Sundance Film Festival officials visited the state early in the week as they continue to consider whether to move the event elsewhere.

The Utah Film Commission released limited information about the visit. The bid to keep the festival in the state involves what is described as a “reimagined footprint” in Park City and Salt Lake City. The vision is “Two Cities, One Experience, preserving the legacy of the Park City experience while expanding the Salt Lake City footprint,” a statement from the Utah Film Commission said. It has previously been known that sort of vision for the festival was under discussion in the state.

The festival representatives stopped at prospective venues, theaters and restaurants.

“The group emphasized its unique ability to offer a blend of urban and natural environments, supported by robust infrastructure and a deep connection to the arts,” the statement said.

The statement did not provide details about the Sundance contingent’s stop in Park City, including which venues they were shown and which representatives from City Hall or other organizations in Park City addressed the festival officials.

The Utah Film Commission released a prepared statement from Mayor Nann Worel saying in part there is a need to “reimagine our future together.” 

City Hall and Sundance have an agreement that covers the festivals through 2026. The festivals in 2025 and 2026 are slated to be held as normal. Any relocation of Sundance, or an alteration to the event with Salt Lake City having a greater role, would begin with the event in 2027.

Sundance is expected to select a host sometime in early 2025, but a precise timeline is not known.

The other finalists:

• Atlanta
• Boulder, Colorado
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Louisville, Kentucky
• Santa Fe, New Mexico

There have been limited details released about the bid by Park City and Salt Lake City. The dollar figure attached to the proposal from Park City and Salt Lake City, and the funding sources for any financial package, remain two of the key unknowns. A precise map of the venues in the proposal is also not known, but the heavy involvement of Salt Lake City seems to point to the possibility of a reduced footprint in Park City as activities are shifted to the capital city. The Salt Lake City footprint during the festival has traditionally been of much lesser scale than what occurs in Park City during Sundance.

The Sundance visits to the finalist cities have been ongoing. Media coverage has included highlights from the stops in Louisville and Atlanta.

Park City hopes to retain Sundance, even if the community’s role is reduced, with the festival being the most lucrative event on the calendar. The lodging, restaurant and transportation industries typically post some of the best numbers of the year during the 11 days of Sundance, with the opening weekend usually being especially busy in and around Park City.

There is also the cachet of hosting one of the top marketplaces of independent film on the international circuit, alongside festivals like those in Cannes, France, Venice, Italy, Toronto and Berlin.

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Park City and Salt Lake City have crafted a bid to keep the Sundance Film Festival in the state, likely involving financial inducements and other carrots.

But the Arts Council of Park City and Summit County wants to also show Sundance what the event has meant to the community over the decades. The group has drafted a questionnaire that inquires about someone’s experience with the festival.

The two key questions:

• “Tell us your Sundance Film Festival Story! What has opened your eyes, changed your mind or your heart? Have you connected with someone new or unexpected? Tell us how having the Festival in Park City impacted you positively!”
• “Are there any places in the Park City area that you have great Sundance memories of? Tell us about that place and what makes it special?”

It was not clear early in the week whether the answers will be made public.

“We are looking for stories about how the Sundance Film Festival in Park City has impacted lives and what makes this event special to our community, volunteers, film makers and visitors,” the questionnaire says.

The open-ended nature of the questions could solicit a wide range of answers in praise of Sundance as well as those critical of the festival’s impact on the community. There have long been Sundance supporters and detractors in Park City. The supporters see the festival as an opportunity for Park City crowds to watch some of the best works of independent film before they are widely distributed and point to the economic impact of the festival, which is the most lucrative event on the calendar in the community. The detractors, though, bemoan the traffic, parking restrictions and crowds the festival brings to Park City.

The questionnaire was posted amid a high-stakes process by Sundance as it considers whether to move the event elsewhere. City Hall and Sundance have an agreement that covers festivals through 2026, and the 2025 and 2026 events are scheduled as normal. Any move would begin with the event in 2027.

A combined effort between Park City and Salt Lake City, with the capital city envisioned as having a greater role in hosting Sundance, has advanced to another phase of the selection process. The others that advanced are Atlanta; Boulder, Colorado; Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Site visits by Sundance officials are underway. Trips to some of the other finalist communities have drawn media attention.

Sundance is the top marketplace of independent films in the U.S. and one of the elite festivals on the international circuit. It generates some of the best economic numbers of the year in Park City sectors like the lodging, restaurant and transportation industries.

The questionnaire is available online at: https://tinyurl.com/es3pwzzz.

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The nonprofit Sundance Institute has announced the 2024 grant recipients for the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, supporting the work of nonfiction filmmakers globally. This year, 28 projects have been selected to receive an unrestricted grant, with the total granting pool standing at $1,450,000 — almost half a million dollars more than last year’s fund thanks to increased support for our granting. This granting cycle’s recipients represent all stages of the process, with five projects in development, 15 in production, seven in post-production, and one completed project in its impact campaign. The Documentary Fund seeks to serve as a stable source of support for inventive nonfiction works that create cultural and social impact by tackling a variety of timely and pressing issues. Grants are made possible by Open Society Foundations, John Templeton Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Sony Music Entertainment thanks to Sony Music’s Global Justice Fund.

In 2024, thanks to new support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Institute is able to increase the size of the Documentary Fund’s granting pool by $500,000 per year. Through this new generous support the Fund is providing grants that support innovative and daring nonfiction storytelling projects aligned with Templeton’s mission of supporting interdisciplinary research and catalyzing conversations that inspire awe and wonder.

The Fund includes the first grantees selected by the Sundance Institute | Sony Music Vision Initiative, a new partnership between the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Sony Music Entertainment, funded by Sony Music’s Global Social Justice Fund. Through granting and engagement opportunities, including educational sessions on music in film, this initiative is aimed at elevating documentary film projects by BIPOC filmmakers that demonstrate a significant music component or innovative approach to audio and sound.

