U.S.A. (Director: Jim Mickle, Screenwriters: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle) -- A
devastating storm washes up clues that lead authorities closer and closer to
the cannibalistic Parker family. Cast: Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner,
Michael Parks, Wyatt Russell, Kelly McGillis.
SPOTLIGHT
Regardless of where these films have played throughout the world, the
Spotlight program is a tribute to the cinema we love.
Fill the Void / Israel (Director
and screenwriter: Rama Burshtein) -- A devout 18-year-old Israeli is pressured
to marry the husband of her late sister. Declaring her independence is not an
option in Tel Aviv's ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community, where religious law,
tradition and the rabbi's word are absolute. Cast: Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg, Chaim Sharir, Razia
Israeli, Hila Feldman.
Gangs of Wasseypur / India (Director:
Anurag Kashyap, Screenwriters: Anurag Kashyap, Zeishan Quadri) -- Exiled and
outcast for robbing British trains, Shahid Khan spurs a battle for revenge that
passes down generations. Shahid's son vows to get his father's honor back,
becoming the most feared man in the Indian town of Wasseypur. Cast: Manoj
Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddique, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi, Tigmanshu Dhulia. U.S.
Premiere
The Gatekeepers (documentary) /
Israel, Germany, Belgium, France (Director: Dror Moreh) -- Since its stunning
military victory in 1967, Israel has hoped to achieve a long-lasting peace.
Forty-five years later, this has yet to happen. Six former heads of Israel's
Secret Service reflect on the successes and failures of the "peace process."
Mud / U.S.A. (Director
and screenwriter: Jeff Nichols) -- Two teenage boys encounter a fugitive and
form a pact to help him evade the bounty hunters on his trail and reunite him
with his true love. Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Reese
Witherspoon. North American Premiere
No / Chile, U.S.A.
(Director: Pablo Larraín, Screenwriter: Pedro Peirano) -- When Chilean military
dictator Augusto Pinochet calls for a referendum to decide his permanence in
power, the opposition persuades a young advertising executive to head its
campaign. With limited resources and under scrutiny, he conceives a plan to win
the election. Cast: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Luis
Gnecco, Marcial Tagle, Néstor Cantillana.
Sightseers / United Kingdom
(Director: Ben Wheatley, Screenwriters: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram) -- Chris wants
to show girlfriend Tina his world, but when events conspire against the couple,
their dream caravan holiday takes a very wrong turn. Cast: Alice
Lowe, Steve Oram. U.S. Premiere
Stories We Tell (documentary) /
Canada (Director: Sarah Polley) -- Sarah Polley is both filmmaker and detective
as she investigates the secrets kept by a family of storytellers. She unravels
the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: always complicated, warmly messy
and fiercely loving.
NEW FRONTIER
With media installations, multimedia performances, transmedia experiences,
panels, films and more, New Frontier highlights work that celebrates
experimentation and the expansion of cinema culture through the convergence of
film, art, and new media technology.
FILMS
Charlie Victor Romeo / U.S.A. (Directors:
Robert Berger, Karlyn Michelson, Screenwriters: Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels,
Irving Gregory) -- An award-winning theatrical documentary derived entirely from
'Black Box' transcripts of six real-life major airline emergencies brought to
the screen with cutting-edge stereoscopic 3D technology. Cast: Patrick
Daniels, Irving Gregory, Noel Dinneen, Sam Zuckerman, Debbie Troche, Nora
Woolley.
Fat Shaker / Iran (Director and
screenwriter: M Shirvani) -- An obese father and his handsome, deaf son share
extraordinary experiences in Tehran. Then a beautiful young woman upsets the
balance of their relationship, forcing them to renegotiate their position with each
other and the world around them. Cast: Levon Haftvan, Maryam Palizban, Hassan Rostami, Navid
Mohammadzadeh.
Interior. Leather
Bar. / U.S.A. (Directors: Travis Mathews, James Franco,
Screenwriter: Travis Mathews) -- To avoid an X rating, it was rumored that 40
minutes of gay S&M footage was cut from the controversial 1980 film, Cruising.
Filmmakers James Franco and Travis Mathews re-imagine what was in the lost
footage. Cast:
Val Lauren, James Franco, Travis Mathews, Christian Patrick, Brenden Gregory.
