Jan 17, 2007–No less than 52 films at this year's Sundance Festival are directed by women, which is something of a record. Of the 16 features in the dramatic competition, three are femme-helmed: Zoe Cassavetes' Broken English, Deborah Kempmeir's Hounddog, and Gina Kim's Never Forever.
AUTISM EVERY DAY / U.S.A (Director: Lauren Thierry)AUTISM EVERY DAY is a short film that takes you inside the lives of families struggling to raise children with autism. It is a gritty, truthful portrayal of the 24-hour-a-day challenge faced by families as they confront the heartbreak of autism with uncompromising hope and unconditional love. World Premiere.
AWAY FROM HER / CANADA (Director and Screenwriter: Sarah Polley)Married for almost 50 years, Grant and Fionas serenity is interrupted by Fionas increasingly frequent memory lapses. When it is no longer possible for either of them to ignore the fact that she is being consumed by Alzheimers disease, the limits of love and loyalty are wrenchingly redefined. U.S. Premiere. SALT LAKE CITY GALA
BROKEN ENGLISH
Director and Screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes)A young woman in her thirties finds herself surrounded by friends who are married, in relationships or with children. She unexpectedly meets a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love. World Premiere.
BAJO JUAREZ, THE CITY DEVOURING ITS DAUGHTERS / Mexico (Director: Alejandra Snchez, Jos Antonio Cordero)In an industrial town in Mexico near the US border, hundreds of women have been sexually abused and murdered. As the body count continues to rise, a web of corruption unfolds that reaches the highest levels of Mexican society. U.S. Premiere.
BLAME IT ON FIDEL (LA FAUTE A FIDEL) / France (Director and Screenwriter: Julie Gavras)A 9- year-old girl weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris. North American Premiere.
BITCH / U.S.A. (Director: Lilah Vandenburgh)A tough girl with a predilection for quality vinyl and a hard jab soon finds herself falling for a jerk with poor social skills and bad taste in music. Short
CLUBLAND / Australia (Director: Cherie Nowlan; Screenwriter: Keith Thompson)Tim has a new girlfriend. It should be the perfect romance but something is holding him back. He has a secret…his parents are Entertainers! There are never just two people in a family love story. World Premiere.
COMRADES IN DREAMS / Germany (Director: Uli Gaulke)From the far ends of the globe, four lives that could not be more different are united by a single passiontheir unconditional love of cinema and their quest to bring the magic of the silver screen to everyday lives to those who need it most. North American Premiere.
CONVERSION (Director: Nanobah Becker)Christian missionaries make a catastrophic visit to a Navajo family. Short.
THE DAWN CHORUS / U.S.A. (Director: Hope Dickson Leach)Seven years since their plane crashed, Bonnie and Lloyd are still searching the wreckage of the event that marked their parent's demise. Short.
DESTINY MANIFESTO / U.S.A. (Director: Martha Colburn)An exploration between the visual and psychological parallels between the American western frontier and the conflict in the Middle East. Short.
DREAMS AND DESIRES FAMILY TIES / UK (Director: Joanna Quinn)Upon acquiring a new digital video camera, Beryl becomes obsessed with the filmmaking process, using it to articulate her dreams & desires in a video diary with disastrous results. Short.
THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK / U.S.A. (Directors: Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern)THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK is a documentary that exposes the genocide raging in Darfur, Sudan as seen through the eyes of a former U.S. marine who returns home to make the story public. World Premiere.
ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS (VORES LYKKES FJENDER) / Denmark (Director: Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem )Malalai Joya, a 28-year-old Afghani woman, redefines the role of women and elected officials in her county with her historic 2005 victory in Afghanistans first democratic parliamentary election in over 30 years. North American Premiere.
EVERYTHINGS COOL (Directors: Daniel B. Gold, Judith Helfand)A group of self-appointed global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, proper language, and points of leverage to help the public go from embracing the urgency of the problem to creating the political will necessary to move to an alternative energy economy. World Premiere.
THE FIGHTING CHOLITAS / U.S.A. (Directors: Mariam Jobrani, Kenny Krauss, Teresa Deskins)A group of bold, female, Bolivian wrestlers push the limits of their culture by performing the acrobatic maneuvers of Lucha Libre every Sunday. Short.
FOR A SWIM WITH THE FISH (Director: Tara Autovino)A child who believes that her mother has relocated (literally) to the Gulf of Mexico, skips school to pay her mother a birthday visit. Short.
