Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel Announce the Short Films Available
on Sundance.org/Festival, the iTunes Store, Netflix, and Xbox 360
PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Sundance Institute and
Sundance Channel announced today the program of 2008 Sundance Film Festival
short films available far beyond the streets of Park City for free on
http://www.sundance.org/watch and for sale on the iTunes Store, Netflix and Xbox
360.
This year's short films include sophisticated animation, compelling
nonfiction work, action-packed dramas, outrageous comedies, and everything
in between. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17-27, in Park
City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
Premiering January 18 and running all 10 days of the Festival,
audiences worldwide can view one short film each day of the Festival for
free for 24 hours at http://www.sundance.org/watch. At the same time, Sundance
Institute helps build audiences for short films through partnerships with
the iTunes Movie Store, Xbox LIVE, the online entertainment network for
Microsoft's Xbox 360, and through Netflix's instant watching feature on the
company's member Web Site. Presented in collaboration with Sundance
Channel, a selection of 45 short films from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
shorts will launch simultaneously on all three platforms beginning January
18, 2008 and run through 2011.
The Festival's Shorts Programs showcase the creative, boundary-pushing
work of filmmaking's newest talents. Short films screen in Festival
theatres prior to a feature film or as part of one of the Festival's eight
short film programs. The Short Film Program, both at the Festival and
online is presented by Festival sponsor, Adobe Systems.
Short films have always played an important part in the Sundance Film
Festival and were inaugurated as an official program in 1991. The shorts
program at Sundance has long been established as a discovery for directors,
including Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson,
David O. Russell, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Holofcener, and Alexander Payne.
10 OVER 10: SHORT FILMS FREE ON SUNDANCE.ORG/WATCH
Beginning January 18, visit http://www.sundance.org/watch to view 10 short
films over 10 days from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, each streaming
free online for 24 hours beginning at 12:01 am MST each day. From a
sublimely sweet love story set among zombies and a thriller about an Inuit
hunter witnessing a murder to the tale of a man's affection for his
miniature guide horse and the true story of a man looking for answers to
his failed marriage, these shorts truly celebrate the innovation of the
short filmmaking craft.
Day 1: Friday, January 18
I Love Sarah Jane (Director: Spencer Susser)
Jimbo is 13 and can think of only one girl -- Sarah Jane. And no matter
what stands in his way -- bullies, violence, chaos, or zombies -- nothing
will stop him from finding a way into her world.
Day 2: Saturday, January 19
Pariah (Director: Dee Rees)
A Bronx lesbian teenager juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection
from friends and family, but pressures from home, school, and within
corrode the line between her dual personas with an explosive consequence.
Day 3: Sunday, January 20
Yours Truly (Osbert Parker)
Animation and live action collide in the story of Frank and Charlie, a
dark romance of psychological tension that unfolds as the two sacrifice
their morals surrounding the ultimate kiss off letter.
Day 4: Monday, January 21
My Olympic Summer (Director: Daniel Robin)
After his marriage fails, the filmmaker looks at home video footage of
his parents when they were young in hopes to understand how they kept the
magic. This film is set against the historical backdrop of the hostage
crisis at the Munich Olympic games of 1972.
Day 5: Tuesday, January 22
Sick Sex (Director: Justin Nowell)
Amanda has a fever. Ken is horny.
Day 6: Wednesday, January 23
Because Washington is Hollywood For Ugly People (Director: Kenneth
Tin-Kin Hung)
Employing images from popular culture, political figures and Internet
imagery, this piece adopts viral advertising in a reduction of contemporary
events to a cartoon-like mythology while touching on issues such as
identity politics, US Foreign policy, sexuality and power.
Day 7: Thursday, January 24
Force 1 TD (Director: Randy Krallman)
Three friends, one of whom is visually impaired and has a miniature
guide horse named Carmine, set off to find Carmine a very special pair of
sneakers for a very special occasion.
Day 8: Friday, January 25
Wind, Ten Years Old (Director: Marzieh Vafamehr)
A day in the life of a 10-year-old Iranian girl highlights the
Iran-Iraq war and the national/educational propaganda that informs the
tumult, fear, infatuation, and mindset of a generation.
Day 9: Saturday, January 26
Sikumi (On the Ice) (Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean) An Inuit hunter
takes his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean in search of seals, and
inadvertently becomes a witness to a murder.
