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1st Look: Tanya Hamilton’s Night Catches Us
Workshopped in the Sundance labs, written and directed by Tanya Hamilton, and announced as part of the U.S Dramatic Competition, formerly titled "Stringbean and Marcus", Night Catches Us is set in 1978 and focuses on the broken love affair between two former Black Panther members and is told through the eyes of an adolescent girl.
1st Look: Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone
Despite knowing next to nothing about the project via the trades, I had a pretty good feeling that we'd find Debra Granik's sophomore feature in Park City this year. Her first feature, Down to the Bone, was crowned with the fest jewels at the festival back in 2004, Vera Farmiga, the film's lead benefitted tremendously from the push, but oddly enough, it received little fanfare when it came time to its theatrical play.
1st Look: Spencer Susser’s Hesher
After conquering Sundance with (500) Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt returns with his "hitrecord.org" installation in the New Frontier section and with what will be a big title for buyers in Spencer Susser's Hesher. Word to Blue Tongue Films folk ... please save me a tee shirt. Large.
Sundance 2010 New Frontier: Seeing Hitch in Double, Animal Collective in Oddsac
Something tells me I'll be indulging in the NF section with a quota of at least three works. Dammit, I'm already breaking out in hives with the monstrous task ahead of me of covering the festival from top to bottom.
Sundance 2010 Park City at Midnight: Cortes’ Buried, Natali’s Splice and 6 Gems?
You can always count on Park City at Midnight section to deliver one groundbreaking film. It's hard to predict which one, but I'd go with "concept" over such things as cast, aesthetics or production budget. This theory isn't off the charts when you consider Black Dynamite, The Blair Witch Project and Saw got their starts in this section. Of the 8 selected below, I'm familiar with Rodrigo Cortes's Buried (which reminds me of the torment that the Dutch film The Vanishing caused me) and Vincent Natali's Splice which I believe received its world preem at Sitges.