Halley / Mexico (Director:
Sebastian Hofmann, Screenwriters: Sebastian Hofmann, Julio Chavezmontes) --
Alberto is dead and can no longer hide it. Before surrendering to his living
death, he forms an unusual friendship with Luly, the manager of the 24-hour gym
where he works as a night guard. Cast: Alberto Trujillo, Lourdes Trueba, Hugo Albores.
The Meteor / Canada (Director:
François Delisle, Screenwriter: François Delisle) -- Forty-something Pierre, his
mother and his wife are linked by crime, guilt and loneliness. Like casualties
of love and desire, they are dying to stick their heads above water and breathe
the air of life. Cast: Noémie Godin Vigneau, François Delisle, Laurent Lucas,
Brigitte Pogonat, François Papineau, Andrée Lachapelle.
INSTALLATIONS
Cityscape 2095
Artists: Yannick Jacquet, Mandril, Thomas Vaquié [AntiVJ]
AntiVJ artists Yannick Jacquet and Marc Ferrario blend painting with light
projection to transform the walls of New Frontier into a luminous,
three-dimensional cityscape that feels strangely familiar yet impossible to
locate. With its disorienting sense of time and space, Cityscape 2095 places spectators on the
observatory deck of a skyscraper, where they take in a sprawling, imaginary
city as it glitters over the course of one day.
Coral: Rekindling
Venus
Artist: Lynette Wallworth
Inspired by the first collaboration among the international science community
to witness the celestial transit of Venus in 1761, Lynette Wallworth's visually
stunning Coral:
Rekindling Venus is
an augmented-reality and full-dome planetarium presentation designed to nurture
an emotional connection between a global audience and the planet's endangered
coral reefs. This epic project features original deep-sea photography,
augmented-reality artwork and music by Antony and the Johnsons. Presented at
the New Frontier venue in Park City, Salt Lake City's Clark Planetarium and
other locations nationally. Details to be announced.
E.M-bed.de/d,
Datamosh, Augmented Real
Artist: Yung Jake
Rap artist Yung Jake is Net art incarnate, flowing lyrics about tweet culture,
data-moshing, hashtags, and memes as he blows up on Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr,
and Instagram in his HTML5 music video, E.M-bed.de/d. This
MC drops unexpectedly into your browser sessions, streams into Festival
screenings, Skype-bombs live DJ performances, and pops out of floors and
magazines in augmented-reality music videos.
Eyjafjallalokull
Artist: Joanie Lemercier [AntiVJ]
Inspired by the 2010 Icelandic volcanic eruption that wreaked travel havoc
across Europe, Eyjafjallalokull is
a stunning, three-dimensional, audiovisual mapping installation that challenges
audiences' perception of space by creating an optical illusion that transforms
the walls of New Frontier into a sweeping digital vista that artistically recreates
the seismic event.
North of South, West
of East
Artist: Meredith Danluck
North of South, West of East enhances narrative storytelling by wrapping the
film around the entire room. Presented to an audience in swivel chairs,
Meredith Danluck's remarkable four-channel narrative feature deftly unspools a
darkly humorous tale of small-town folks as they try to make sense of a
posthope America. Shot on location in Detroit, Michigan, and Marfa, Texas, this
unique film features fantastic performances by Ben Foster, Stella Schnabel, and
Sue Galloway, and a soundtrack by Marfa local punk band Solid Waste.
Pulse Index
Artist: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's beautifully resonant, interactive media installation
swaths the central lounge of New Frontier with images of the warm, breathing
flesh of its visitors. Pulse Index records
the heart rates and fingerprints of participants and exhibits them in a
beautiful Fibonacci pattern. Place your finger into the custom-made sensor, and
your fingerprint appears on the largest cell of the display, pulsating to your
heartbeat. Your print then travels down the sequence to join those of all the
others who have visited the room, immersing the community space with the
radiant glow of the human touch.
What's He Building in
There?
Artists: Klip Collective
Ricardo Rivera and the Klip Collective transform the entire front of the New
Frontier venue into an interactive, 3-D projection-mapped parable, inspired by
the Tom Waits song. Sip a hot beverage in the outdoor lounge and watch the
walls and windowpanes dissolve into a story about a man on a mysterious mission
inside the building. Use the X-ray flashlight to peek at what he is up to.