“It has always been critical to the Sundance’s mission to uplift talented and underrepresented voices seeking to create thoughtful and thought-provoking work that elevates and advances cultural dialogue, and we are thrilled to celebrate the variety of perspectives and approaches this year’s grantees bring to the table with their projects,” said Paola Mottura, Documentary Film Fund director and Kristin Feeley, director, Documentary Film & Artist programs. “During this challenging time for our industry, we are grateful to be able to deepen our support for the global documentary community. This work is urgent and it is an honor to be a part of these talented artists’ journeys and help them get closer to connecting with their audiences. We’re appreciative of our partners in making this support possible and we look forward to experiencing these risk-taking works.”

The Documentary Fund prioritizes the support of artists from historically marginalized communities and seeks to amplify global voices telling crucial stories. More than half of the grant proposals came from outside the U.S., with the final group of grantees representing 25 countries. The majority of projects (92%) receiving grants are directed by artists from communities that have been traditionally marginalized and 60% are from first-time feature directors.

Through careful craft and fearless vision, projects in this year’s slate have the power to instill resilience through family and community legacies, transcend new frontiers in ritual and belief, spotlight the impact of grassroots activism, explore tender reconnections with loved ones through the arts, and empower personal expression in the face of oppressive policies and governments.

While many of the projects supported this year are from early-career filmmakers, this cycle of granting also supports projects from mid-career storytellers, including: Hawa, produced by Christian Popp, who also produced Becoming Cary Grant (2017); House of Earth directed by Ljubomir Stefanov (Honeyland, 2019); Leap of Faith directed by Nicholas Ma, who produced Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018); Stallions directed by Rita Baghdadi (Sirens, 2022); Untitled Philippines Project, the fifth feature from filmmaker PJ Raval (Call Her Ganda, 2018); and The First Plantation, directed by Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, who produced T, the 2020 winner of the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at Berlinale.

Previously supported projects have included: All That Breathes; American Factory; The Battle for Laikipia; Collective; Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution; Hale County This Morning, This Evening; Mija; Minding the Gap; The Mole Agent; No Other Land; Nocturnes; Strong Island; Sugarcane; The Territory; Time; and Union.

2024 Documentary Fund Grantees:

DEVELOPMENT

Basketball Heaven (U.S.A.)

Director/Producer: Resita Cox

A poetic portrait of the historic Black community in Kinston, North Carolina. From surviving catastrophic floods to a poorly funded education system, Kinston remains the single greatest producer of NBA talent in the world.

Knocking on Heaven’s Door (Canada, U.S.A., New Zealand, U.K., Argentina)

Directors: Jonathan Qu, Kevin Feiyang Li

Producers: Jonathan Qu, Kevin Feiyang Li, Nicholas de Pencier

Following a battle with cancer, a Christian astrophysicist races to build his last great balloon telescope to unravel the mysteries of dark matter and the artistry of God. If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do we explore the unknown?

Stallions (Morocco)

Director: Rita Baghdadi

Producers: Rita Baghdadi, Sahar Yousefi

A crew of stallion riders make dreams come true on the coast of Morocco.

Strange Sea (Azerbaijan)

Director: Lala Aliyeva

Producer: Aysel Akhundova

In the depths of the Caspian Sea, the whispers of its dark past intertwine with the tales of ordinary life. Strange Sea paints an impressionistic portrait of Azerbaijan mirrored in the disappearing Caspian Sea, which has defined its identity for decades.

The Blue Sweater with a Yellow Hole (Ukraine, France, Czech Republic)

Director: Tetiana Khodakivska

Producers: Elena Saulich, Tetiana Khodakivska, Maxim Asadchiy

Questioning the propaganda in the modern world, the documentary follows Ukrainian children Kira, Taisa, and Artem, as they paint their memories about time in Russian ‘re-education’ camps. The animated scenes immerse the viewers into the children’s shifting identity experiences.

PRODUCTION

#WhileBlack (U.S.A., Canada)

Directors: Sidney Fussell, Jennifer Holness

Producers: Ann Shin, Geeta Gandbhir

Witnesses who filmed viral videos of injustice reveal the true cost of going viral while Black, as social platforms turn their pain into profit.

Afromystic (U.S.A., Nigeria, Brazil)

Director: Seyi Adebanjo

Producers: Seyi Adebanjo, Nala Simone Toussaint, Bryan E. Glover, Felix Endara, Zackary Drucker

Afromystic is a lyrical documentary that follows LGBTQ+ Yorùbá practitioners across the waters of Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States in a quest for post-colonial liberation — by way of Indigenous religion.

Untitled Africa Project

Director/Producer: withheld

Coach Emily (U.S.A.)

Director: Pallavi Somusetty

Producers: Debra Wilson Cary, Jen Gilomen, Pallavi Somusetty

As rock climbing coach Emily Taylor fearlessly trains a group of BIPOC kids to conquer the pervasive discrimination they face in the outdoors, she embarks on a profound journey of self-care, while working to dismantle an industry rife with systemic racism.

Conscious (U.K.)

Director: Suki Chan

Producers: Aimara Reques, Teresa Grimes

Conscious is an optimistic, cinematic experience, taking us closer to understanding the strength and frailty of the human mind. What can a neuroscientist and three people living with dementia tell us about the nature of consciousness in a technological age?

Dreams of a Dark Sky (India)

Director: Anmol Tikoo

Producers: Mikaela Beardsley, Raghu Karnad

As Ladakh is flooded with light, engineers in Hanle work with astronomers and nomadic communities to create a sanctuary for darkness and starlight. But the dark sky holds a different dream for each of them. What will they discover about themselves, others, and the cosmos as they embrace the dark?

The First Plantation (Barbados, U.S.A.)

Director: Jason Fitzroy Jeffers

Producer: Darcy McKinnon

A documentary on reparations becomes unexpectedly personal when a filmmaker returns home to Barbados to tell the story of Drax Hall, the oldest continuously operated sugar plantation in the Americas, recently inherited by a wealthy British politician descended from the slave master who founded it.

