Jameson Kowalczyk

White text over a black screen begins the story: a man is dropped off at an emergency room in a rural section Washington. The man is suffering from massive internal bleeding, his colon destroyed, and dies. Police use surveillance camera footage to track the car to an isolated horse farm and discover hours of video footage of men having sex with horses. And thus begins Zoo from director Robinson Devor (his third doc to screen at Sundance, his previous credits include the critically acclaimed The Woman Chaser and Police Beat), making it’s world premiere in the Documentary Competition.

What do an ‘ex-gay’ evangelist, a martial arts student, a former German terrorist, and a one-time career bank robber all have in common? This is the question filmmaker Jessica Yu both poses and answers in her new feature length documentary Protagonist, competing in the Independent Film Documentary competition at Sundance.

“Look after those that look after you. Fuck off those that fuck off you.” says Dominic Noonan, reciting the advice given to him by his father. Noonan, the subject of Donal MacIntrye’s World Documentary competitor A Very British Gangster. Noonan takes this advice seriously – seriously enough to have his name legally changed to Lattlay Fottfoy. Has this advice served Noonan well in his career as one of Britain’s most notorious organized criminals?

Teeth is the debut feature from filmmaker Michael Lichtenstien that gives a modern update to the ‘vagina dentate’ mythology – the cultural notion of a woman with teeth on her vagina. Also making her debut, as a lead actress in a feature film, is Jess Weixler who plays Dawn, the film’s protagonist who discovers her unique anatomical feature when she becomes the victim of sexual assault.

As powerful and meaningful now as it was when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1986, River’s Edge is a dark and disturbing film (and based on actual events) about youth alienation directed by Tim Hunter (The Far Side of Jericho, TV’s “Deadwood”), and staring Keanu Reeves (A Scanner Darkly, The Lake House), Crispin Glover (Willard, Wild at Heart), and Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider, Land of the Dead). Though obviously not screening in competition in 2007, River’s Edge is being screened as part of the Sundance Collection, and also in an effort to promote film preservation – appropriate, because few film age this well.