FRAULEIN / Switzerland (Director and Screenwriter: Andrea Staka)A hardened Zurich restaurant owner from Yugoslavia finds her cool detachment from the past disrupted with the arrival of a younger, free-spirited woman seeking a better life after the Balkan War. North American Premiere.
FLYING-CONFESSIONS OF A FREE WOMAN / Denmark/U.S.A. (Director: Jennifer Fox)A ground breaking, 6-hour, sexy, and often humorous, personal account of one woman's four year investigation of her own life and the lives of other women around the globeto discover what it means to be a woman today.
FREEHELD / U.S.A. (Director: Cynthia Wade)In the last weeks of her life, Lieutenant Laurel Hester has one goal to leave her hardearned pension to her life partner Stacie. Short.
GOD PROVIDES / U.S.A. (Directors: Brian Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky)A look at the varied and unexpected responses to natural disaster. Short.
GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB (Director: Rory Kennedy)This inside look at the abuses that occurred at the infamous Iraqi prison in the fall of 2003 uses direct, personal narratives of perpetrators, witnesses, and victims to probe the effects of the abuses on all involved. World Premiere.
GRACELAND / Thailand (Director: Anocha Suwichakornpong)One night in Bangkok, Jon and a mysterious women embark on a journey to a foreign land the human heart.
HAPPINESS / U.S.A. (Director: Sophie Barthes)One evening after work, Iwona buys a box of happiness in a strange discount store and has to decide what to do with it. Short.
HEAR AND NOW (Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky)Filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky tells a deeply personal story about her deaf parents, and their radical decisionafter 65 years of silenceto undergo cochlear implant surgery, a complex procedure that could give them the ability to hear. World Premiere.
HOUNDDOG (Director and Screenwriter: Deborah Kampmeier)Set in late 1950s Alabama, a precocious, troubled girl finds her angel in the Blues. World Premiere.
HOW SHE MOVE / Canada (Director: Ian Iqbal Rashid; Screenwriter: Annmarie Morais)Following her sisters death from drug addiction, a high school student is forced to leave her private school to return to her old, crime-filled neighborhood where she re-kindles an unlikely passion for the competitive world of Step dancing. World Premiere.
HOW SHE SLEPT AT NIGHT (Director: Lilli Carre)A man tries to remember his wife, but only comes up with scant details as his memory starts to stray. Short.
IF I HAD KNOWN I WAS A GENIUS / U.S.A. (Director: Dominique Wirtschafter; Screenwriter: Markus Redmond)A young African-American man recounts his life. When he finds out he has a high IQ he struggles to fit in somewhere while also battling with his dysfunctional family. World Premiere.
INFINITE DELAY /U.S.A. (Director: Kadet Kuhne)A restrained subject surrenders herself to a sublime state of waiting in a mysterious underwater world. Short.
LA MISMA LUNA (THE SAME MOON) / U.S.A. (Director: Patricia Riggen; Screenwriter: Ligiah Villalobos)When his grandmother dies a young Mexican boy struggles to cross the border to reunite with his beloved mother, who is working hard in Los Angeles to create a better life for the family. World Premiere.
LIGHT WORK I (Director: Jennifer Reeves)Found images from 20th century educational films are sewn together with melted down pharmaceuticals affixed directly to the film, forming a concentrated fusion with pulsating electronic sounds, bass clarinet and organ. Short.
MAGNETIC POLES / U.S.A. (Director: Maria Rosenblum)Realizing her relationship is in trouble a waitress seeks to reattract her boyfriend by shaking up their normal life with a bizarre trip to a magnetic hill. Short.
MAKE A WISH / Israel (Director: Cherien Dabis)A young Palestinian girl will do anything it takes to buy a birthday cake. Short.
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES / Canada (Director: Jennifer Baichwal)This stunningly visual work provides the unique perspective of photographer Edward Burtynsky, who chronicles the transforming landscape of the world due to industrial work and manufacturing. U.S. Premiere.
MEN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BETTER / Iran (Director: Marjan Alizadeh)A man gets a call from a friend seeking comfort when his wife hasn't arrived back home. Short.
MOTHER SUPERIOR (Directors: Alex Mack & Diana Montero)A mom is supposed to be perfect, but that is often far from the truth in this examination of mothers who are addicted to methamphetamines. Short.