Good Fire (U.S.A., Greece)

Directors: Roni Jo Draper, Marissa Lila

Producers: Jenn Lee Smith, Nicole Docta

Since time immemorial, Yurok people have placed fire on the land to maintain a healthy and balanced ecosystem. Over the past 100 years, settlers banned that fire, and the environment and the people have suffered. Now, Yurok people are returning fire medicine to the land in order to heal the world.

House of Earth (North Macedonia, U.S.A.)

Director: Ljubomir Stefanov

Producer: Maya E. Rudolph

Pinky returns to Shutka, the Roma community she’s been running from for years, and navigates her biological family and queer kin’s visions of home and belonging. A transgender woman nearing the end of her sex work career, Pinky radically reimagines her future as a matriarch and community leader.

Jaripeo (Mexico, U.S.A.)

Directors: Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig

Producers: Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig, Sarah Strunin

At the rural rodeos in Michoacán, México, a hypermasculine tradition is rife with hidden queer encounters. Guided by director Efraín, Jaripeo follows two rancheros as they navigate desire, machismo, and mass migration from one rodeo season to the next.

Supported by the Sundance Institute | Sony Music Vision Initiative

Life in the Shadows (Afghanistan, Belgium, Germany)

Director: K.D.

Producer: Ilyas Yourish

Years after K’s classmates were massacred in his school, he records the lives of Machid, who attends the same school, and Khatima, who works in the cemetery where the dead students are buried.

Mother Wit (U.S.A.)

Directors/Producers: Rajvi Desai, Te Shima Brennen

Three Black trans women grieve the death of their matriarch and mentor who had fought all her life to set them on a path of education, excellence and liberation, as they fight to fulfill the promises they made to her.

Timepass (India, U.S.A.)

Director: Roopa Gogineni

Producer: Trevor Snapp

Following the death of her grandfather, a radical humanist and longtime village doctor, a filmmaker returns to her ancestral South Indian home to confront the gilded statue built in his honor.

Untitled Philippines Project (Philippines, U.S.A.)

Director: PJ Raval

Producers: Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, Annie Small

A new feature documentary by PJ Raval.

Walker (U.S.A.)

Director: Amy Bench

Producers: Amy Bench, Mei Kennedy, Monique Walton

Walker is a verité portrait of a deaf advocate and father from Baton Rouge, Louisiana — who is driven by his family’s experiences of incarceration and deafness to help others in his community affected by the prison system. Walker is an intimate exploration into family, activism, and personal healing.

POST-PRODUCTION

Art After-Life (U.S.A., Argentina)

Director: David Romberg

Producers: David Romberg, Rachel Dengiz, Adrian Elzy

Osvaldo Romberg was a Latin American artist who pushed the limits of the avant-garde. Years later, his son employs generative AI technology to converse with him, after his death.

Backside (U.S.A.)

Director: Raúl Paz Pastrana

Producers: Gabriella García Pardo, Patricia Alvarez Astacio

Following a racing season from beginning to end, Backside captures the daily work, friendship, dreams, and expertise of the under-recognized migrant workers behind the Kentucky Derby.

Blacked Out Dreams (U.S.A.)

Director: Adeleke Omitowoju

Producer: Steven Pargett

Blacked Out Dreams is a film about how rapid school closures and a water crisis force three normal kids to live in very abnormal conditions. The film follows two siblings as they navigate towards graduating from the last remaining public high school in a city divided by race, and plagued by poverty.

Cais (Brazil)

Director: Safira Moreira

Producer: Flávia Santana

Two months after the passing of her mother Angélica, Safira travels to search for her mother in other landscapes. In a river route, the film travels through cities bathed by the Paraguaçu River (Bahia) and the Alegre River (Maranhão), to dive in new perspectives on memory, time, birth, life, and death.

Hawa (France, The Netherlands, Afghanistan, Qatar)

Directors: Najiba Noori, Ali Rasul Noori

Producers: Christian Popp, Hasse van Nunen

Forty years after her arranged marriage as a child, Hawa is eager to finally begin an independent life and to be literate. However, with the return of the Taliban to power, her dreams, and those of her daughter and granddaughter are shattered.

Leap of Faith (U.S.A.)

Director: Nicholas Ma

Producers: Nicholas Ma, Morgan Neville

Troubled by our fractured society, 12 midwestern Christian leaders tackle the most controversial questions of today to discover whether we can belong to each other in a challenging and divisive world.

Vestibule (U.S.A.)

Director: Riley Hooper

Producers: Caitlin Mae Burke, Bryn Silverman

Filmmaker Riley Hooper documents her decade-long journey with Vestibulodynia, a vulvar disorder. What begins as a singular mission to have pain-free sex becomes a multigenerational story about sexual health, pleasure, and agency, told through imaginative dance sequences and intimate voiceover.

IMPACT

Songs from the Hole (U.S.A.)

Director: Contessa Gayles

Producers: Contessa Gayles, Richie Reseda, David Felix Sutcliffe

An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary visual album composed behind bars.

Supported by the Sundance Institute | Sony Music Vision Initiative

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program is made possible by founding support from the Open Society Foundations. Generous additional support is provided by John Templeton Foundation; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Sandbox Films; The Asian American Foundation (TAAF); The Charles Engelhard Foundation; Facet; Sony Music Group; Violet Spitzer-Lucas and the Spitzer Family Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman; EarthSense Foundation; and Adobe.

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The spotlight is on the Sundance Film Festival at an unusual time of the year.

And unlike the annual festival in January, when there is plenty of information coming from Sundance and the Park City government, both have said little as the high-stakes process of selecting a place to host the top marketplace of independent films in the U.S. continues. Park City, where Sundance has been held for decades, is interested in keeping the lucrative event locally even as places across the United States vie to become the host.

Little is known about the status of the process other than an early phase, when Sundance requested information from prospective hosts, closed this week. Sundance declined to comment about the results of the early phase. The festival organizers refused to detail how many responses they received.

City Hall, meanwhile, did not immediately process a Park Record request filed under state open-records laws seeking information about a submittal to Sundance. The request seeks the municipal submittal to Sundance and any attachments, appendices or similar addenda related to the effort. The request, in the alternative, sought materials compiled by the municipal government that were considered for inclusion in a submittal by another party if City Hall itself did not file the materials with Sundance.

