DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION:
AFTER INNOCENCE (Director: Jessica Sanders)—A gripping, emotionally charged film that follows wrongfully convicted men freed by DNA evidence after decades in prison as they struggle to transition back into society. World Premiere.
THE ARISTOCRATS (Director: Paul Provenza)—One hundred superstar comedians tell the same very, VERY dirty, filthy joke—one shared privately by comics since vaudeville. World Premiere.
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (Director: Jeff Feuerzeig)—Daniel Johnston, manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, is revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity, and love. World Premiere.
THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX (Directors: Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt)—A 15-year-old girl’s transformation from conservative Southern Baptist to liberal Christian and ardent feminist parallels her fight for sex education and gay rights in Lubbock, Texas. World Premiere.
ENRON: RISE AND FALL (Director: Alex Gibney)—The suspenseful, darkly comic, and ultimately tragic inside story of one of history’s greatest business scandals. World Premiere.
THE FALL OF FUJIMORI (Director: Ellen Perry)—President Alberto Fujimori risked everything to win Peru’s war on terror, but in doing so became an international fugitive wanted for corruption, kidnapping, and murder. World Premiere.
FROZEN ANGELS (Directors: Eric Black and Frauke Sandig)—A scientific and social exploration of the future of human reproductive technology. World Premiere.
MARDI GRAS: MADE IN CHINA (Director: David Redmon)—This examination of cultural and economic globalization follows the lifecycle of Mardi Gras beads from a small factory in Fuzhou, China, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and to art galleries in New York City. World Premiere.
MURDERBALL (Directors: Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro)—A film about quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in Mad Max–style wheelchairs, overcoming unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. World Premiere.
NEW YORK DOLL (Director: Greg Whiteley)—A recovering alcoholic and recently converted Mormon, Arthur “Killer” Kane, of the rock band The New York Dolls, is given a chance at reuniting with his band after 30 years. World Premiere.
RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY (Directors: Dan Klores and Ron Berger)—A story of violence, love, sex, politics, and media, centered around the life of Griffith, a six-time world welterweight champion. World Premiere.
ROMÁNTICO (Director: Mark Becker)—A troubadour returns home to scratch out a living in Mexico after years of trying to get ahead in San Francisco. World Premiere.
SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS (Director: Hank Rogerson)—Twenty male inmates in a Kentucky prison form an unlikely Shakespearean acting troupe. World Premiere.
TRUDELL (Director: Heather Rae)—A chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist John Trudell’s travels, spoken word performances, and politics. World Premiere.
TWIST OF FAITH (Director: Kirby Dick)—A man confronts the trauma of past sexual abuse as a boy by a Catholic priest only to find his decision shatters his relationships with his family, community, and faith. World Premiere.
WHY WE FIGHT (Director: Eugene Jarecki)—This film places the Iraqi war in a historical context and examines the forces—economic, political, and ideological—that drive American militarism. World Premiere.
DRAMATIC COMPETITION:
BETWEEN (Director: David Ocañas; Screenwriter: Robert Nelms)—A young American lawyer’s structured world unravels when her search for her missing sister pulls her into a labyrinth of confusion and psychological deception in Tijuana, Mexico. World Premiere.
BRICK (Director: Rian Johnson; Screenwriter: Rian Johnson)—A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. World Premiere.
DYING GAUL (Director: Craig Lucas; Screenwriter: Craig Lucas)—A grief-stricken screenwriter unknowingly enters a three-way relationship with a woman and her film executive husband—to chilling results. World Premiere.
ELLIE PARKER (Director: Scott Coffey; Screenwriter: Scott Coffey)—A hilarious comic portrait of a young woman’s struggle for integrity, happiness, and a Hollywood acting career. World Premiere.
FORTY SHADES OF BLUE (Director: Ira Sachs; Screenwriters: Michael Rohatyn and Ira Sachs)—A Russian woman living in Memphis with a much older rock’n’roll legend experiences a personal awakening when her husband’s estranged son comes to visit. World Premiere.
HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS SPENT THEIR SUMMER (Director: Georgina Garcia Riedel; Screenwriter: Georgina Garcia Riedel)—Three generations of women in a Mexican American family experience sexual awakenings over the course of a summer. World Premiere.
HUSTLE & FLOW (Director: Craig Brewer; Screenwriter: Craig Brewer)—With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful rapper. World Premiere.
