Sundance Institute announced today the line-up of films selected from a record number of submissions for the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The premier showcase for the best new work by American and international independent filmmakers, Sundance Film Festival provides audiences with abundant opportunities to discover today’s most innovative films. In addition to the four Competition categories, the Festival presents films in five out-of-competition sections to be announced tomorrow. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17-27, 2008, in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah.
Below, read titles and synopses of films showing in the Documentary and Dramatic Competition categories. For a complete list of films in all categories, click on the link at the end of the list!
Documentary Competition
AN AMERICAN SOLDIER (Director and Screenwriter: Edet Belzberg) — Uncle Sam really wants you! A compelling exploration of army recruitment in the United States told through the story of Louisiana Sergeant, First Class Clay Usie, one of the most successful recruiters in the history of the U.S. Army.
AMERICAN TEEN (Director and Screenwriter: Nanette Burstein) — This irreverent cinema verite chronicles four seniors at an Indiana high school and yields a surprising snapshot of Midwestern life.
BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER (Director: Christopher Bell; Screenwriters: Christopher Bell, Alexander Buono, Tamsin Rawady) — A filmmaker explores America’s win-at-all-cost culture by examining his two brothers’ steroids use…and his own.
FIELDS OF FUEL (Director and Screenwriter: Josh Tickell) — America is addicted to oil and it is time for an intervention. Enter Josh Tickell, a man with a plan and a Veggie Van, who is taking on big oil, big government, and big soy to find solutions in places few people have looked.
FLOW: FOR LOVE OF WATER (Director: Irena Salina) — Water is the very essence of life, sustaining every being on the planet. FLOW confronts the disturbing reality that our crucial resource is dwindling and greed just may be the cause.
GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON (Director: Alex Gibney) — 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. Focusing on the good doctor’s heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.
THE GREATEST SILENCE: RAPE IN THE CONGO (Director and Screenwriter: Lisa F. Jackson) — Jackson travels to remote villages in the war zones of the Congo to meet rape survivors, providing a piercing, intimate look into the struggle of their lives.
I.O.U.S.A. (Director: Patrick Creadon) — Few are aware that America may be on the brink of a financial meltdown. I.O.U.S.A. explores the country’s shocking current fiscal condition and ways to avoid a national economic disaster.
NERAKHOON (THE BETRAYAL) (Director: Ellen Kuras; Co-Director: Thavisouk Phrasavath; Screenwriters: Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath) — The epic story of a family forced to emigrate from Laos after the chaos of the secret air war waged by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Kuras has spent the last 23 years chronicling the family’s extraordinary journey in this deeply personal, poetic, and emotional film.
THE ORDER OF MYTHS (Director: Margaret Brown) — 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.
PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE (Director and Screenwriter: Steven Sebring) — An intimate portrait of music icon Patti Smith that mirrors the essence of the artist herself.
ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED (Director: Marina Zenovich; Screenwriters: Marina Zenovich, Joe Bini, P.G. Morgan) — Marina Zenovich’s new documentary examines the public scandal and private tragedy which led to legendary director Roman Polanski’s sudden flight from the United States.
SECRECY (Directors: Peter Galison, Robb Moss) — Amidst the American hunger for instantaneous news and up-to-date facts, this unflinching film uncovers the vast, invisible world of government secrecy.
SLINGSHOT HIP HOP (Director: Jackie Reem Salloum) — The voice of a new generation rocks and rhymes as Palestinian rappers form alternative voices of resistance within the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.
TRACES OF THE TRADE: A STORY FROM THE DEEP NORTH (Director: Katrina Browne, Co-Directors: Alla Kovgan, Jude Ray; Screenwriters: Katrina Browne, Alla Kovgan) — History finally gets rewritten as descendants of the largest slave-trading family in early America face their past, and present, as they explore their violent heritage across oceans and continents.
TROUBLE THE WATER (Directors: Tia Lessin, Carl Deal) — 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 seize a chance for a new beginning.
Dramatic Competition
AMERICAN SON (Director: Neil Abramson; Screenwriter: Eric Schmid) — Before being deployed for active duty, a young Marine takes a four-day Thanksgiving leave to return home to Bakersfield, California. There he meets a young woman, tries to connect with old friends, and confronts his volatile home life. Cast: Nick Cannon, Melonie Diaz, Matt O’Leary, Jay Hernandez, Tom Sizemore, Chi McBride.
