Sundance Film Festival 2008: New Frontier lineup

The New Frontier section is the one section that I normally don't plunge into (and that's a real shame). Call it lack of time, but more like lack of commitment – the films that come out of this section are usually of the
groundbreaking kind. I think you need to be in a different headspace to appreciate each and everyone of these – hence why I tend to grab only one or two of these films each year. So far I've got my laser pointed towards  
Mange Ceci est Mon Corps (pictured above).

This “new media” menu will be announced in full on December 6th (same day as they announce the short film sections). So here is the list of six announced today:

cASTING a gLANCE / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: James Benning)— An experiential look atRobert Smithson’s monumental sculpture, the Spiral Jetty, as it has evolved over 30 years in concert with the ebb and flow of the Great Salt Lake.

EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY (Mange Ceci est Mon Corps)/ France/ Haiti (Director andScreenwriter: Michelange Quay)— A dreamlike meditation on the evolution of racial conquest and liberation in Haiti. Cast: Sylvie Testud. U.S. Premiere

FEAR(S) OF THE DARK (PEUR(S) DU NOIR)/ France (Directors: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Callou, Richard McGuire, Pierre Di Sciullio, Lorenzo Mattotti Screenwriters: Jerry Kramsky, Pirus, Romaine Slocombe, Artistic Director: Etienne Robial)—Ten leading graphic artists and cartoonists
have breathed life into their phobias and nightmares in this animated feature. North American Premiere 

HALF-LIFE/ U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Jennifer Phang)— As troubling signs of global cataclysms accelerate, a brother and sister react to their father's desertion and the powerful presence of their mother's new boyfriend. World Premiere

REVERSION/ U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Mia Trachinger)— In a world in which the past, present and future simultaneously unfold, a woman whose genetic mutation leaves her devoid of morality struggles to preserve her romance with the man she loves. World Premiere

SEVEN INTELLECTUALS IN BAMBOO FOREST, PARTS 4 AND 5/ U.S.A. (Artist: Yang Fudong)— A rare screening of the artist's most recently completed films in his celebrated series, based on the history of seven intellectuals in the ancient Chinese Wei and Jin Dynasties.