It is not clear when Park City leaders will address the issue in any depth in a public setting. Mayor Nann Worel and the Park City Council are believed to be playing a key role in the effort, but the details of their work are not clear. It is also likely the Park City tourism industry is already heavily involved or will be if the community advances to another step in the selection process.

Sundance is the largest and most lucrative event on the Park City calendar. It is widely considered to be one of the elite festivals on the global circuit, alongside those in places like the French Riviera city of Cannes, Toronto, Berlin and Venice, Italy.

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Cities across the country have answered the Sundance Film Festival casting call.

The event that has been based in Park City for decades is considering whether to relocate starting with the festival in 2027. There have been media reports throughout the United States about cities interested in hosting Sundance. They range from some of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas like Atlanta and San Francisco to smaller cities like Santa Fe, N.M., and Savannah, Ga., that themselves are considerably more populated than the Park City area. It is not known how many other places submitted information to Sundance. 

Some of the cities that have expressed interest in becoming the next Sundance location, according to media reports or public statements, listed alphabetically:

• Atlanta: The Georgia metropolis has a long history of hosting large events, much larger than Sundance, having been the site of Super Bowls, Final Fours and the college football championship game. Plus the Summer Olympics in 1996. The airport in Atlanta is the world’s busiest with Delta Air Lines anchored there. Atlanta is a formidable competitor for any large special event, offering a broad transit system, accommodations at every price range and a diverse list of attractions for travelers, including civil rights sites like Ebenezer Baptist Church as well as the College Football Hall of Fame. The January weather is conducive to a festival like Sundance.

• Buffalo, N.Y.: Sundance-goers would be accustomed to the snowy weather of the western New York metropolitan area even if a lake-effect storm there is a different experience than here. And the temperatures can be bitterly cold in late January. But the Rust Belt location would offer Sundance a dramatically different setting than fast-growing Utah. A film festival like Sundance would likely be seen as a step in reinvigorating, if not reinventing, a part of the community.

Buffalo is a short flight from the major cities along the East Coast and in the Great Lakes region, and it is close to Greater Toronto, itself the location of one of the top film festivals.

And what would the competition be like among the Hollywood studios to rent out the Anchor Bar, where the Buffalo wing was created, during the opening weekend of Sundance?

• Minneapolis: The Minnesota metropolitan area also has a storied history of hosting some of the largest sporting events, including Super Bowls. Like Atlanta, it has a major international airport with a significant Delta Air Lines presence, offering nonstop flights across the nation and a series of international destinations. Minneapolis in January is frigid even with a network of enclosed pedestrian ways designed to keep people indoors as they move about.

And although Sundance-goers may not be ones to wander through the enormous Mall of America, a stop at Prince’s Paisley Park, outside of Minneapolis, could be a draw between screenings.

• San Francisco: One of America’s top tourism destinations, San Francisco offers an extraordinarily diverse experience for travelers. Some may head to the waterfront while others may spend their time wandering through neighborhoods like Haight-Ashbury and Chinatown. San Francisco also has one of the nation’s most vibrant arts scenes, where Sundance could potentially thrive, and there could also ultimately be opportunities to partner the festival with the high-tech industry of the Bay Area.

The airport is consequential nationally and internationally as it serves as a gateway to the Pacific Rim. Prices in San Francisco, though, could become notable, especially if Sundance is attempting to make the festival accessible to a wider swath of film lovers.

• Santa Fe, N.M.: The capital of New Mexico is one of the nation’s most important arts destinations. Santa Fe could ultimately be one of the top competitors to become the future location of Sundance if it leaves Park City. Santa Fe, more than many of the other places, has seemed to be consistently mentioned for 20-plus years whenever it appeared Sundance may relocate. Could Canyon Road, an important arts street, serve a similar role as Main Street in Park City during Sundance? And how may the Hollywood crowd use the historic Santa Fe Plaza?

Santa Fe, though, lacks the airline access of some of the other places interested in Sundance. The local airport is a regional one, while Albuquerque International Sunport is nearly 70 miles away and lacks the nonstop destinations of a larger metropolitan area. Prices in Santa Fe could also become a factor in any affordability discussion.

• Savannah, Ga.: The Southern charm is heavy in the historic coastal city of Savannah. The historic center and the waterfront along the Savannah River attract crowds. It also has an arts scene that can stand against many other communities of its size even if it does not approach the level of some of the competitors for Sundance. The January climate of Savannah may be one of the selling points. Temperatures can reach into the 70s, and there is unlikely to be any snow to complicate matters, meaning the crowds could golf rather than ski as they await the nighttime activities. There could be opportunities to forge a relationship between Sundance and the Savannah College of Art and Design, which houses a well-regarded film program.

The airport serving Savannah and nearby Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, however, is limited in its nonstop routes and, unless flights were added for the festival period, it would be among the more difficult places to reach for people headed to Sundance from Los Angeles.

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Park City Film: ‘The Boy and the Heron’

Park City Film is back after taking a film-festival break and will screen Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award-nominated animated film “The Boy and the Heron,” rated PG-13, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2, through Sunday, Feb. 4, at the Park City Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium, 1255 Park Ave. After losing his mother during the war, young Mahito moves to his family’s estate in the countryside. There, a series of mysterious events lead him to a secluded and ancient tower, home to a mischievous gray heron. The film will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles on Friday and Sunday nights and the English-dubbed version, featuring the voices of Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh, will be screened on Saturday. For information and tickets, visit parkcityfilm.org.

‘Lee-Mingwei: The Gifts of Connection’

The Kimball Art Center, 1251 Kearns Blvd., is currently showing “Lee-Mingwei: The Gifts of Connection” through Feb. 25. The exhibit showcases the Taiwan-born Mingwei’s projects that he has created over the last 30 years. Each project, including the interactive “The Mending Project,” which features local seamsters who mend items of clothing, centers on connection and bringing people together. For information, visit kimballartcenter.org.