Day 10, Sunday, January 27
Spider (Director: Nash Edgerton)
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
Films Available on the iTunes Store, Netflix, and Xbox 360:
Sundance Institute is helping to build audiences for short films
through partnerships with Apple's iTunes Movie Store, Xbox LIVE, the online
entertainment network for Microsoft's Xbox 360, and the Netflix member Web
site. Starting January 18, 2008 through 2011, audiences can own and watch
45 of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival short films at the iTunes Store,
Netflix or Xbox 360.
Sundance Film Festival Short Films will be priced at $1.99 each with
http://www.iTunes.com/sundance being the primary download-to-own platform for
viewing on an iPhone, iPod, Mac, PC or widescreen TV with Apple TV. Also
available on the iTunes Store are free podcasts that go behind the scenes
of the Sundance Film Festival, including panels with filmmakers,
journalists and industry leaders and live music performances straight from
Park City.
Netflix is making the Sundance shorts available to its subscribers at
no additional fee through its instant watching feature, which offers
thousands of films and TV episodes to be viewed instantly on PCs.
Xbox 360 will offer yet another $1.99 download-to-own platform through
Xbox LIVE. Xbox LIVE is the leading provider of high definition on demand
content, offering movies for video on demand and TV shows and music videos
for download-to-own. More information about content being offered on Xbox
LIVE is available at
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/?WT.svl=nav.
Maintaining its core mission of supporting filmmakers, Sundance
Institute has partnered with industry leader and digital distribution
company Mediastile, Inc. to provide ongoing digital distribution and
encoding services to the 2008 Filmmakers. As the Official Digital
Clearinghouse of the Sundance Film Festival, Mediastile provides a digital
on-ramp to content retailers for filmmakers around the world.
Films Available:
THE APOLOGY LINE/ United Kingdom (Director: James Lees) -- Based on the
creation of a real-life 'apology line' where members of the public
anonymously confess to absolutely anything over the telephone.
AUGUST 15/ China (Director: Xuan Jiang) -- Based on a real life event,
a young Chinese woman boards a bus with her boyfriend to head home to meet
his parents. What was supposed to be a joyful holiday turns unpredictable
when a pair of countryside crooks hijack their bus. Traveling through
China's dangerous mountain passes, the passengers must decide how much they
are willing to sacrifice for their own safety.
BECAUSE WASHINGTON IS HOLLYWOOD FOR UGLY PEOPLE (Director: Kenneth
Tin-Kin Hung) -- Employing images from popular culture, political figures
and Internet imagery, this piece adopts viral advertising in a reduction of
contemporary events to a cartoon-like mythology while touching on issues
such as identity politics, US Foreign policy, sexuality and power.
BUYO/ Italy (Director: Andrea Fasciani) -- In this post-modern tale,
Ralph is a guy whose voice only generates weird sounds, and Anna is deaf.
One day they meet in the elevator. Ralph's unusual voice makes Anna's body
vibrate, prompting Anna's affections and her desire to follow him
everywhere.
BY MODERN MEASURE (Director: Matthew Lessner) -- As part of an ongoing,
unaired TV series, an amateur French sociologist presents his observations
on a day in the life of two young Americans who meet by chance outside a
Taco Bell on October 8, 2006.
CHERRIES/ United Kingdom (Director: Tom Harper; Screenwriter: Fiona
Kissane) -- A class of teenage schoolboys are oblivious to their teacher's
attempts to question them about the wider world. They are about to get a
lesson they will never forget...one that will change their lives forever.
CHONTO (Director: Carson Mell) -- Wilted rock idol Bobby Bird literally
tries to buy a friend when he adopts a monkey from a zoo in South America.
CROSSBOW/ Australia (Director: David Michod) -- A kid. His Mum and Dad.
The sex and drugs. And the boy next door who watched the whole thing
unravel.
THE DEEP (Director: Alex Haworth) -- A journey unravels through the
thoughts of a solitary character in the heart of a future dystopia. As he
journeys deep underground, he tends to the machines that fuel the surface
city. His jobs are precise, almost compulsive, and he is unable to stop.
DOG LOVERS (Director: Danny Roew, Screenwriters: Tonya Cornelisse,
Graham Sibley) -- Two potential lovers meet to talk about their affection
for dogs.
DUGONG/ Australia (Director: Erin White) -- In an effort to repair the
past, a loner returns home with his dog on the day of his brother's
wedding, but learns that in order to make amends he must leave a piece of
himself behind.
THE EXECUTION OF SOLOMON HARRIS (Directors: Wyatt Garfield, Ed
Yonaitis; Screenwriter: Ed Yonaitis) -- An electric chair execution fails,
delivering a non-lethal jolt of electricity that leaves the prisoner
screaming in pain. Protocol and routine fail to provide a resolution, and
the warden has to cope with the human dilemma that falls into his hands.
