Sundance celebrates the ‘magic’ of being back in-person
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The Sundance Film Festival met the moment by going virtual for the past two years because of the coronavirus pandemic. But on Thursday, there was a palpable sense of relief from the festival’s leadership team at being in-person again.
Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente, director of programming Kim Yutani, senior programmer John Nein and incoming Sundance Film Festival director Eugene Hernandez gathered Thursday afternoon in Park City, Utah, to discuss what’s to come. Just outside, on a snowy Main Street, finishing touches were being put on storefronts and restaurants that sponsors have taken over for the week.
“It feels so good to be back in person,” Vicente said. “There’s nothing like the magic of being together in Park City.”
Yutani also announced the last-minute addition of “Justice,” a documentary from filmmaker Doug Liman about allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, that will debut Friday.
“It was a powerful documentary that we felt was important to add,” Yutani said. “We saw it, like, yesterday.”
Eleven films have their world premieres Thursday night, including the documentary “Little Richard: I Am Everything" and the Frankenstein-inspired psychological horror “birth/rebirth,” about a morgue technician who reanimates a little girl. Also on Thursday, “Shayda,” about an Iranian mother and her 6-year-old daughter who go to a women’s shelter in Australia, “The Longest Goodbye,” a documentary about a NASA psychologist preparing Mars-bound astronauts for social isolation, the Daisy Ridley film “Sometimes I Think About Dying” and “Kim’s Video,” a documentary about a hunt for a lost video collection of 55,000 movies.
Programmers watched 16,000 films to determine this year’s...