‘Snow: Tiny Crystals, Global Impact’ Free Day

The Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter, 1258 Center St., is currently showing an interactive, bilingual exhibit, “Snow: Tiny Crystals, Global Impact,” through May 5. It’s about the wonder of snow, and the impact climate change has on Earth. Guests can explore how snow shapes and sustains life, snow’s vital role in sustaining the water supply and cooling the planet, and the cultural and personal value of snow. For information, visit swanerecocenter.org.

‘Flame of Ambition’ by Steve Leatham

Historian Steve Leatham will present a free lecture, “Flame of Ambition,” at 5 p.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at the Park City Museum Education and Collections Center, 2079 Sidewinder Drive. The presentation, sponsored by by the Friends of Ski Mining Mountain History, is, in part, about Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy, the daughter of Michael Shaughnessy, Utah’s 11th United States Marshal, and her mother Winifred Kimball, granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, who was the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The lecture digs up the connection between a mining murder in Park City and a priceless Egyptian artifact collection at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. For registration and information, visit parkcityhistory.org/history-speaks-lectures.

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The 30th Slamdance Film Festival Sparky Awards was Unstoppable this year, and the big winner was fillmmaker Shane Stanger.

His Unstoppable Feature “Good Bad Things” took home the Unstoppable Grand Jury Prize and the Unstoppable Audience Award Thursday night.

Slamdance Unstoppable is a program, started by filmmaker Juliet Romeo, for and by filmmakers with visible and nonvisible disabilities that debuted in 2021.

Stanger and his two main cast members — Danny Kurtzman and Steve Way — shared hugs as they took the microphone to accept the awards during the ceremony at the Doubletree Park City — The Yarrow.

“Making this film was the time of my life,” Stanger said. “I feel so lucky I got to make it with my best friend Danny … and thank you to my new best friend, Steve Way.”

The film is about Danny, a young man with muscular dystrophy who, disillusioned by failed relationships, steps out of his comfort zone and into the world of online dating.

Kurtzman was overcome by emotion as he expressed his gratitude.

“(Shane) called me up one day and he’s like, ‘Hey I want to do a feature with you,'” he said. “It’s an able bodied story. It’s a disabled body story, and we told it through our authentic lens.” 

Way thanked Romeo for the chance to participate in Slamdance.

“This is her vision, and we are all here to celebrate disabled stories,” he said. “The great thing about this film is you don’t have to be disabled to understand it. You don’t have to disabled to win it. That’s why this film is going to change the world.”

In addition to awarding the Unstoppable Sparkys, Slamdance announced the recipient of the AGBO Fellowship, sponsored by AGBO, an independent television and film production company founded by Slamdance alumni Joe and Anthony Russo.

The Russo Brothers, known for blockbusters such as “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” got their start at Slamdance in 1997 and caught the eye of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Stephen Soderbergh.

The siblings established the fellowship in 2018, and the recipient receives a $25,000 cash prize and mentorship from Joe and Anthony in the development of the winner’s next project at the brothers’ new Los Angeles-based studio. 

This year’s recipient was Kiarash Dadgar. His film, “The Steak,” was part of the Narrative Shorts competition. 

Dadgar wasn’t present at the awards because he was seeking asylum in Canada. However, film producer Angela Russo-Otstot, AGBO’s chief creative officer and the Russo Brothers’ sister, issued a statement.

“In ‘The Steak,’ Kiarash takes an innovative and bold approach,” she said. “Such films often pave the way for new storytelling techniques and inspire other filmmakers to think outside the box. It’s always exciting to witness a piece of art that challenges conventional methods and offers a unique experience to its audience.”

The George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award, an award for a filmmaker who best embodies the spirit of the festival, went to Radha Mehta, director “DOSH,” and John Lawson received Slamdance’s Outstanding Acting Award for his role of Robert, a grumpy neighbor in the Unstoppable Feature, “Daruma,” directed by Alexander Yellen.

In a poignant moment, Slamdance introduced the Summer Chastant Episodic Award, named after the Slamdance alumna who passed away in 2022.

The award, which honors Chastant’s storytelling legacy, went to Jono Hunter for his animated web series entry, “Night Drives,” which also won the Episodic Audience Award.

“Summer’s husband, Boyd, will be providing $2,000 to Jono Hunter for creativity, filmmaking and everything he’s going to give back to the world,” said Taylor Miller, Slamdance Festival director. 

Hunter didn’t know what to say, because he had “spent a lot of time in the dark painting eyeballs and teeth.”

“To land here and be in such great company with all of these amazing filmmakers is so punk-rock and community oriented,” he said. “Thank you so much for acknowledging my cartoon.”

The 30th Slamdance Film Festival winners:

GRAND JURY AWARDS – FEATURES

• Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize: “The Accident” (Giuseppe Garau, Italy)  
• Honorable Mention: “The Complex Forms” (Fabio D’Orta, Italy)
• Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize: “Inheritance” (Matt Moyer, Amy Toensing, United States)
• Honorable Mention: “Petro” (Sean Mattison, United States)
• Breakouts Feature Grand Jury Prize: “CHAPERONE” (Zoe Eisenberg, United States)
• Honorable Mention: “Slide” (Bill Plympton, United States)
• Episodes Grand Jury Prize: “Restorage” (E’an Verdugo, United States)
• Honorable Mention: “Dog Spelled Backwards” (Tim Almeida, United States)

GRAND JURY AWARDS – UNSTOPPABLE

• Unstoppable Grand Jury Prize: “Good Bad Things” (Dir. Shane Stanger)
• Honorable Mention: “Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World” (Dir. Julio C. Palacio)