FAREWELL PACKETS OF TEN/ Ireland (Director: Ken Wardrop) -- Two ladies
discuss the pros and cons of their mutual addiction to cigarettes.
FCU: FACT CHECKERS UNIT (Director: Dan Beers; Screenwriters: Dan Beers,
Peter Karinen, Brian Sacca) -- After being assigned to check a bizarre fact
about Bill Murray's love for drinking milk, two magazine fact checkers
break into Bill's house to spy on him. Cast: Bill Murray
THE FUNERAL/ Canada (Director: Sara St. Onge) -- A dark comedy about a
young woman in her early thirties becomes aware of her own mortality and
reacts by meticulously planning her own funeral. Possibly due to a lack of
other big days in her life so far, such as a wedding, this becomes her
moment to shine.
GAS ZAPPERS (Director: Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung) -- A short animation about
climate change, where an ironically over-appropriated and fuzzy polar bear,
abruptly finds itself in a position to save its home.
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA (Director: MK12) -- A psychedelic western space
opera.
I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE/ Canada (Director: Cam Christiansen;
Screenwriter: Kris Demeanor) -- A suburban boy competes in a tennis match
with his father in the suburbs of Calgary when three young men approach and
start to rudely accost them.
I LOVE SARAH JANE/ Australia (Director: Spencer Susser) -- Jimbo is 13
and can think of only one girl-Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his
way -- bullies, violence, chaos, or zombies-nothing will stop him from
finding a way into her world.
IGNITE (Director: Shawn Bannon) -- The 2007 fires of Griffith Park.
Shot with seven time-lapse cameras. An experimental perspective that is
beautiful, eerie, and captivating.
LLOYD NECK (Director: Benedict Campbell) -- Alex has a crush on her
brother's friend, Jesse. But Jesse likes Alex's brother, Taylor. Alex knows
something is up with her brother. Caught in an awkward position, Taylor
takes Alex and Jesse to his favorite spot.
THE LOSS OF A WRESTLING MATCH (Director: Jed Cowley) -- So far in the
season, Don has a 9-0 record. He is perfect, but in the upcoming duel he
has to wrestle a higher-ranked opponent.
MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI/ Canada (Directors: Chris Lavis, Maciek
Szczerbowski) - - Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down
with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. As day
descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical
adventure adrift between real and imagined worlds.
MAN (Director: Myna Joseph) -- Maggie and her sister form an unusual
bond during an encounter with a young man.
THE MARK (Director: Thomas Barndt) -- A lawyer rents a room to a human
lightning bolt.
MOTION STUDIES: INERTIA (Director: Jake Mahaffy) -- This film documents
a motion study of a man running as hard and as long as he can in a full
suit of smithied High Middle Age armor.
NIKAMOWIN (SONG)/ Canada (Director: Kevin Lee Burton) -- Deconstructing
and reconstructing Cree narrative, this film experiments with language to
create a linguistic soundscape.
NUMBER ONE (Director: Leighton Pierce) -- Water imagery engages the
experience of elasticity between varying states of mind.
OIRAN LYRICS/ Japan (Director: Ryosuke Ogawa) -- A historical musical
about the glamorous yet plaintive life of Kiyomi, a beautiful oiran or
high- class Japanese courtesan.
ON THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT (Director: Adam Keker) -- A top-
secret government file, only to be viewed in the event of the President's
death by assassination, gives specific instructions on what should be done,
and presents dossiers on the three most likely suspects.
PARADISE/ France (Director: Yi Zhou) -- A lyrical look at an imaginary
paradise based on black and white nature and insects -- with no humans, no
souls in the landscape. Based on "The Divine Comedy" by Dante.
PARIAH (Director: Dee Rees) -- A Bronx lesbian teenager juggles
multiple identities to avoid rejection from friends and family, but
pressures from home, school, and within corrode the line between her dual
personas with an explosive consequence.
PLEASE STAND BACK! (zurrueckbleiben bitte)/ Austria (Directors:
stadtmusik) -- The directorial collective, stadtmusik, deals with sounds in
cities by analyzing sound structures that are triggered by urban buildings
and facilities. They focus on the aspect of movement in the city,
reinforcing a dynamic experience of the urban soundscape.
THE RAMBLER (Director: Calvin Reeder) -- A stranger takes to the lonely
highway with his guitar and traveling sack.
A RELATIONSHIP IN FOUR DAYS (Director: Peter Glanz) -- Coming from a
wealthy family, Paul recently turned 30 and has never had, or needed a real
job. Lost in his own imagination, he often preaches his grand ideas, but in
reality never does much...until he meets Sabine.
