Series will Run for Six Weeks
Short Films from Directors with Feature Films in the Festival Also Available
Park City, UT – Sundance Institute has announced a collaboration with YouTube to make available, in the YouTube Screening Room, 12 short films from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival as well as eight classic short films from Institute alumni and earlier Festivals. Each YouTube Screening Room series is scheduled to run for a span of six weeks. The first launch date is January 6, 2011 and will continue to release through February 3, 2011. These presentations are made possible by the generous support of Acura, Presenting Sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival.
The Sundance Film Festival’s shorts programs have long been established as a discovery for emerging directors, including: Wes Anderson, Todd Haynes, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Jason Reitman, David O Russell, and Tamara Jenkins.
“We are thrilled to be able to share a selection of short films free online on the YouTube Screening Room with the broader public,” said Trevor Groth, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming. “The Screening Room will offer just a sample of the diversity and originality of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Program, as well as a taste of Institute history.”
The YouTube Screening room (www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom) is a curated wing of YouTube that focuses on independent films. The Screening Room has been the exhibition home of Oscar-nominated shorts, film classics, and other noteworthy offerings. The Screening Room highlights some of the best and most celebrated work from around the world.
Scheduled to launch January 6, 2011:
Classic Short Films from Directors with Feature Films in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival
By Modern Measure (Matthew Lessner)
As part of an ongoing, unaired TV series (By Modern Measure) an amateur French sociologist presents his observations on a day in the life to two young Americans who meet by chance outside a Taco Bell on October 8, 2006.
· Matthew Lessner’s feature film, The Woods, will premiere in the New Frontier section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Little Farm (Calvin Reeder)
The wages of sin. A foul-mouthed family of brother and sister, in their late teens or early 20s, and their father run a small farm. During one argument between the siblings, ostensibly about her choice of a man to marry, she hints that she knows why he has no woman in his life. Later that night, when dad’s sleeping off heavy drinking, brother and sister open Pandora’s box.
· Calvin Reeder’s feature film, The Oregonian,will premiere in the Park City at Midnight section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Countertransference (Madeleine Olnek)
A comedy about a lonely woman with assertiveness issues who finds her problems multiplied in therapy.
· Madeline Olnek’s feature film, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, will premiere in the Park City at Midnight section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Choices (Rashaad Ernesto Green)
An exploration a young man’s thought process as he makes love to his girlfriend, and how a person’s upbringing can affect him/her in many ways.
· Rashaad Ernesto Green’s feature film, Gun Hill Road, will premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Scheduled to launch January 13, 2011:
Short Filmmakers Developed at the Sundance Institute Feature Film Labs
Conversion (Nanobah Becker)
In a remote corner of the Navajo nation, circa 1950, a visit by Christian missionaries has catastrophic consequences for a family.
Pandemic 41.410806, -75.654259 (Lance Weiler)
Bree and her little brother Tyler know that their parents awaken only at sundown and are capable of strange and dangerous nocturnal behaviors. Running low on supplies and forced to act, Bree plots their escape, but Tyler stands in her way, unwilling to leave their family home and give up on the parents he loves so much.
· Lance Weiler’s transmedia storytelling experience, Pandemic 1.0,is part of the New Frontier section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Pop Foul (Moon Molson)
A boy sees his father attacked by a local thug on the way home from a Little League game and agrees to help hide the incident from his mother.
· Moon Molson will premiere his short film, Crazy Beats Strong Every Time, at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Sikumi (Andrew Okpeaha MacLean)
The story of an Inuit hunter who drives his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean in search of seals, but instead, becomes a witness to murder.
· Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s feature film, On the Ice, will premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Scheduled to launch in three flights beginning January 20, January 27 and February 3, 2011:
Short Films Direct from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival
8 Bits (Valere Amirault, Sarah Laufer, Jean Delaunay, and Benjamin Mattern)
A fight between an 8-bit superhero and a high-def boss, in a retro-gaming world.
Andy and Zach (Nick Paley)
When Zach decides to move out, his roommate Andy tries to set up a new life without his best friend.
Close. (Tahir Jetter)
One night after a casual ‘visit’, Angela is all but ready to leave Derek’s apartment. Derek, however, is determined no to let her go without a fight.
Excuse Me (Duncan Birmingham)
A couple threatens to splinter apart due to what may or may not have been said in the heat of passion.
Jupiter Elicius (Kelly Sears)
A haunted meteorologist dreams of storms that are a lot closer and further away than he thought.
oops (Chris Beckman)
A metaphorical elucidation exploring the Internet’s infinite repository of ‘throwaway’ social documentation.
Sasquatch Birth Journal 2 (David & Nathan Zellner)
An unprecedented peek at the mysteries of nature.
Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul (Orlando von Einsiedel)
In a country with innumerable problems, Skateistan represents an oasis where children can be children and build the kinds of cross-cultural relationships that Afghanistan needs for future stability.
The High Level Bridge (Trevor Anderson)
Trevor drops his camera from Edmonton’s High Level Bridge in memory of those who have jumped.
The Hunter and The Swan (Emily Carmichael)
A Brooklyn couple have dinner with a hunter and his girlfriend, a magical swan woman. It doesn’t go well.
Xemoland (Daniel Cardenas)
The story of a seven-year-old boy who is led to believe there is a portal to an alternate reality where all his dreams come true. However, the boy quickly realizes that Xemoland is not the place of his dreams, but of his nightmares.
Yelp (With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howlâ€) (Tiffany Shlain)
Sophocles once said, ‘nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse,’ and this couldn’t be more true of technology.
About YouTube
YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC is based in San Bruno, CA and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.
About Acura
Acura offers a full line of technologically advanced performance luxury vehicles through a network of 270 dealers within the United States. The 2011 Acura lineup features six distinctive models including the RL luxury performance sedan, the TL performance luxury sedan, the TSX sports sedan, the turbocharged RDX luxury crossover SUV, the MDX luxury sport utility vehicle and the all-new ZDX four-door sports coupe.
Festival Sponsors
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors—Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura, Sundance Channel and Chase SapphireSM; Leadership Sponsors—Bingâ„¢, Canon, DIRECTV, Honda, Southwest Airlines and YouTubeâ„¢; Sustaining Sponsors—FilterForGood®, a partnership between Brita® and Nalgene®, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, L’Oréal Paris, Stella Artois®, Timberland, and Trident Vitalityâ„¢. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations will defray costs associated with the 10-day Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s year-round programs for independent film and theatre artists. In return, sponsorship of the preeminent Festival provides these organizations with global exposure, a platform for brand impressions and unique access to Festival attendees.
About Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. www.sundance.org
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