Sundance 2011 New Frontier Section: Clay Jeter, Lynn Hershman Leeson and Matthew Lessner Among Five Selected

Though I secretly wish that I could just dump in favor of the huge tentpole world preems that are the focus of our site, the New Frontier Section is unfortunately the section that I rarely venture into. Publicists would be kind enough to push me to reconsider this decision. As we previously reported, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s TIFF debuted doc will be showing up at the fest, below we have Matthew Lessner’s wacko The Woods (see trailer) promises several laughs and Sundance 2011 appears to be Rutger Hauer year – as he is coming to the fest with not one (Hobo with a Shotgun), but The Mill & the Cross as well.

Jess + Moss /U.S.A. (Director: Clay Jeter; Screenwriters: Clay Jeter and Debra Jeter)
Jess (18) and Moss (12) are second cousins who have spent their summers together since either of them can remember. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, all they have is each other. Through a series of memories and vignettes, ‘Jess + Moss’ recounts the events of the last summer they shared together. Shot entirely on location with a variety of expired and often degraded film stocks, ‘Jess + Moss’ captures the evocative and haunting character of the dark fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Cast: Sarah Hagan, Austin Vickers. World Premiere.

The Mill & the Cross /Poland, Sweden (Director: Lech Majewski; Screenwriters: Michael Francis Gibson and Lech Majewski)
A visually vibrant and masterful work that seamlessly fortifies rich painterly compositions with digital effects, bringing Peter Brugel’s 1564 painting, The Way to Calvary, to real life. Cast: Rutger Hauer, Michael York, Charlotte Rampling, Joanna Litwin. World Premiere

The Nine Muses /U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: John Akomfrah)
An allegorical fable divided into overlapping musical chapters, this film retells the history of mass migration to post-war Britain through the suggestive lens of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. North American Premiere

!Women Art Revolution /U.S.A. (Director: Lynn Hershman Leeson)
One part of a transmedia project that includes the interactive video installation RAW WAR presented at New Frontier, this seminal documentary depicts the history of women artists who have used art as an activist practice to fight oppression and protest gender and racial exclusion – creating what many historians feel is the most significant art movement of the late-20th century. U.S. Premiere

The Woods /U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Lessner)
When promised change that did not come, eight young Americans move deep into to the woods to start their own society. Cast: Justin Phillips, Toby David, Adam Mortemore, Nicola Persky, Chris Edley. World Premiere.