Packing for Park City Utah to attend the fabulous Sundance Film Festival from 21 to 31 January? Baroque Access offers an idea of what’s in store
The 2016 Sundance Film Festival offers a selection of stunning star-studded film premieres in their line-up, including a documentary by Spike Lee on Michael Jackson, a feature film by Kelly Reichardt called Certain Women, which is based on the lives of three women who live in small town America, played by Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams. This world premiere is a must see, along with one by UK director Asif Kapadia’s blockbuster called Ali & Nino, a tragic love story about a Muslim prince and a Georgian aristocrat set during the First World War.
Last week the Sundance Film Festival announced a really impressive list of titles for their upcoming schedule, including several big names, a superb range of narrative and documentary premieres and also 72 short films. Of course, with such a huge program, how does one find the hidden gems? Our advice is to look for familiar names when it comes to directors as well as actors.
Ira Sachs is bringing out another stunning movie called Little Men, Todd Solondz is offering up Wiener Dog, with a multi-star cast including Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn and Kieran Culkin. These two, along with Reichardt and Kapadia’s offerings, mentioned above, are the must-sees when it comes to watching the work of some of the best film makers in the country.
If you’re looking for the big stars, you’ll find them in smaller films, so dig a little deeper when you go through the very long program to find them. To help, we’ve dug up some of them… Look out for Kathy Bates in Complete Unknown, Danny Glover in Mr Pig, Anna Kendrick in The Hollars, Paul Rudd in The Fundamentals of Caring plus Michael Shannon and Rosanna Arquette in Frank & Lola, a psychosexual noir love story set in Paris and Las Vegas.
Rachel Weisz stars alongside Kathy Bates and Danny Glover in Complete Unknown, about a dinner guest that the host is sure he’s met before.
Another must-see is the new documentary about Frank Zappa, entitled Eat that Question – Frank Zappa in His Own Words, which is directed by Thorsten Schütteand offers a rich and rare archival footage about the star. Then there is the one we already mentioned, Spike Lee’s documentary entitled Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall. The film explores Jackson’s album Off the Wall and shows rare archival footage and interviews from that time.
Other films to look out for include Maya Angelou And Still I Rise, featuring the remarkable story of the iconic writer, poet, activist and actress as well as the story of Gloria Vanderbilt and her son, Anderson Cooper, Nothing Left Unsaid.
In addition, the festival is also offering its signature Midnight Series, which runs for the last 14 days of the program.