NEVER FOREVER (Director and Screenwriter: Gina Kim)When an American woman and her Asian-American husband discover they are unable to conceive, she begins a clandestine relationship with an attractive stranger in a desperate attempt to save her marriage. World Premiere.
PHANTOM LOVE/ U.S.A. (Director: Nina Menkes)A surreal drama about a woman trapped within an enmeshed family, and her slow process of personal liberation. Set in Los Angeles and Rishikesh, India, the film combines fairy-tale elements with brutal black and white photography to create a powerful testament about inner transformation. World Premiere.
PHANTOM CANYON / U.S.A. (Director: Stacey Steers)A curious woman encounters enormous insects and an alluring man with bat wings in a surreal recollection of a pivotal journey. Short.
PEACE TALK / Sweden (Director: Jenifer Malmqvist)Little Jonna and her friend Emilie play at being soldiers, but Jonnas mother doesnt approve of the course their game takes. Short.
PROTAGONIST (Director: Jessica Yu)PROTAGONIST explores the organic relationship between human life and Euripidean dramatic structure by weaving together the stories of four mena German terrorist, a bank robber, an “ex-gay” evangelist, and a martial arts student. World Premiere.
RED ROAD / UK (Director and Screenwriter: Andrea Arnold)When a man she never wanted to see again suddenly appears back in Jackie's ordered, isolated Glasgow life, she has no choice; she is compelled to confront him. U.S. Premiere.
THE SAVAGES / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Tamara Jenkins)A comic-drama about a pair of adult siblings who are suddenly plucked from their self-absorbed lives when they are forced to care for their estranged and elderly father who never cared for theman irreverent story about life, love and mortality. World Premiere.
SOPHIE / Denmark (Director: Birgitte Strmose)After a pregnant wife asks her husband if he's ever been with a prostitute, their night takes a radical change. Short.
STRANGE CULTURE / U.S.A. (Lynn Hershman Leeson) When artist and college professor, Steve Kurtz awoke to realize that his wife of 27 years had tragically died in her sleep, a surreal sequence of events ensued that led to his being held as a suspected terrorist. Nearly three years later the charges have not been dropped. He faces up to 20 years in prison. World Premiere.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN (Director: Mitch McCabe)A photographer chronicles her life over five years of political events, comically interweaving protest footage with her photographic diary of self-portraits to tell a modern tale about art, change, hope, and futility. Short.
THE UNFORESEEN / U.S.A. (Director: Laura Dunn)When a west Texas farm boy develops pristine hill country into large-scale subdivisions, threatening a fragile limestone aquifer, an environmental movement rises up and fights back. This documentary takes a hard look at the American dream and asks, “What does it mean to grow” World Premiere.
WAR DANCE (Director: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine)WAR DANCE is set against the backdrop of Uganda's 20 year civil war and its devastating affects on two generations of Ugandans. This film tells the story of Dominic, Rose and Nancy and their school in the Patongo IDP camp as they take an historic journey to compete in Ugandas national music and dance festival. World Premiere.
WAITRESS / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Adrienne Shelly)A pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep South falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt at happiness. World Premiere.
WOMENS ISSUES
AN AMERICAN CRIME / U.S.A. (Director: Tommy OHaver; Screenwriters: Tommy OHaver, Irene Turner) A fictionalized account of the true story of a young girls torturous ordeal at the hands of a troubled mother of seven in 1960s Indianapolis. World Premiere.
GIRL 27 (Director: David Stenn)When underage dancer Patricia Douglas is raped at a wild MGM stag party in 1937, she makes headlines and legal history, and then disappears. GIRL 27 follows author-screenwriter David Stenn as he investigates one of Hollywood's most notorious scandals. World Premiere.
MISS NAVAJO / U.S.A. (Director: Billy Luther)A documentary that explores the role of women and tradition in Navajo culture by following one young woman as she prepares for and competes in the Miss Navajo Nation Pageant. World Premiere.
TRADE / U.S.A. (Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner; Screenwriter: Jose Rivera)Adriana is a 13-year-old girl from Mexico City whose kidnapping by sex traffickers sets in motion a desperate mission by her 17-year-old brother, Jorge, to save her. As Jorge dodges immigration officers and incredible obstacles to track the girls abductors, he meets Ray, a Texas cop whose own family loss to sex trafficking leads him to become an ally in the boys quest. World Premiere.