JURY AWARDS – SHORTS

• Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Prize: “Fishing” (Josie Charles, United Kingdom)
• Honorable Mention: “European Man…American Beach” (Rex Shannon, United States)
• Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize: “Friends on the Outside” (Annabel Moodie, Scotland)
• Honorable Mention: “Remember, Broken Crayons Colour Too” (Ursa Kastelic, Shannet Clemmings, Switzerland)
• Experimental Shorts Grand Jury Prize: “Light of Light” (Neritan Zinxhiria, Greece)
• Honorable Mention: “Entrance Wounds” (Calum Walter, United States)
• Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize: “Edith And The Tall Child” (Kohana Wilson, United States)
• Honorable Mention: “Lil Sherbet” (Xinhe Zhao, United States)

FESTIVAL WIDE AWARDS

• The AGBO Fellowship, presented by Joe and Anthony Russo, Award Winner: Kiarash Dadgar Mohebi director of “The Steak” (Canada, Iran) 
• Summer Chastant Episodic Award: Jono Hunter director of “Night Drives” (Canada)
• Slamdance Acting Award: John Lawson for “Daruma” (United States)
• George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award Winner: Radha Mehta, director of “DOSH” (United States)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

• Best Narrative Feature: “African Giants” (Dir. Omar Kamara)
• Documentary Feature: “Demon Mineral” (Dir. Hadley Austin)
• Episodes: “Night Drive” (Dir. Jono Hunter)
• Unstoppable: “Good Bad Things” (Dir. Shane Stanger)

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Monday afternoon, festival goers crowded into the Cinema Cafe at the Filmmakers Lodge on Main Street for the chance at an in-depth look behind the story of “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” featured in this year’s U.S. Dramatic Competition category at Sundance.

The talk, titled “Exhibiting Forgiveness, Generational Healing Through Art and Storytelling,” was presented by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, an organization which “supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world,” according to its website. 

Painter and director of “Exhibiting Forgiveness” Titus Kaphar was welcomed to the stage along with Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet, attorney and founder of Freedom Reads, a nonprofit which provides micro-libraries in prisons across the country.

The crowd cheered, many of whom had already seen and fallen in love with Kaphar’s directorial debut.

On stage, Kaphar addressed the room. 

“You are about to be given an inside look into just two brothers having a conversation. A warning to those of you who may never have observed something like this. It might make you feel a little uncomfortable,” he said amid laughter.

Both artists and activists living in New Haven, Connecticut, the two men were, like Kaphar acknowledged, as close as brothers, and their two philosophic minds bounced from subject to subject with almost telepathic speed and depth. 

To start, Betts stood to read a poem he wrote to accompany Kaphar’s film.

“Roughly four days before the talk, say five, Titus announces that I was gonna write a poem that accompanies the film. And that the people in this room would hear it first. We had never discussed such a thing,” said Betts. Kaphar laughed.

The poem, titled “Four Sons” was broken into five parts: a preamble then four sections titled the name of each of the men’s sons. Betts read it to the crowd, beginning with an epilogue from the author Toni Morrison. 

“‘If you want to fly you have to give up the things that weigh you down,'” Betts read.

Like “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” the poem explored the complex web of fathers and sons, a fitting intro for the following discussion.

Kaphar wiped tears from his eyes when it finished. “So what if I hadn’t asked him to do that?” he asked the crowd.

They shifted gears, turning their conversation to their work as artists and the inception of “Exhibiting Forgiveness.”

The film is Kaphar’s first exploration into film as a medium, and it tells an almost autobiographical story about a successful artist, Tarrell, who struggles to forgive his drug-addicted father after their unexpected reunion forces him to confront a painful past.

Kaphar’s own work has seen impressive success, with paintings featured in world-class museums like The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), The Whitney and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET), all in New York. His work often depicts the history and experience of being Black in America, featuring the creative use of cutting, crumbling and layering with canvas.

But with “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” Kaphar chose to highlight his own personal history through the art and events in the film.

“I really wanted to have a conversation about forgiveness in this film,” said Kaphar.

A significant part of that conversation, he said, was redefining forgiveness.

“I had to decide that the biblical version of forgiveness that I was taught was one wherein you will potentially reinjure yourself in order to forgive someone else,” Kaphar said. “How many times do you forgive your brother?” he asked the crowd, “seven times 70 times,” a few voices responded. 

“At this age in my life, I don’t believe in that anymore. I can’t believe in that anymore. I’ve seen it hurt people,” said Kaphar.

In the film, like in Kaphar’s own experience, Tarrell’s mother continues to let Tarrell’s abusive and crack-addicted father, La’Ron, come back into her life and do more damage. That definition of forgiveness wasn’t something Kaphar could stomach, so he had to consider another option.

And why? Because holding on to the hurt and anger Tarrell felt towards his father was beginning to damage his relationship with his own son, Jermaine, and his wife, Aisha.

“The entire point is that Tarrell’s decision is to say, ‘I’m not carrying this s*** anymore. I can’t because if I keep carrying this, I’m going to give it to my kids,'” said Kaphar.

Speaking to Betts, whose own father struggled with drug addiction, Kaphar acknowledged that’s what they’d both done in their personal lives.

As the theme of the film emphasized the humanizing of La’Ron, despite his addiction and harm to those who loved him, Betts challenged Kaphar for choosing to put so much emphasis on his father character, who he’d spent 15 years trying to forget.

“We have literally spent like 25 minutes talking about this dude,” said Betts. “How the f*** can you exert so much gravity on somebody’s life for having been so ruinous upon it?”

For the sake of his sons, Kaphar said.

In the end, Tarrell’s own realization leads him to a form of forgiveness that manages to protect his future.

“He says, ‘I forgive you for the past,’ and La’Ron says, ‘We still have the future.’ And Tarrell says, ‘No, not the future. Not the future. I gave you my past. But I can’t give you my future. That belongs to Aisha. That belongs to Jermaine,'” Kaphar said. 

The film is meant to invite these types of conversations, Kaphar said, especially for the two men on stage, who admitted their desire to raise their own sons without passing on generational trauma.

“Because of the fact that we come from circumstances that are so broken, we are trying to construct something for ourselves. And we’re trying to redefine what family looks like,” said Kaphar.

“How do you prevent yourself from becoming your father?” said Betts.

“What did we inherit from our fathers? And what is the legacy that we’re gonna leave for our children?” responded Kaphar.

