Slamdance has invited 19 feature films to compete in their tenth annual festival taking place in Park City, January 17-24. Eleven of those films are fictional narratives with the rest being documentaries. Joining the features will be 21 shorts in competition.
Screenings will be split between two different venues this year – Treasure Mountain Inn (Slamdance HQ) and the brand new Madstone Theater Location in Trolley Square. Screenings at Madstone will focus on competition docs.
Out of competition screenings and special events (including another sledding adventure I hear) will be announced shortly. Until then, here are your Slamdance competition films for 2004:
FEATURE FILMS SCREENING IN COMPETITION:
“DEAR PILLOW” – (USA, 85 min., Narrative, 2003). WORLD PREMIERE – A 17-year-old supermarket bag boy finds a mentor in a porno magazine writer and soon he is enmeshed in some very adult situations. Directed by Bryan Poyser.
“GOLDFISH GAME” (Belguim, 105 min., Narrative, 2002) US PREMIERE – In this modern day fable about an extended family that comes together at a castle in the French Ardennes, man becomes a sum of his secrets, his past and his moral decisions. Directed by Jan Lauwers.
“GRAVEYARD ALIVE” – A ZOMBIE NURSE IN LOVE – (Canada, 80 min., Narrative, 2003) US PREMIERE – A modern feminist B-Horror zombie flick about a lonely nurse who turns into a sex kitten after being bitten by a zombie. Directed by Elza Kephart.
“HOMEWORK” – (USA, 77 min., Narrative, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – A 16-year-old ballet dancer explores her sexual and emotional world in unexpected ways when she encounters predicaments above and beyond her controlled environment. Directed by Kevin Asher Green.
“IPO” – (USA, 100 min., Narrative, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – The dreams and dilemmas of 12 characters play out against a backdrop of San Francisco’s Mission district as the over-hyped dot com market bubble begins to deflate. Directed by Daniel Gamburg.
“MADNESS AND GENIUS” – (USA, 103 min., Narrative, 2003) A college student failing out of school steals old research from his once brilliant, reclusive professor, hoping to gain fame and reverence. He turns the professors life upside down as it forces him to confront the demons that forced him into solitude. With Tom Noonan. Directed by Ryan Eslinger.
“MEMRON” – (USA, 76 min., Narrative, 2002) WORLD PREMIERE – An improvisational comedic romp through the ruins of corporate fraud. Memron was once the greatest company on earth. Now their top executives rule the prison yard golf course. Directed by Nancy Hower).
“NIGHTINGALE IN A MUSIC BOX” (USA, 96 min., Narrative, 2002) In the future there is a technology that can control people’s memories. Two women confront it in this sci-fi drama that examines the question: “How easily can our mind be taken away from us?” Directed by Hurt McDermott.
“SHELTER” – (USA, 80 min., Narrative, 2004) WORLD PREMIERE – Three destitute inner-city teens break into a secluded beach house and create a makeshift family in this unfamiliar and magical setting. But when jealousies erupt the alliances of two brothers and their pregnant friend are put to the test. With Ray Santiago (“GIRLFIGHT,” “PINERO”). Directed by Benno Schoberth.
“TAKE OUT” – (USA, 91 min., Narrative, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – An illegal Chinese immigrant falls behind on payments on an enormous smuggling debt. Ming Ding has only until the end of the day to come up with the money. Directed by Shih-Ching Tsou, Sean Baker.
“X, Y” (USA, 102 min., Narrative, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – Based on the cult novel by Michael Blumlein, this dark love story set in hip NYC is about a woman who wakes up one morning and has lost her identity. The one thing she knows for sure is that she is a man. Directed by Vladimir Vitkin.
FEATURE DOCUMENTARIES SCREENING IN COMPETITION:
“ARAKIMENTARI” – (USA, 76 min., Documentary, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – A look at the life and work of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and his impact on Japanese culture and the depiction of women. Directed by Travis Klose.
“BRUCE HAACK: THE KING OF TECHNO” – (USA, 69 min., Documentary, 2003) The underground world of homespun musician Bruce Haack comes alive with mind-blowing visuals, wild music and far out stories. Directed by Philip Anagnos.
“BIG CITY DICK: RICHARD PETERSON’S FIRST MOVIE”, USA, 129 min., Documentary, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – This captivating journey into the world of a savant street musician and his lifelong struggle to become a successful recording artist. His celebrity obsessions range from Jeff Bridges to Johnny Mathis and then The Stone Temple Pilots discover his music… Directed by Scott Milam, Ken Harder, Todd Pottinger.
“FACTOR 8: THE ARKANSAS PRISON BLOOD SCANDAL” – (USA, 85 min., Documentary, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – This film investigates the sale of tainted blood from infected prisoners to Canada, Europe and Japan, thus spreading AIDS and Hepatitis C. Directed by Kelly Duda.
“MONSTER ROAD” – (USA, 80 min., Documentary, 2003) WORLD PREMIERE – This film explores the life and work of visionary clay and line animator Bruce Bickford. Best known for the dark and magical clay animations he created for musician Frank Zappa in the 1970s, Bickford’s films have achieved cult status worldwide, even though very little of his 40 year body of work has been released to the public. Directed by Brett Ingram.
“PLAGUES & PLEASURES: A LIFE AT THE SALTON SEA” – (USA, 79 min., Documentary) WORLD PREMIERE – In the 1960’s, the Salton Sea was a premier working class vacationer’s destination and was championed as the next Palm Springs. Today it sits nearly abandoned. Directed by Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer.
“THE WATERSHED” – (USA, 78 min., Documentary, 2003) In hardly more than a decade the Trunk family moved from a life of seeming glamour, perfection and financial success to one of welfare and isolation. Filmmaker Mary Trunk examines what happened to her and her siblings as children of alcoholic parents.
Get the short films in part two of SLAMDANCE ANNOUNCES 2003 LINE-UP>>>