JUNEBUG (Director: Phil Morrison; Screenwriter: Angus MacLachlan)—A dealer in “outsider” art travels from Chicago to North Carolina to meet her new in-laws, challenging the equilibrium of this middle-class Southern home. World Premiere.
LOGGERHEADS (Director: Tim Kirkman; Screenwriter: Tim Kirkman)—Three overlapping stories of estranged families in three regions of North Carolina. World Premiere.
LONESOME JIM (Director: Steve Buscemi; Screenwriter: James C. Strouse)—Failing to make it on his own, 27-year-old Jim moves back in with his parents and deals with crippling family obligations. World Premiere.
ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (Director: Miranda July; Screenwriter: Miranda July)—A lonely shoe salesman and an eccentric performance artist struggle to connect in this unique take on contemporary life. World Premiere.
POLICE BEAT (Director: Robinson Devor; Screenwriters: Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede)—An African-born bicycle cop encounters strange and mysterious situations on his police beat in urban Seattle. World Premiere.
PRETTY PERSUASION (Director: Marcos Siega; Screenwriter: Skander Halim)—A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment. World Premiere.
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (Director: Noah Baumbach; Screenwriter: Noah Baumbach)—In 1980s Park Slope Brooklyn, the Berkman family goes through a divorce and painful truths about the marriage come to light. World Premiere.
THUMBSUCKER (Director: Mike Mills; Screenwriter: Mike Mills)—Justin throws himself and everyone around him into chaos when he attempts to break free from his addiction to his thumb. World Premiere.
WHO KILLED C**K ROBIN? (Director: Travis Wilkerson; Screenwriter: Travis Wilkerson)—In depressed Butte, Montana, young men struggle to forge modest lives and make sense of it all. World Premiere.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION:
THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA / Finland (Director: Pirjo Honkasalo)—A searing examination of the unrelenting Chechen conflict, observed through the prisms of a Russian military boys academy, a war-torn town, and a children’s refugee camp. North American Premiere.
DHAKIYARR VS. THE KING / Australia (Directors: Tom Murray and Allan Collins)—Seventy years after his controversial murder trial and subsequent disappearance, an Australian Aboriginal’s descendants seek to restore what was denied him: his honor. North American Premiere.
GRIZZLY MAN / U.S.A. (Director: Werner Herzog)— A devastating and heart-wrenching take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska. World Premiere.
I AM CUBA, THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH / Brazil (Director: Vicente Ferraz)—This film examines the creation and exhibition of the propaganda film I Am Cuba, a Soviet/Cuban collaboration unknown in the West until the 1990s. North American Premiere.
EL IMMORTAL / Nicaragua/Spain/Mexico (Director: Mercedes Moncada)—A family is torn apart by the conflict in Nicaragua, leaving brother fighting brother and illustrating religious manipulation, male chauvinism, and poverty as part of the destructive legacy of war. World Premiere.
THE LIBERACE OF BAGHDAD / U.K. (Director: Sean McAllister)—Held up in a heavily fortified Baghdad hotel, Iraq’s most famous pianist, Samir Peter, tries to survive the “peace” of post-war Iraq as he waits for his visa that will grant him a new life in America. North American Premiere.
ODESSA ODESSA / Israel/France (Director: Michale Boganim)—A voyage from the Ukraine to New York to Israel, portraying the wanderings, hopes, and illusions of the vanishing Odessa Jewish community. World Premiere.
SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: THE JOURNEY OF ROMéO DALLAIRE / Canada (Director: Peter Raymont)—The story of Canadian Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire and his controversial command of the United Nations mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. U.S. Premiere.
SHAPE OF THE MOON / The Netherlands (Director: Leonard Retel Helmrich)—Three generations of one family weather the challenges of living in modern-day Indonesia, the largest Muslim community on the globe. North American Premiere.
UNKNOWN WHITE MALE / U.K. (Director: Rupert Murray)—This is the true story of Doug Bruce, who woke up on Coney Island with no memory of any day of his entire life. World Premiere.
WALL / France/Israel (Director: Simone Bitton)—A meditation on the separation fence in Israel/Palestine that imprisons one people while enclosing the other. U.S. Premiere.
