With the 2023 Sundance Film Festival kicking off tomorrow, in-person in Park City and Salt Lake City, UT, for the first time since 2020, and keeping me busy in my role as Senior Programmer, this is typically the time of the year when w(n)td goes on hiatus for the duration of the Festival.
This year, it also makes for a fitting time to bring this site to a close, more or less. I’ve been posting about all things documentary since the summer of 2010, usually multiple times daily during the work week. While my writing has been less in-depth in recent years, making the site function more like a nonfiction release listing, it’s still been a time commitment. With others providing similar information – I recommend interested readers sign up for DOC NYC’s Weekend Watch newsletter – I feel like it’s time for me to step away from regular posting for the foreseeable future. I may pop in with an occasional post, such as notable Sundance announcements or listings of Sundance alumni releases, but, after 12.5 years and more than 8000 posts, my daily contributions to w(n)td have now wrapped.
Thanks to everyone who has checked out this site over the years, which I’ll continue to maintain as an archive. If you’re headed to Sundance, I hope to see you in person there.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Bruce Levine
Director: Rory Kennedy
About: Exploring the rise and fall of the Synanon organization — through the eyes of the members who lived it — from its early days as a groundbreaking drug rehabilitation program to its later descent into what many consider a cult.
About: Playing with the forms and tropes of various cinema genres, the filmmaker sets off on a quest to find a legendary lost video collection of 55,000 movies in Sicily.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo courtesy of Apple
Director: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss
About: Teenage girls from wildly different backgrounds across Missouri navigate a week-long immersive experiment in American democracy, build a government from the ground up, and reimagine what it means to govern.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Rita Baghdadi
Director: Rita Baghdadi
About: On the outskirts of Beirut, Lilas and Shery, co-founders and guitarists of the Middle East’s first all-female metal band, wrestle with friendship, sexuality, and destruction in their pursuit of becoming thrash metal rock stars.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jeremy Cowart
Director: Alexandria Bombach
About: Blending 40 years of home movies, film archives, and intimate present-day vérité, a poignant reflection from Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of iconic folk rock duo Indigo Girls. A timely look into the obstacles, activism, and life lessons of two queer friends who never expected to make it big.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls
Director: Ido Mizrahy
About: Social isolation affects millions of people, even Mars-bound astronauts. A savvy NASA psychologist is tasked with protecting these daring explorers.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls
Director: Ido Mizrahy
About: Social isolation affects millions of people, even Mars-bound astronauts. A savvy NASA psychologist is tasked with protecting these daring explorers.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Leo Matiz
Director: Carla Gutiérrez
About: An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Derek Howard
Director: Alison O’Daniel
About: From 2011 to 2013, tubas were stolen from Los Angeles high schools. This is not a story about thieves or missing tubas. Instead, it asks what it means to listen.
About: In her 21-year professional career, WNBA basketball legend Sue Bird has won five Olympic gold medals and become the most successful point guard to ever play the game. Alongside her fiancée, US soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Sue confronts her next challenge: retiring from the only life she’s ever known.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Reid Davenport
Director: Reid Davenport
About: Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent that goes up outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker launches into an unflinching meditation on freakdom, (in)visibility, and the pursuit of individual agency.
About: Bronx rap artist Kemba explores the growing weaponization of rap lyrics in the United States criminal justice system and abroad — revealing how law enforcement has quietly used artistic creation as evidence in criminal cases for decades.
About: Three directors offer their unique and personal perspectives on their home state of Texas, creating vivid portraits of a state that mirrors the United States’ past, present, and future. Inspired by the book God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.
Huntsville, Texas sits at the heart of an expansive prison industrial complex. Yet, for many residents, these prisons exist in another realm, disconnected from their lives. Richard Linklater revisits his hometown to explore its diverse inhabitants, painting a vibrant portrait that encapsulates the criminal justice system of Texas.
About: Three directors offer their unique and personal perspectives on their home state of Texas, creating vivid portraits of a state that mirrors the United States’ past, present, and future. Inspired by the book God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.
Iliana Sosa examines how “nepantla,” an embrace of in-betweenness, characterizes relations to both her Mexican heritage and her hometown of El Paso, Texas. An exploration revealing how the city’s humanity and unique hybridity catalyzed unity, nurturing healing in the aftermath of a devastating mass shooting in 2019.
About: Three directors offer their unique and personal perspectives on their home state of Texas, creating vivid portraits of a state that mirrors the United States’ past, present, and future. Inspired by the book God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.
As the world’s energy capital, Houston is a city that manufactures both its prominence and demise. Alex Stapleton explores the industry’s impact on her family, who arrived as enslaved people in the 1830s, built thriving communities, and now must cope with the human costs of Texas’ biggest money-maker.
