10 BEAUTIFUL SUNDANCE FILMS
This week, we are focused on Beautiful Stories and the Sundance Film Festival. The BN team will also be posting, tweeting, updating and sharing live from Sundance, as we have been since it started this past Thursday. It's been amazing so far! Stay tuned for more!
Here are 10 SFF films with especially beautiful stories for you to enjoy:
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. This World Made Itself.
1. THIS WORLD MADE ITSELF: MYTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE OF LUCID DREAMING
Part film, part live performance art, this trilogy, by animator/performance artist Miwa Matryek, is a breathtakingly beautiful exploration of inner and outer worlds. We see Matryek’s body move, in live silhouette as she interacts with her own exquisitely rendered animations.
Matryek plays with the concept of lucid dreaming as the viewer is taken on a fantasy trip through time and space, as she goes diving deep into the sea, soaring up into the stars, floating upon flowered fields, swirling in an electric soup, and simply interacting with her cat as she rustles up some dinner in her humble kitchen.
The artist creates and is created by the world. With delicate poetry and powerful visions, this work is one we will never forget.
Cast and Credits:
Director: Miwa Matreyek
Music: Flying Lotus, Eric Lindley (aka Careful), Mileece, Anna Oxygen, Miwa Matreyek, Caroline, Mileece, Mirah
Principal Cast: Miwa Matreyek
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. Happiness.
2. HAPPINESS
In 1999, the largely undeveloped nation of Bhutan was finally given access to TV and internet, which spurred a rapid push towards modernization and “gross national happiness.”
The film looks at Laya, the last remaining unplugged village, as it transforms with the new technology, through the eyes of an eight-year-old monk. And we see an ancient way of life give way to the complicated and bittersweet the effects of progress.
Cast and Credits:
Director: Thomas Balmès
Screenwriter: Thomas Balmès
Producers: Thomas Balmès, Juliette Guigon, Patrick Winocour, Kaarle Aho
Co, Producers: ARTE France, BBC, ITVS International, WDR, NHK
Cinematographers: Thomas Balmès, Nina Bernfeld
Editors: Alex Cardon, Ronan Sinquin
Music: British Sea Power
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. Lilting.
3. LILTING
Sudden death often thrusts surviving friends and family into new and sometimes uncomfortable relationships. When a young Chinese-Cambodian man, named Kai, suddenly dies, his headstrong mother, Junn, and his boyfriend, Richard, must each grapple with their own grief, yet they must come together, despite their vast differences.
They don’t like each other, have trouble communicating with each other, and don’t understand each other well. Yet, Lilting lays out a path to connection between them, so that their differences can become the foundation of their new bond.
Cast and Credits:
Director: Hong Khaou
Screenwriter: Hong Khaou
Producer: Dominic Buchanan
Cinematographer: Ula Pontikos
Editor: Mark Towns
Music: Stuart Earl
Production Designer: Miren Marañón
Casting Director: Kharmel Cochrane
Principal Cast: Ben Whishaw, Pei-Pei Cheng, Andrew Leung, Peter Bowles, Naomi Christie, Morven Christie
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. Last Days in Vietnam.
4. LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM
As the US prepared to withdraw from Vietnam, with the North Vietnamese army closing in on Saigon, American diplomats and soldiers faced a moral dilemma: evacuate and leave the South Vietnamese citizens behind to face certain imprisonment or death, or rescue the citizens and face charges of treason.
With the clock ticking and the city under fire, heroes emerge as a small handful of Americans take matters into their own hands.
Director Rory Kennedy chronicles a story few of us know, with great power and emotion. It may both shock you and restore your faith in humanity.
Cast and Credits:
Director: Rory Kennedy
Screenwriters: Mark Bailey, Keven McAlester
Producers: Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester
Editor: Don Kleszy
Line Producer: Pat Bischetti
Cinematographer: Joan Churchill
Senior Producer: Sharon Grimberg
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. I Origins.
5. I ORIGINS
This is a gorgeous film on so many levels. A molecular biology PhD student is on a path to prove that God does not exist by uncovering the origins of eye evolution. His journey unfolds as he falls madly in love with a beautiful young woman with stunning, iconic eyes, and a strong belief in spirituality.
Despite their opposite views, they vow to spend the rest of their lives together. But the rest of their lives is full of twists, turns, and surprising discoveries with profound existential implications.
The film is emotionally gripping, intellectually stimulating, and will have you thinking about it long after the credits roll.
Cast and Credits:
Director: Mike Cahill
Screenwriter: Mike Cahill
Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Alex Orlovsky
Cinematographer: Markus Förderer
Editor: Mike Cahill
Production Designer: Tania Bijlani
Costume Designer: Megan Gray
Composers: Will Bates, Phil Mossman
Principal Cast: Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. Sepideh - Reaching for the Stars.