YANG BAN XI – THE 8 MODELWORKS / The Netherlands (Director: Yan Ting Yuen)—The story of lives inextricably linked to the Yang Ban Xi, the propaganda spectacles which replaced traditional opera during the Cultural Revolution in China. World Premiere.
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION:
BROTHERS / Denmark (Director: Susanne Bier; Screenwriter: Anders Thomas Jensen)—Two brothers must negotiate changing roles and shifting family dynamics when one is sent to war in Afghanistan. U.S. Premiere.
CRONICAS / Ecuador/Mexico (Director: Sebastian Cordero; Screenwriter: Sebastian Cordero)—A suspense thriller about a reporter from Miami who travels to Ecuador in pursuit of a serial killer known as the “Monster of Babahoyo.” U.S. Premiere.
THE FOREST FOR THE TREES / Germany (Director: Maren Ade; Screenwriter: Maren Ade)—As an awkward, idealistic high school teacher begins her first job in the city, things turn out to be much tougher than she had imagined. U.S. Premiere.
GREEN CHAIR / South Korea (Director: Park Chul-su; Screenwriter: Park Chul-su)—When an ordinary housewife is convicted for seducing a minor, reckless love leads to obsession and creeping doubt. World Premiere.
THE HERO / Angola/Portugal/France (Director: Zeze Gamboa; Screenwriter: Carla Baptista)—A 20-year veteran of the Angolan civil war returns to the capital city of Luanda, where he faces the challenges of assimilation and survival. U.S. Premiere.
KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL / China (Director: Lu Chuan; Screenwriter: Lu Chuan)—A moving true story about volunteers protecting antelope against poachers in the severe mountains of Tibet. North American Premiere.
LILA SAYS / France/Italy/U.K. (Director: Ziad Doueiri; Screenwriters: Ziad Doueiri and Joelle Touma)—Two inner-city teenagers engage in an obsessive, innocent flirtation fueled by Lila’s sexually explicit overtures. U.S. Premiere.
LIVE-IN MAID / Spain/Argentina (Director: Jorge Gaggero; Screenwriter: Jorge Gaggero)—A wealthy woman and her live-in housekeeper must adjust their entrenched routine and relationship when Buenos Aires is plunged into economic crisis. North American Premiere.
MONSTERTHURSDAY / Norway (Director: Arild Østin Ommundsen; Screenwriters: Arild Østin Ommundsen and Gro Elin Hjelle)—A quirky romantic drama set in remote coastal Norway takes the viewer on a tumultuous ride through surfing aspirations, extreme weather, and love. North American Premiere.
ON A CLEAR DAY / U.K. (Director: Gaby Dellal; Screenwriter: Alex Rose)—Frank determines to salvage his self-esteem and tackle his demons by attempting the ultimate test of endurance—swimming the English Channel. World Premiere.
PALERMO HOLLYWOOD / Argentina (Director: Eduardo Pinto; Screenwriters: Brian Maya and Federico Finkielstain)—Two petty criminal party boys get in over their heads when a kidnapping goes awry. World Premiere.
STRANGER / Poland (Director: Malgosia Szumowska; Screenwriter: Malgosia Szumowska)—A pregnant 22-year-old with a dreary job, a difficult home life, and an absent boyfriend learns to love her life and share this love with the child in her womb. World Premiere.
THIS CHARMING GIRL / South Korea (Director: Lee Yoon-Ki; Screenwriter: Lee Yoon-Ki)—This film is a restrained, yet thoroughly engaging, study of a female post office worker’s emotional life. North American Version.
TONY TAKITANI / Japan (Director: Jun Ichikawa; Screenwriter: Jun Ichikawa)—When technical illustrator Tony Takitani asks his wife to resist her all-consuming obsession for designer clothes, the consequences are tragic. U.S. Premiere.
UNCONSCIOUS / Spain/Portugal/Italy/Germany (Director: Joaquín Oristrell; Screenwriters: Joaquín Oristrell, Teresa de Peligrí, and Dominic Harari)—A Freudian comedy set in Barcelona,1913, that playfully questions sexual taboos through a Sherlock Holmes–style investigation. U.S. Premiere.
WOLF CREEK / Australia (Director: Greg Mclean; Screenwriter: Greg Mclean)—A chilling, factually based story of three road-trippers in remote Australia who are plunged into danger when they accept help from a friendly local. World Premiere.
See ya in the snow!!
For more info, check out the Sundance website.
