2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Jessica Dimmock & Christopher Lamarca’s Brick

More than any other period in film history, the popularity for the docu-form means we are in its healthiest and perhaps most inundated moment. With various quality levels, an endless amount of fascinating subjects/subject matters and additionally support from several governing docu-friendly institutions means that when the Sundance Institute offers funding and lab access to a given docu title it doesn’t necessarily grant an automatic berth into the festival portion which is fine when there are so many other venues to launch. Despite receiving a 2014 development grant and being selected as part of the 2015 Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab, Brick (not a remake of Rian Johnson’s feature debut) has two things going for it: a culturally curious fascination with the subject in 2015 and a duo with a mad skill-set. A profiled duo in Filmmaker Magazine’s Top 25 Faces, we were first made aware of Jessica Dimmock‘s excellent cinematography skills in Mark Jackson’s underrated gem debut Without. Teaming with another award-winning fotog in Christopher LaMarca, we think this five person portrait on sexual reassignment will give us tremendous insight into this midlife transformation.

Gist: Brick witnesses the loss and extraordinary risk of five middle-aged and senior war vets, steel foremen, and fathers and grandfathers coming out for the first time as transgender women in the hyper-masculine culture of the Pacific Northwest. Each year, their lives intersect at the annual Esprit Conference for T-girls, a weeklong event enlivening a community broken by isolation and loss.

Production Co./Producers: Jessica Dimmock (Without) & Christopher Lamarca

Prediction: U.S. Documentary Competition.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). TBD (international)

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