As promised, the two men ended the conversation with more unanswered questions, as the film itself does in many ways. 

“This is a profound idea that you’ve exhibited, and I just, I want to say thank you, deeply. Too much harm is done in the name of religion. And (“Exhibiting Forgiveness”) is a profound meditation on this,” said an attendee when they opened the panel up for audience questions. 

Kaphar and Betts will be showing “Exhibiting Forgiveness” in prisons across the country, with the goal of making it more accessible to underserved communities. Learn more about Kaphar, his work and his nonprofit, NXTHVN, at kapharstudio.com. 

The post Titus Kaphar examines generational healing and forgiveness in his ‘Exhibiting Forgiveness’ appeared first on Park Record.

Nuzzles & Co., the local, no-kill pet rescue nonprofit, will soon be showcased in “Dog Spelled Backwards,” an episodic entry that premiered in this year’s Slamdance Film Festival.

The project by dog trainer Tim Almeida, along with Director Richie “Abstrak” Soto, takes a look at the dogs at rescues and the ups and downs of those who work in the shelter community. 

Almeida and his crew visited Nuzzles & Co.’s rescue ranch on Sunday and shot some scenes and talked with Josh Stasinos, the nonprofit’s giving manager.

“I think (the facility) is amazing,” Almeida told The Park Record. “I started in (nonprofits) in different regions, and this is impressive.”

Almeida says the location is the perfect place for canine rehabilitation and training. 

“Being out here where it’s so quiet, I definitely think the dog benefits, because you can feel it and you can hear it,” he said. “(Those located in municipalities) are in the busy, suburban towns, and there are 150 dogs that are losing their minds. They feel the stress, because they are in a kennel and don’t connect with people as much as they need to.”

A few years ago, Almeida reached out to his friend Soto, whom he met while making hip-hop and breakdance videos, with an idea.

“I told him we’re going to the shelter I’m working at and film,” Almeida said.

The idea, however, wasn’t to create a dog-training video.

“There is dog training there, because that’s what I do as a profession,” Almeida said. “We’ve seen dog-training shows for decades, and there are great dog trainers with YouTube channels that can teach you anything. So, ultimately this is about our story — the people who work in this field and the dogs that are in shelters and rescues throughout the country. I don’t think the average person sits around and thinks about local shelters like Nuzzles.”

So far, “Dog Spelled Backwards” features four segments that clock in around 20 minutes a piece, according to Almeida.

“Everything you see is (taken from) three or four hours of footage at the shelter (with) interviews,” he said. “The rest was cell-phone footage. And that’s what we put together.”

The episodes look at the issues like passion fatigue, emotional tolls and the rewards of working in shelters, Almeida said.

“We (decided) to release it in segments to give people a chance to digest each episode,” he said. “As each episode goes, I do feel like it goes into my personal story.”

Almeida’s love for dogs came at an early age, but his interest in shelters stems from a dog named Alger.

“I got him on his D-day, the day he was supposed to be put down,” Almeida said.

Unfortunately, Alger’s behavioral problems were so severe, he eventually had to be put down.

“That broke my heart,” Almeida said. “After Alger, I needed to learn about behavior and weave in creative dog training, because I know there are other dogs like him in shelters. So, (I thought) how could I help those dogs or the people who deal with these dogs, or how can I help educate the puppy better?”

Nuzzles is the first stop on Almedia’s tour of shelters around the country, and it was because of Slamdance.

“We got into Slamdance on our first submission, which is crazy,” he said. “I told Rich I had a feeling we would, because it’s about dogs.”

After the film festival accepted “Dog Spelled Backwards,” one of Almeida’s friends suggested he reach out to shelters located around Park City.

Stasinos was the first to respond.

“I told Tim that I had seen a post about the film on Instagram,” he said. “And here we are. We’re here because of dogs.”

Dogs are naturals when it comes to creating community, Stasinos said.

“We have a Run-a-Muk dog park up here, and I know a lot of dogs’ names, but I don’t know the dog owners,” he said with a laugh. “And they know my dog, but not my name.”

Nuzzles & Co. also hosts snuggle lounges where Stasinos, staff and volunteers take a pack of puppies to hotels, fundraisers and other social gatherings where attendees can do some cuddling.

“It gives me a forum to tell them about the puppies’ journeys and what it took to get them in their arms,” he said. “There’s a ton of stuff that has to happen. After the rescue there’s a two-week quarantine period. They have to get medical attention. They have to be spayed, neutered and microchipped. For some of these dogs, it takes a couple of months, because they have parvovirus or something like that.”

Providing those services takes a lot of money, and Nuzzles & Co. relies on donations and grants, Stasinos said.

“If the money doesn’t come in, we stop saving lives,” he said. “But can you put a price tag on a life? “

Almeida said the love of dogs even transcends politics.

“That all disappears when we see each other’s dogs,” he said. “We’re just happy about each others’ dogs. So we have this in common. What else do we have in common?”

In tandem with the world premiere of “Dog Spelled Backwards” at Slamdance 2024, the filmmakers, Tim Almeida and Richie “Abstrak” Soto, are launching “Shelter to Shelter,” a comprehensive social impact campaign. The campaign is designed to engage dog lovers across the United States, inviting them to join Almeida’s mission of raising awareness, advocating for improvements in the shelter system, and promoting the adoptability of shelter animals through education, community engagement, and resources. 

The post Slamdance filmmaker cuddles up with Nuzzles & Co. appeared first on Park Record.

“The Power of Story: Four Decades of Taking Chances” panel discussion held Tuesday at the Egyptian Theatre was a celebration of the Sundance Film Festival’s four decades of independent film.

The sold-out audience also celebrated Independent Spirit and Gotham awards winning producer Christine Vachon, who landed her first Academy Award nomination that morning when Celine Song’s “Past Lives” was announced as part of the Best Picture category.

“I think, probably everybody up here doesn’t do it for awards, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel good when it happens,” she said when the applause stopped. “It feels great. It’s wonderful for Celine. It’s such an extraordinary movie. And now it will reach a wider audience.”