ANYWHERE, U.S.A. (Director: Anthony (Chusy) Haney-Jardine; Screenwriters: Anthony (Chusy) Haney-Jardine, Jennifer Macdonald) — Told in three segments ranging from satirical to tragic, the film is a wildly original look at American manners, prejudices, and family dynamics. Cast: Perla Haney-Jardine.
BALLAST (Director and Screenwriter: Lance Hammer) — A riveting, lyrical portrait of an emotionally frayed family whose lives are torn asunder by a tragic act in a small Mississippi Delta town. Cast: Michael J. Smith Sr., Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail.
CHOKE (Director and Screenwriter: Clark Gregg) — An adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s (Fight Club) novel, CHOKE is the sardonic story about mother and son relationship, fear of aging, sexual addiction, and the dark side of historical theme parks. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly MacDonald, Brad Henke.
DOWNLOADING NANCY (Director: Johan Renck; Screenwriters: Pamela Cuming, Lee Ross) — The tale of an unhappy wife whose online search for someone to put her out of her misery results in a torturous love affair. Cast: Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell, Amy Brenneman.
FROZEN RIVER (Director and Screenwriter: Courtney Hunt) — Set in rural upstate New York on a Mohawk Reservation bordering Canada, a mother left to care for her teenage son finds herself lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Cast: Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Michael O’Keefe, Mark Boone, Jr.
GOOD DICK (Director and Screenwriter: Marianna Palka) — The tale of a lonely girl drawn from her isolated life and solitary apartment by a doting young video store clerk who strives to capture her affections. Cast: Jason Ritter, Marianna Palka, Tom Arnold, Mark Webber, Martin Starr, Eric Edelstein.
THE LAST WORD (Director and Screenwriter: Geoff Haley) — An off-beat romantic comedy about a solitary writer who makes his living composing other people’s suicide notes. After meeting the sister of a recently deceased client, he finds his reclusive life and secret career upended by an unusual romance. Cast: Winona Ryder, Wes Bentley, Ray Romano.
THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH (Director and Screenwriter: Rawson Marshall Thurber) — Based on Michael Chabon’s novel, the film chronicles the defining summer of a recent college graduate who crosses his gangster father and explores love, sexuality, and the enigmas surrounding his life and his city. Cast: Jon Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Sienna Miller, Mena Suvari, Nick Nolte.
NORTH STARR (Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Stanton) — After witnessing the brutal murder of his best friend, a young African American man flees the badlands of Houston and finds himself in Trublin, a backward, racially intolerant town where he meets an unlikely kindred spirit who takes him under his wing. Cast: Jerome Hawkins, Matthew Stanton, Chris Sullivan, Isaac Lamb, Zach Johnson, Wayne Campbell.
PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND (Director and Screenwriter: Daniel Barnz) — Confounded by her clashes with the seemingly rule-obsessed world, a little girl takes her already dysfunctional family down the rabbit hole when she seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher. Cast: Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman, Campbell Scott, Peter Gerety.
PRETTY BIRD (Director and Screenwriter: Paul Schneider) — A comic tale of three would-be entrepreneurs who set out to invent a rocket belt. The clash of their mismatched personalities soon dissolves the business into a morass of recriminations, retaliations, kidnapping, and murder in this parable of American dreams and delusions. Cast: Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Kristen Wiig, David Hornsby.
SLEEP DEALER (Director: Alex Rivera; Screenwriters: Alex Rivera, David Riker) — Set in a near future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the barriers of technology. Cast: Luis Fernando Peña, Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas.
SUGAR (Directors and Screenwriters: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck) — Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who last teamed up for HALF NELSON, chronicle the journey of Dominican baseball star Miguel “Sugar” Santos recruited from his native country to play in the U.S. minor leagues. Cast: Algenis Perez Soto.
SUNSHINE CLEANING (Director: Christine Jeffs; Screenwriter: Megan Holley) — Struck by financial hardship, an ambitiousmother and her unmotivated sister become entrepreneurs in the field of biohazard removal and crime scene clean-up. Cast: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, Alan Arkin.
THE WACKNESS (Director and Screenwriter: Jonathan Levine) — During a sweltering New York summer, a troubled teenage drug dealer trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist, and in the process falls for the doctor’s daughter. Cast: Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary Kate Olsen, Method Man.
Source: Sundance
