Friday, January 25
Designates films with no queer-content, but the filmmaker(s) identify as LGBT
8:30 AM
Towelhead
Director/Screenwriter: Alan Ball
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Toni Collette, Summer Bishil
(USA, 2007, 115 min., color, 35mm)
From the creator of Six Feet Under, Alan Ball's adaptation of Alicia Erian's novel follows the sexual awakening of a 13-year-old Arab American girl named Jasira who becomes involved with an army reservist living in her neighborhood.
Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
11:30 AM
An American Soldier
Director/Screenwriter: Edet Belzberg
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Joel Mackenzie, Frank Sweet
(USA, 2007, 86 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
Sergeant First Class Clay Usie is one of the most successful army recruiters in the country; he also acts as a mentor to high-school students training to become soldiers, many of whom will eventually be deployed to Iraq. One of the soldiers he recruits, and whom this film follows closely over a period of nine months, is revealed to be a lesbian.
Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City
Birds of America
Director: Craig Lucas
Screenwriter: Elyse Friedman
Cast: Matthew Perry, Hillary Swank, Ginnifer Goodwin, Ben Foster, Lauren Graham
(USA, 2007, 89 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
The latest film from director Craig Lucas (Longtime Companion, The Dying Gaul) follows three siblings who were forced to cope with their parents' death while still children, and who must now force themselves to grow up and get along when they suddenly find themselves reunited. One of the film's supporting characters is struggling with their own identity issues.
Library Center Theatre, Park City
Sunshine Cleaning
Director: Christine Jeffs
Screenwriter: Megan Holley
Cast: Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Steve Zahn, Alan Arkin
(USA, 2007, 102 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
In an effort to turn their lives around, two sisters start a crime scene cleaning business and quickly learn that the job requires more than just elbow grease. Things get even more complicated when sister Norah becomes sexually obsessed with a blood bank technician named Lynn.
Racquet Club, Park City
2:30 PM
Pretty Bird (Dramatic Competition)
Director/Screenwriter: Paul Schneider
Cast: Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Kristen Wiig, Denis O'Hare
(USA, 2008, 120 min., color, 35mm)
The spirit of invention is alive and well in Curtis Prentiss, a driven man intent on creating a rocket-powered belt, who finds unexpected success when he teams with an out of work aerospace engineer and a friend with the funds to underwrite the project. At least one of the film's characters will come out of the closet by the film's end as well.
Racquet Club, Park City
Xanadu
Director: Robert Boyd
(USA, 2007, Installation)
As part of the free exhibitions at the New Frontier space on Main Street, Robert Boyd's installation Xanadu will be shown every day in a single channel presentation. In rapid fire, music style montages, Boyd throws a disco track over images of doomsday cults, political figures, and fundamentalist rage against feminism and gay rights.
Screening with The Linguists
New Frontier, Park City
6:15 PM
Savage Grace
Director: Tom Kalin
Screenwriter: Howard A. Rodman
Cast: Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne, Stephen Dillane
(USA, 2007, 96 min., color, 35 mm)
Based on true events, this film tells the story of unabashed social climber Barbara Daly, who, after watching her marriage to a wealthy man crumble, later attempts to "cure" her son's homosexuality with tragic results. Savage Grace marks director Tom Kalin's return to Sundance 16 years after his first feature, Swoon, helped define "New Queer Cinema."
Eccles Theatre, Park City
6:30 PM
Half-life
Director/Screenwriter: Jennifer Phang
Cast: Sanoe Lake, Leonardo Nam, Julia Nickson
(USA, 2008, 116 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
Set in a futuristic world scarred from global and environmental disasters, this gorgeous and inventive film follows a family's growing uncertainty after single mother Saura meets a mysterious suitor. At the same time, frustrated daughter Pam longs for a young gay man named Scott struggling for acceptance from his own fundamentalist parents.
Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Untitled #1
Director: Nao Bustamente
(USA, 2007, 4 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
Seeking to create a "time capsule" to be opened in the year 2507, Bustamente has created an assemblage of found footage, crude video, and stampeding poodles to be the first in a series of films meant for future generations to re-experience.
Screening with Half-Life
Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
8:30 PM
Phoebe In Wonderland
Director/Screenwriter: Daniel Barnz
Cast: Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Elle Fanning
(USA, 2007, 96 min., color, 35mm)
The different psychological realities of children and adults are explored in writer/director Daniel Barnzs' tale of a frustrated academic struggling to raise her daughter, Phoebe, a gifted child prone to escapist fantasies, who wants to take part in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.
Racquet Club, Park City
11:45 PM
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Director: Christopher Bell
Screenwriters: Christopher Bell, Alexander Buono, Tamsin Rawady
(USA, 2007, 105 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
After his two brothers found themselves caught up in the dangerous subculture of performance-enhancing drugs and steroids, director Christopher Bell decided to turn his camera on the social pressures that lead some to take drastic steps in pursuit of physical perfection. Among those interviewed is an HIV-positive man and proponent of steroid therapy.
Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Slamdance Screenings
9:00 AM
Feedback
Director: Michael Lucid
(USA, 2008, 5 min.)
Out actor Jack Plotnick stars in this short film, in which a talented storyteller receives some unwanted feedback.
Screening with $99 Specials