The winners of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival were announced on Friday. A list of the feature awards follows:
US Documentary Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: PORCELAIN WAR | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Slava Leontyev and Andrey StefanovAudience Award: DAUGHTERS | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteDirecting Award: SUGARCANE | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Christopher LaMarcaJonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: FRIDA | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Leo MatizSpecial Jury Award: Sound: GAUCHO GAUCHO | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: The Art of Change: UNION | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Martin DiCicco
World Cinema Documentary Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: A NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Maria Gros VatneAudience Award: IBELIN | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Bjørg EngdahlDirecting Award: IBELIN | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Bjørg EngdahlSpecial Jury Award: Craft: NOCTURNES | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: Cinematic Innovation: SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Terence Spencer
US Dramatic Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: IN THE SUMMERS | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteAudience Award: DÌDI (弟弟) | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteDirecting Award: IN THE SUMMERS | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteWaldo Salt Screenwriting Award: A REAL PAIN | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: Ensemble: DÌDI (弟弟) | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: Breakthrough Performance: SUNCOAST | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
World Cinema Dramatic Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: SUJO | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Ximena AmannAudience Award: GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteDirecting Award: IN THE LAND OF BROTHERS | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: Original Music: HANDLING THE UNDEAD | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Pal Ulvik RoksethSpecial Jury Award: Acting: GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS | Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
NEXT Awards:
NEXT Innovator Award: LITTLE DEATH | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteAudience Award: KNEECAP | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: DESIRE LINES | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Marie Hinson
Festival Favorite:
Festival Favorite: DAUGHTERS | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK Set in San Francisco in the 1970s, THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK tells of the extraordinary rise to power of a long-haired, gay camera store owner from the Castro District who became one of the city’s most colorful and influential elected officials, as well as one of the decade’s most prominent leaders of the LGBTQ+ rights movement — that is, until he was shot and killed at City Hall by former police officer and fellow supervisor Dan White. Harvey Milk’s journey to that fateful day is recounted brilliantly through the course of the film.
Director/Producer: Rob Epstein
Producer: Richard Schmiechen
Festival Section: 40th Edition Celebration Screenings and Events
More Info: This Oscar-winning doc screened at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival, where it won Special Jury Prize (Documentary). As part of this year’s special 40th Edition Celebration, it returns to the Festival in a recently digitally restored version.
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
DIG!XX DIG! XX tracks the tumultuous rise of two talented musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols, and dissects their star-crossed friendship and bitter rivalry. Through their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and ultimately to their chance at a piece of the profit-driven music business, they stage a self-proclaimed revolution in the music industry.
Director/Producer: Ondi Timoner
Producer: David Timoner
Festival Section: 40th Edition Celebration Screenings and Events
More Info: DIG! XX screens in a newly re-edited and expanded form, 20 years after winning the Grand Jury Prize in the US Documentary Competition.
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
ENO Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno — known for producing David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, among many others; pioneering the genre of ambient music; and releasing over 40 solo and collaboration albums — reveals his creative processes in this groundbreaking generative documentary: a film that’s different every time it’s shown.
Director/Producer: Gary Hustwit
Producer: Jessica Edwards
Festival Section: New Frontier
More Info: Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
BEING (THE DIGITAL GRIOT) In this innovative participatory experience, Being, an artificial intelligence digital griot, asks the audience to engage in unifying and challenging discussions. It features a soundscape and movement informed by a dataset from Black communities, theorists, poets, and activists, including bell hooks, Paulo Freire, Dazié Grego-Sykes, and Cornel West.
Lead Artist: Rashaad Newsome
Producer: Johnny Symons
Festival Section: New Frontier
More Info: Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Wolfgang Held
WAR GAME A bipartisan group of US defense, intelligence, and elected policymakers spanning five presidential administrations participate in an unscripted role-play exercise in which they confront a political coup backed by rogue members of the US military, in the wake of a contested presidential election.
Director/Producer: Jesse Moss
Director: Tony Gerber
Producers: Todd Lubin, Jack Turner, Mark DiCristofaro, Jessica Grimshaw, Nick Shumaker
Festival Section: Special Screenings
More Info: This is the second of two films from Moss in this year’s Festival, following GIRLS STATE; his previous Sundance films were BOYS STATE and THE OVERNIGHTERS. Gerber is also an alumni with the doc feature THE NOTORIOUS MR BOUT, as well as the fiction feature SIDE STREETS and fiction short SMALL TASTE OF HEAVEN.
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP In 1985, 46 music icons, including Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder, came together for the most star-studded recording session in history. This is the untold story of the legendary global pop song “We Are the World” — which very nearly didn’t happen.
Director: Bao Nguyen
Producers: Julia Nottingham, Lionel Richie, Bruce Eskowitz, Larry Klein, Harriet Sternberg, George Hencken
Festival Section: Special Screenings
More Info: Nguyen was previously at Sundance with BE WATER.
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
what (not) to doc 