With that, the discussion, moderated by Festival Director Eugene Hernandez, who is also head of public programming, peeled back the layers of the panelists which included Vachon, filmmaker and Austin Film Society Artistic Director Richard Linklater, filmmaker Miguel Arteta — known for his Sundance Film Festival works “Star Maps” (1997), “Chuck & Buck” (2000) and “The Good Girl” (2002) — and lawyer-turned filmmaker Dawn Porter, whose films include the Sundance films “Gideon’s Army” (2013) and “Trapped” (2016), and her 2023 South by Southwest Film Festival, “The Lady Bird Diaries,” which won the festival’s Lone Star Prize.

At one point, Hernandez asked each panelist their definition of independent film.

For Vachon, there was no easy answer.

“That’s something we think about all the time,” she said. “I think at this point, I tend to define independent film maybe as a result of a singular vision. It’s hard to really say, (because) almost every film I make is financed in so many ways.”

Vachon, who founded her production company, Killer FIlms, in 1995, remembers an interview that she and Lawrence Gordon, a major Hollywood producer — known for Zack Snynder’s 2009 superhero film, “Watchmen,” and Dan Trachtenberg’s 2022 “Alien” prequel, “Prey” — participated in “many years ago.”

“I think he wasn’t quite sure what to make of me and, probably, vice versa,” she said. “He turned to me at the beginning and said, ‘I just thought an independent film was a movie you took to market.’ I thought that was as good a definition as any.”

Linklater had a more direct, but equally ambiguous answer.

“Wasn’t there a Supreme Court definition of pornography (that said) ‘I know it when I see it?'” he said as the audience laughed. “It’s the same with indies. I don’t know any other definition.”

Linklater, who’s films “Slacker,” “Dazed and Confused” and “Boyhood” all premiered at past Sundance Film Festivals, remembered what the independent-film perception was like in the 1990s.

“It was very confusing, (because) the rigid studio, or the journalistic thing was, ‘Well, you have studios, and you have independents,'” he said. 

In 1995, Linklater’s film, “Before Sunrise,” starring Ethan Hawk and Julie Delpy, was released a few weeks before Anthony Minghella’s “The English Patient,” which featured Ralph Fiennes and Juliet Binoche.

“Not that they’re in the same category, but my film cost $2.7 million and that film (was) $25 million,” he said. “(But), it was a big studio sellout, because Columbia (Pictures) distributed it, and that was an indie film, because it played 1,200 screens. At that point it was like, ‘Who decides who gets to put (on) the stamp of approval?'”

Porter, on the other hand, thinks of independent films as those that don’t have mass-market appeal.

“Nobody makes a movie by themselves,” she said. “So, it’s not like there’s every one person who’s independent in that way. There are all the obstacles and all the concerns, and we keep doing it because I think we have something to say — whether it’s what you want to say artistically, some kind of social commentary or some combination of those things. And I think that is more of an independent spirit.”

For Arteta, independent films originally meant movies from other countries.

“I started this because I noticed in the ’60s people started rushing to see the foreign movies at art houses,” he said. “(They were) more honest sexually, and (told) more honest human stories all in foreign languages. I saw the lines, and I was like, ‘Where are the American filmmakers (who) make these kinds of more honest movies? We ought to change that.’ To me, it’s that. More open and personal is what it’s about, if you can make a movie where someone doesn’t force you to cast somebody.”

Linklater agreed.

“If you have final cut and no one’s messing with you is probably a good definition,” he said.

Just as Vachon added, “Then you take it to market.”

During the discussion, each panelist also had the opportunity to show one minute of the independent films that influence and inspire them.

Linklater selected Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 “Stranger Than Paradise.” 

“It sort of rocked the ’80s indie world, and it’s minimalism,” he said. “MTV was starting to dominate the culture. (And) all of this quick, flashy photography kind of didn’t mean anything. It was mindless, surface-level stuff.”

The stark and rough black-and-white, one reel takes of Jarmusch’s work appealed to the punky-underground person Linklater was, and still is.

“It was speaking to myself and my friends,” he said. “It was taking that minimal idea and making it cool. It felt like a film you could make. It was flying in the face of so much technically that was going on in the culture.”

One of Vachon’s favorite films is Bill Sherwood’s 1986 Sundance Film, “Parting Glances.”

“‘Parting Glances’ is one of the first films I worked on, and it was only the feature film by Bill Sherwood who died a couple of years afterwards of AIDs,” she said. “It’s a story of a group of friends who are gay, and it’s not about anybody coming out. It’s really about their lives. But what was really the lesson was that Bill wanted to make a movie about people he never saw represented. And he wanted to do it on his own terms.”

John Cameron Mitchell’s 2001 “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” which was based on Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s 1998 award-winning musical, made an impact on Arteta.

“I had seen the play and it made me realize that it was possible to get it absolutely right,” he said. “When I saw the film, having Hedwig singing right into your eyes and trying to tell you what the origin of love is right into your face was so insanely powerful.”

Arteta will always remember the message of the song, “Origin of Love.” 

“The thing that unites us is the pain that feels so strange inside of each of us,” he said. “That seems to be the way to bridge the gap between people, and I think what John created with this moment and that song really goes to that point.”

Porter named Steve James’ 2011 documentary “The Interrupters,” as her go-to film and said it was because of the filmmaker’s honesty and intimacy in handling his subjects.

“In Steve’s movie there’s a real respect for his characters,” she said. “So often the depictions of people coming out of prison, young Black men, are so flat. The person is not even a person. And so, for Steve, he’s so patient. There’s nothing salacious. They get to be full human beings.”

Although much of the discussion reflected on the past, another purpose of the discussion was to look toward the future of independent film, and Linklater said he isn’t concerned that people will suddenly stop making them.

He cited the record number of Narrative Feature submissions to this year’s festival. 

“When I was first here in 1991, I think there had been 212 submissions in the Narrative Competition, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that is so many movies,'” he said. “Now you have 4,400 (Narrative) submissions.”

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