Saturday, January 27
Designates films with no queer-content, but the filmmaker(s) identify as LGBT
11:30 AM
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."
Racquet Club, Park City
12:45 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.
Broadway Centre Cinemas V, 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
Broadway Centre Cinemas V, Park City
1:30 PM
Be Like Others
Director/Screenwriter: Tanaz Eshaghian
(Canada, 2008, 74 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
In a country where homosexuality remains an offense punishable by death, this documentary asserts that many young gay men and women in Iran are opting to undergo gender reassignment surgery, which is their only legal option under their country's interpretation of Islamic law. This film explores a culture in which shame and fear have led many to take extreme measures in an attempt to find acceptance.
Broadway Centre Cinemas VI, Park City
2:30 PM
Pariah
Director: Dee Rees
(USA, 2007, 27 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
A lesbian teen living in the Bronx must juggle multiple identities to maintain peace between her personal and familial lives, but as the pressures of her double life mount, the wall between her personas begins to crumble.
Shown as part of Shorts Program IV
Library Center Theatre, Park City
3:15 PM
1977
Director: Peque Varela
(United Kingdom, 2007, 9 min., color)
A young school girl's anxieties about not fitting in with her more feminine classmates manifest as a bitter, little knot of black energy in this inventively animated short.
Shown as part of Animation Spotlight)
Eccles Theatre, Park City
5:30 PM
La Corona
Director: Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega
(USA, 2007, 40 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
A women's prison in Bogota, Columbia is the setting for a very unique beauty pageant, in which the contestants are comprised of thieves, assassins, and guerillas.
Shown as part of Documentary Spotlight
Library Center Theatre, Park City
Lloyd Neck
Director: Benedict Campbell
(USA, 2007, 16 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
A young girl with a crush on her brother's best friend notices that Jesse's feelings for her brother may be more than platonic. In one of the last days of summer, the three spend the day taking pictures in a Long Island state park before college inevitably separates the boys.
Shown as part of Shorts Program V
Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Sunlit Shadows
Director: Benjamin M. Piety
(USA, 2007, 14 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
A "visual mix-tape" that combines music with beautifully lit cinematography to evoke the conflicting emotions in letting go of a lost love.
Shown as part of Shorts Program V
Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
6:00 PM
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.
Egyptian Theatre, Park City
9:00 PM
Otto; Or, Up With Dead People
Director/Screenwriter: Bruce LaBruce
Cast: Jey Crisfar, Katharina Klewinghaus, Marcel Schlutt, Christophe Chemin
(Germany/Canada, 2007, 95 min., color & b/w, 35 mm)
Director Bruce LaBruce has never been one for modesty or self-censorship, and his latest tale following a gay zombie is no exception. Poor Otto is a rather confused zombie. He struggles to figure out who he is and what he was before, while an aspiring filmmaker decides he's the perfect star for her cinematic revolt against our consumerist society.
Egyptian Theatre, Park City
9:00 PM
The Wrestling
Director: Grimur Hakonarson
(Iceland, 2007, 20 min., color, 35mm)
A pair of wrestlers living in rural Iceland must hide their relationship from the macho sporting world to which they belong.
Shown as part of Shorts Program II
Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
9:30 PM
The Guitar
Director: Amy Redford
Screenwriter: Amos Poe
Cast: Saffron Burrows, Paz De La Huerta, Isaach De Bankole
(USA, 2007, 95 min., color, 35 mm)
After discovering she has terminal cancer, Mel (Saffron Burrows) decides to cram as much living as she can into her remaining time, which includes learning to play the guitar and flings with both a UPS guy and a pizza girl.
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Park City
Midnight
Bend It
Director: Jules Nurrish
(United Kingdom, 2007, 3 min., color, Sony HD Cam)
Toying with the visual signifiers of gender, two androgynous individuals with chests bound by black tape dance on gallery podiums, in director Jules Nurrish's homage to the living sculptures of cheeky art-world icons Gilbert and George.
Shown as part of Shorts Program I
Broadway Centre Cinemas VI, Park City