Festival Predictions

2014 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker’s Unlocking the Cage

Published on November 21, 2013

If they grace the festival with their presence, it would be like having the Beatles show up (Frederick Wiseman is our Elvis). Legendary docu-team Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker haven’t presented a doc film at the fest since 1987’s Jimi Plays Monterey (UPDATE: they actually showed up in back-to-back years with Startup.com (2001) and Only the Strong Survive) and the pair have participated as jurors/panelists as well. Their new project, which received some coin via the 2013 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, is a hot topic issue/last frontier, that may be aligned with Sundance’s unwritten mandate for docu films that push social boundaries.

Gist: Renowned animal rights attorney Steven Wise wants to break through the legal wall that separates animals and humans. His lawsuit, the first of its kind, will demand the most basic of personhood rights – those of bodily integrity and liberty – for an animal of a species that has been proven to have advanced cognitive capabilities, transforming the status of the animal from that of a mere “thing” to a “person” possessing rights that protect him from abuse and captivity.

Production Co./Producers: Rosadel Varela (Control Room), Frazer Pennebaker.

Prediction: If this does get a 2014 release, it could pick up a Doc Premieres showing or wait until Tribeca or TIFF for a premiere.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).