Sundance 2011: New Short from Carter Smith

Ask me what my top 5 films of 2006 were, and it would probably be one of the rare times I’d list a short film among my top picks. Up there with Children of Mens and Little Childrens, I’d say a highlight of the year and certainly the best film of the 06′ edition of the Sundance Film Festival was Bugcrush from fashion photographer/commercials director Carter Smith. A creepy, horror film about a loner who is enamored by a school bully travelled to Cannes and I imagine it meant that every horror script was sent to the filmmaker’s agent’s way. He would be attached to direct Come Closer – the Sara Gran novel for Miramax films, and he was invited to Sundance’s 2007 Screenwriter’s Lab (with projects such as Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre, Fernando Eimbcke’s Lake Tahoe, So Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain and Victoria Mahoney’s Yelling To The Sky) with Warm – co-written with Dennis Cooper which tells the twisted love story of Mack and Dave, two L.A. youths that are drowning in a world of abusive boyfriends, sleazy porn, witchcraft and Mexican vacation contests.

And speaking of Mexico, most cinephiles are perhaps more familiar with Smith’s feature debut – the low budget (8 million dollar range) The Ruins for Spielberg’s Dreamworks. Not much has happened since 2008, Smith has stuck to his roots, made this 25/25 item for Elle magazine, but apparently had the time to sneak in a short film this summer which will be showcased at the upcoming Sundance Film Fest. Filmed in New York with model/television actor Colton Hayes (The Gates), we imagine the director might stick  Right now we’ve unfortunately have nothing else to go on, but we’ll definitely keep you up to date and be adding the short to our coverage. Sundance announces the short film selections sometime next week.