SCORING/ Ireland (Director: Ken Wardrop) -- A young man explains the
true power of a kiss.
THE SECOND LINE (Director: John Magary) -- After MacArthur's savings
are stolen from his FEMA trailer, he and his cousin Natt take work gutting
a house.
SICK SEX (Director: Justin Nowell) -- Amanda has a fever. Ken is horny.
SMILE/ Canada (Director: Julia Kwan) -- A subtle look at the fractures
that bond a Chinese immigrant family on the day they use their cut-out
Sears coupon for a free family portrait.
SOFT/ United Kingdom (Director: Simon Ellis) -- A father rediscovers
his fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.
THE SOUND OF PEOPLE/ Ireland (Director: Simon Fitzmaurice) -- An
18-year- old boy stands in a moment on the brink of death.
SPIDER/ Australia (Director: Nash Edgerton) -- It's all fun and games
until someone loses an eye.
TEAT BEAT OF SEX (Director: Signe Baumane) -- A take on sex exclusively
from a woman's point of view.
UNTITLED #1 (from the series EARTH PEOPLE 2507) (Director: Nao
Bustamante) -- An enchanting meditation on an ancient species from the
future using found footage, cell phone video, and crude chroma key effects
to create a coherent and petite spell. The rendition of buffalos made from
a "herd" of toy poodles tweaks at our understanding of the symbolic world.
WIND, TEN YEARS OLD (BAAD, DAH SALEH)/ Iran (Director: M. Mehr) -- A
day in the life of a 10-year-old Iranian girl highlights the Iran-Iraq war
and the national/educational propaganda that informs the tumult, fear,
infatuation, and mindset of a generation.
2008 Sundance Film Festival Sponsors
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival sponsors help sustain Sundance
Institute's year-round programs to support independent artists, inspire
risk-taking, and encourage diversity in the arts. This year's Festival
Sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors -- Entertainment Weekly, Volkswagen
of America, Inc., HP, and Adobe Systems Incorporated; Leadership Sponsors
-- American Express, Delta Air Lines, DIRECTV, and Microsoft Corporation;
Sustaining Sponsors -- 360 Vodka, Blockbuster Inc., L'Oreal Paris, The New
York Times, Ray-Ban, Sony Electronics, Inc., Stella Artois(R), Turning Leaf
Vineyards, Utah Film Commission, and ZonePerfect(R) Nutrition Bars.
Sundance Channel is the Official Television Network of the 2008 Sundance
Film Festival.
Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and
international independent film. Held each January in Park City, Salt Lake
City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah, the Festival is a core program of Sundance
Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in
1981.
Presenting dramatic and documentary feature-length films in nine
distinct categories and approximately 80 short films each year, the
Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the
most innovative films of the past two decades. Since 1984, the Festival
program has evolved to include music, art, and dialogue. Beyond the streets
of Park City, the official website of the Sundance Film Festival,
http://www.sundance.org/festival shares the Festival experience with a
global audience with short films, filmmaker interviews, video episodes,
podcasts, photos, news stories, and more.
Sundance Institute
Dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent
vision and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute
celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2006. Founded by Robert Redford in 1981,
the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for
thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic
development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights,
and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative
risk-taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of
Sundance Institute, both with U.S. artists and, increasingly, with artists
from other regions of the world.
Sundance Channel
Under the creative direction of Robert Redford, Sundance Channel is the
television destination for independent-minded viewers seeking something
different. Bold, uncompromising and irreverent, Sundance Channel offers
audiences a diverse and engaging selection of films, documentaries, and
original programs, all unedited and commercial free. Launched in 1996,
Sundance Channel is a venture of NBC Universal, CBS, and Robert Redford.
Sundance Channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance
Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, but shares the overall Sundance
mission of encouraging artistic freedom of expression. Sundance Channel's
website address is http://www.sundancechannel.com.
Mediastile
Mediastile is a new breed of distributor for the digital age.
Mediastile is focused on enabling studios, home video companies, and
filmmakers alike to distribute their movies to digital outlets such as
iTunes, Xbox 360, Netflix, and many more. Mediastile is on the cutting edge
of digital distribution, and with its relationship with the Sundance Film
Festival, it continues to help independent filmmakers realize their vision
and reach new audiences around the world.
Mediastile provides mass digital distribution of media content. Now,
filmmakers can turn their focus towards the creative issues and avoid the
hassles involved with independent distribution in the digital age. For more
information, please go to http://www.mediastile.net
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