6. SEPIDEH - REACHING FOR THE STARS
Sepideh is an Iranian teenage girl who dreams of becoming an astronomer, despite her country’s bias against women and girls. She is inspired by Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian astronaut. Her strong will and perseverance keep her moving forward. She writes fantasy letters to Einstein and a real letter to Ansari.
It is a beautiful story, with a backdrop of beautifully shot starry skies. Sepideh’s spirit lifts her high as she reaches out to touch them.
Cast and Credits:
Director: Berit Madsen
Cinematographers: Mohammad Reza, Jahan Panah
Sound: Hassan Shabankareh
Editor: Peter Winther
Composers: Niklas Schak, Tin Soheili
Sound Design: Yngve Leidulv Sætre
Producers: Henrik Underbjerg, Stefan Frost
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. Rudderless.
7. RUDDERLESS
The tragic death of a son almost destroys his father, Sam, before it serves as a springboard for a new lease on life.
When Sam discovers a box filled with his son's demo tapes and lyrics, he is blown away by his son’s talent. Sam is intrigued and begins to learn to play each song. Eventually, he is moved to play one at a local bar. A young musician in the audience is moved to join him and the unlikely duo form a rock band that becomes surprisingly popular and changes both of their lives.
Rudderless is a poignant story about the power of a parent’s love and the power of music.
Cast and Credits:
Director: William H. Macy
Screenwriters: Casey Twenter, Jeff Robison, William H. Macy
Producers: Keith Kjarval, Brad Greiner
Executive Producers: Nathan Kelly, William H. Macy, Jeff Johnson, Patricia Cox, Aaron L. Gilbert, Ali Jazayeri, Jeff Rice
Cinematographer: Eric Lin
Production Designer: Chris Stull
Editor: John Axelrad
Principal Cast: Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Huffman, Selena Gomez, Laurence Fishburne, William H. Macy
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. hitRECord.
8. HITRECORD
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, aka Regular JOE, had a beautiful idea. It began, in 2010, as hitRECord.org, an online community designed to bring together artists from around the world to collaborate on each other’s projects.
Stories are written, illustrated, filmed, scored, and performed by a collection of artists drawn from the growing hitRECord global community.
Since its launch, the hitRECord community has grown to include 70,000 artists with hundreds of projects being produced in collaboration with their artistic director, Regular JOE.
The project was recently developed into a cable TV series, with each ½ hour episode devoted to a specific story theme. Each episode was shot in front of a live audience. Before each show begins, the audience is reminded to turn ON their electronic devices and record.
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. 20,000 Days on Earth. Nick Cave.
9. 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH
20,000 Days on Earth is an innovative docu-drama, featuring Nick Cave, a musician and filmmaker, as it explores his artistic process via a fictional staged narrative of his 20,000th day on Earth.
The film weaves two parallel story lines. The first is a cinematic portrait of Cave's 20,000th day. The second is his creative journey.
How many days have you been alive and what have you done with that time?
Cast and Credits:
Directors: Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
Producers: James Wilson, Dan Bowen
Executive Producers: Anna Higgs, Tabitha Jackson, Hani Farsi, Thomas Benski, Phoebe Greenberg, Paul Goldin, Lucas Ochoa, Penny Mancuso
Cinematographer: Erik Wilson
Editor: Jonathan Amos
Composers: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Principal Cast: Nick Cave
Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. Roger Ebert. Life Itself.
10. LIFE ITSELF
The purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize with other people…For me the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.
— Roger Ebert
One of the best-known and influential film critics, Roger Ebert, died this past year, after a long battle with cancer. Life Itself is a documentary, based on his memoir of the same same name.
It tells the story of this incredibly talented man, as he rose up in his career, starting as a school newspaperman, and going on to become a Chicago Sun-Times movie critic, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a major voice on the Internet.
Ebert often battled with his professional partner, Gene Siskel, as they debated how many “thumbs up” to give to a movie rating. He found true love late in life with Chaz, the woman who became his life partner, wife, and chief supporter.
Ebert celebrated and bridged high and low culture. He loved to challenge conventional wisdom. And he was a beloved and loving man who will be greatly missed.
Cast and Credits:
Director: Steve James
Executive Producers: Martin Scorsese, Steven Zaillian, Michael W. Ferro Jr, Gordon Quinn, Justine Nagan, Kat White, Mark Mitten, CNN Films: Vinnie Malhotra, Amy Entelis
Producers: Zak Piper, Steve James, Garrett Basch
Co, Producers: Emily Hart, Josh Schollmeyer
Cinematographer: Dana Kupper
Editor: David E. Simpson
Composer: Joshua Abrams
Photo: Courtesy of Marcella Purnama.
Read more about Beautiful Stories, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact in our posts throughout this week.
Enter this week’s BN Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Stories. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 01.26.14.
