2022 SUNDANCE FILM FEST BEGINS! LOOK OUT FOR THESE FILMS! - AmNews Curtain Raiser

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Wednesday, January 19, 2022

2022 SUNDANCE FILM FEST BEGINS! LOOK OUT FOR THESE FILMS!

      

The 2022 virtual Sundance Film Festival begins its 10-day run, January 20th-30th, 2022! Due to the ongoing Covid-19 Omicron surge, the festival had no choice but to switch from a hybrid festival to a 100% online. 

This year's selections are actually quite intriguing and exciting. Below is my small selection of films in the main categories. The World Cinema Dramatic and World Cinema Documentary Features Competition that showcases a heavy multi-cultural mix, stand out to me. I also noticed strong female character-driven films. Besides these, definitely check out the Short Film Program (always has a number of gems), Spotlight, Next, Midnight (always memorable!), and Special Screenings

View the full 2022 SFF Program here: festival.sundance.org/program

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION (Feature)

ALL THAT BREATHES 
Director(s) Shaunak Sen
Producer: Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann, Teddy Leifer

Brothers Saud and Nadeem were raised looking at a sky speckled with black kites, watching as relatives tossed meat up to these birds of prey. Muslim belief held that feeding the kites would expel troubles. Now, birds are falling from the polluted, opaque skies of New Delhi and the two brothers have made it their life’s work to care for the injured black kites. Shaunak Sen’s intricately layered portrait reveals an evolving city and a fraternal relationship bonded by purpose. The film’s patient, roaming camera skillfully uses scale and perspective to draw attention to the interconnectedness of an ecosystem — one that humans are a part of, not apart from. The social unrest that begins to materialize in the streets is seen through the perspectives of the brothers and their family, as well as the insects and animals that share the urban landscape. There is both cruelty and tenderness in nature, and Sen elegantly captures how they coexist, while emphasizing the ways in which all living beings must evolve to survive.

SIRENS 
Director(s): Rita Baghdadi
Producer: Rita Baghdadi, Camilla Hall  

True to their name, Slave to Sirens — the first and only all-woman thrash metal band in the Middle East — are utterly magnetic. Amid a backdrop of political unrest and the heartbreaking unraveling of Beirut, five bandmates form a beacon of expression, resistance, and independence. Director Rita Baghdadi follows founders and guitarists Lilas Mayassi and Shery Bechara as their tenderness, and sometimes bitterness, for one another grows in ways both unexpected and deeply moving.

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION (Feature)

DOS ESTACIONES
Director(s): Juan Pablo González
Screenwriter: Juan Pablo González, Ana Isabel Fernández, Ilana Coleman
Producer: Jamie Gonçalves, Ilana Coleman, Bruna Haddad, Makena Buchanan

Amid picturesque red dirt, blue sky, and green agave fields stands Dos Estaciones, a once-majestic tequila factory struggling to stay afloat. At the helm of the plant reigns Maria Garcia, heir to the family business and beacon to the townspeople she employs. To help oversee the company’s administration, Maria appoints an eager woman named Rafaela, whose vibrant presence generates much-needed hope in a home thirsty for a miracle. When a persistent plague and an unexpected flood cause irreversible damage, Maria is forced to do everything she can to save her community’s main source of economy and pride. 

LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE
Director(s):Martika Ramirez Escobar
Screenwriter: Martika Ramirez Escobar
Producer: Monster Jimenez, Mario Cornejo

Leonor Reyes was once a major player in the Filipino film industry after creating a string of successful action films, but now her household struggles to pay the bills. When she reads an advertisement looking for screenplays, Leonor begins tinkering with an unfinished script about the quest of young, noble Ronwaldo, forced to avenge his brother’s murder at the hand of thugs. While her imagination provides some escape from reality, she goes all-in after an accident involving a television knocks her out, sends her into a coma, and transports her inside the incomplete movie. Now Leonor can play out her wildest dreams firsthand and discover the perfect ending to her story.

PREMIERES (Feature)

  CALL JANE
  Director(s): Phyllis Nagy
  Screenwriter: Hayley Schore, Roshan Sethi
  Produced by: Robbie Brenner, David Wulf, Kevin McKeon

Chicago, 1968. As a city and the nation are poised on the brink of violent political upheaval, suburban housewife Joy leads an ordinary life with her husband and daughter. When Joy’s pregnancy leads to a life-threatening condition, she must navigate a medical establishment unwilling to help. Her journey to find a solution to an impossible situation leads her to the “Janes,” a clandestine organization of women who provide Joy with a safer alternative — and in the process, change her life.

GOD’S COUNTRY
Director(s): Julian Higgins
Screenwriter: Shaye Ogbonna, Julian Higgins
Producer: Miranda Bailey, Halee Bernard, Julian Higgins, Amanda Marshall

Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) is very tired. It’s been years of trying (and failing) to please her recently deceased mother, while also navigating the challenging politics and power dynamics at the college where she teaches. And then there is the racism, sexism, and toxic masculinity she encounters wherever she goes. But it’s a confrontation with two hunters trespassing on her property that ultimately tests Sandra’s self-restraint, pushing her grief and mounting anger to their limits. God’s Country examines one woman’s grieving process and determination to be taken seriously amid her refusal to surrender to the confines of society.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE
Director(s): Sophie Hyde
Screenwriter: Katy Brand
Producer: Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski

Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) doesn’t know good sex. Whatever it may be, Nancy, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had it, but she is determined to finally do something about that. She even has a plan: It involves an anonymous hotel room and a young sex worker who calls himself Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack). Leo is confident, dapper, and takes pride in being good at his job. He also appears to be intrigued by Nancy — one of many things to surprise her during their time together.

US DRAMATIC COMPETITION (Feature)

EMERGENCY 

Director(s): Carey Williams
Screenwriter: K.D. Dávila
Produced by: Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, John Fischer

Straight-A college student Kunle and his laid-back best friend, Sean, are about to have the most epic night of their lives. Determined to be the first Black students to complete their school’s frat party legendary tour, the friends strap in for their ultimate assignment, Solo cups in hand. But a quick pit stop at home alters their plans when they find a white girl passed out on the living room floor. Faced with the risks of calling the police under life-threatening optics, Kunle, Sean, and their Latino roommate, Carlos, must find a way to de-escalate the situation before it’s too late.

ALICE
Director(s): Krystin Ver Linden
Screenwriter: Krystin Ver Linden
Producer: Peter Lawson

Alice (Keke Palmer) spends her days enslaved on a rural Georgia plantation restlessly yearning for freedom. After a violent clash with plantation owner Paul (Jonny Lee Miller), Alice flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering that the year is actually 1973. Rescued on the roadside by a disillusioned Black activist named Frank (Common), Alice uncovers the lies that have kept her enslaved and the promise of Black liberation.

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