Please, allow me to present:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2012 Media Contacts:
Casey De La Rosa
310.360.1981
casey_delarosa@sundance.org

Celebrate the 2012 Sundance Film Festival From Anywhere

Digital Initiatives Bring the Festival to You!

Livestream Events │ Exclusive Online Content │Social Media

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today a range of digital initiatives that will allow independent film-loving audiences to follow and engage with the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival begins today and runs through January 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. A complete list of films and events is available at www.sundance.org/festival.

“There’s a certain magic to being in Park City for the Festival – the combination of people, events and issues is unlike anything you’ll find elsewhere or at any other time of year,” said John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival. “We realize that independent film fans outside Utah want to engage with what’s happening here, and with that in mind, we’ve built online experiences that will allow them to add their voice to our dialogue.”

The following events will be live streamed at www.sundance.org/live and http://www.livestream.com/sundancefest in participation with Livestream. RSVP to be notified when the event is live:

January 19
1:00 p.m. MT

Day One Press Conference with Sundance Institute President and Founder Robert Redford, Executive Director Keri Putnam and Festival Director John Cooper. RSVP

January 21
3:00 p.m. MT

Power of Story Presented by Time Warner and Sundance Institute: How Docs Changed Change with panelists Nick Fraser, Sheila Nevins and Robert Redford, moderated by Soledad O’Brien. RSVP

January 21
8:00 p.m. MT

A Celebration of Music and Film featuring a performance by Ice-T with Chuck D and Grandmaster Caz. RSVP

January 22
10:00 p.m. MT

TimesTalks at Cinema Café Presented by Chase SapphireSM with Spike Lee and Dee Rees. RSVP

January 24
3:00 p.m. MT

Celebrating Stories of Change project of Sundance Institute and The Skoll Foundation with Joia Mukherjee, Kief Davidson, Jehane Noujaim and Bunker Roy, moderated by Sally Osberg. RSVP

January 24
9:00 p.m. MT

Short Film Awards Ceremony. RSVP

January 25
10:00 a.m. MT

TimesTalks at Cinema Café Presented by Chase SapphireSM with Julie Delpy and Parker Posey. RSVP

January 26
9:45 p.m. MT

Hit RECord at the Movies with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. RSVP

January 27
3:30 p.m. MT

Power of Story Presented by Time Warner and Sundance Institute: In the Beginning with Stephen Gaghan, Anna Deavere Smith and Andrew Stanton, moderated by Caryn James. RSVP

January 28
7:00 p.m. MT

Awards Ceremony hosted by Parker Posey. RSVP

Additional video content, including the popular “Meet the Artists” filmmaker interview series, is available at www.sundance.org/video/browse. Written coverage is at www.sundance.org/festival/stories.

Fans can also follow the Festival by joining Sundance Institute’s social media communities on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. Tweets using the Festival’s official hashtag (#sundance) will be shown on monitors and displays around Park City. Guest Tweeters for the Festival, including Common, Carrie Preston and Tim and Eric, will take turns offering up their unique insight and experience while in Park City.

The Sundance Film Festival

A program of the non-profit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water, and Napoleon Dynamite, and through its New Frontier initiative, has showcased the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julien, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Matthew Barney. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura, Sundance Channel and Chase SapphireSM; Leadership Sponsors – Adobe Systems Incorporated, Bing™, Canon, DIRECTV, Focus Forward, a partnership between GE and CINELAN, Southwest Airlines, Sprint and Yahoo!; Sustaining Sponsors – Bertolli® Frozen Meal Soups, FilterForGood®, a partnership between Brita® and Nalgene®, Grey Goose® Vodka, Hilton HHonors and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, L’Oréal Paris, Stella Artois®, Timberland, Time Warner Inc. and YouTubeTM. 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. www.sundance.org/festival

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, I Am My Own Wife, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

And there you have it. Hope you enjoy the (virtual) slopes!

Yup, that’s right Banterers. Jack of all trades, Scarlett Johansson is set to direct the film version of Truman Capote’s first written novel (yet remained the last published one, posthumously) Summer Crossing. The screenplay is currently being adapted by playwright Tristin Skylar, who is coincidentally also penning the film version of The Bell Jar with Julia Styles attached as the lead, and revolves around a 17-year-old semi-socialite living in New York City in 1945 who falls in love with a parking attendant, and subsequently marries him and bears his child. It sounds interesting enough.

While Johansson did direct These Vagabond Shoes, one of the shorts that didn’t make the theatrical cut for New York, I Love You, this will mark Johansson’s first step into the world of feature-filmmaking. Johansson is certainly an interesting choice for this somewhat coveted list, but I remain a little hesitant as Johansson’s career, while starting out very strong with noteworthy roles in The Horse Whisperer, Ghost World, and Lost in Translation, has since subsided with poor decisions to star in the dreadful The Nanny Diaries and He’s Just Not That Into You. Still, though, I was a Johansson fan from the beginning and I will remain that way until the end. Let’s just hope her less-than-appreciated turn to music with is no signifier for this latest venture.

The film is about a bookworm CIA agent who discovers strange qualities in a no name novel, which he reports to his bosses; that’s his job. When he is literally out to lunch, his entire office is killed, leaving him terrified and confused. So what’s a young Redford to do? That’s right, take things into his own hands.

Redford as Joe Turner is easily the most entertaining part of the film. (Again, I am a wee bit biased.) This film would have been lost under the guidance of weaker actor. Redford handles every scene with a coolness that is needed for this movie to thrive. He plays, for lack of a better word, a nerd; but, casting Redford gives Turner an edge. Once he starts to investigate the situation, he makes a huge shift in character. What I mean is, instead of his desk job, he turns into 007 with his spy skills and womanizing. I’m looking at you Faye Dunaway.

Dunaway’s Kathy Hale is very trusting. Too trusting in fact. Let’s talk about this for a second. Turner is on the verge of being killed. Kathy has just been kidnapped and held hostage. Ohhh, I know; they get together. Wait, what? Yeah, I don’t get it either, but they’re both so charming, I buy it.

Eventually, Turner is followed by everyone. This includes top-notch performers Cliff Robertson and Max von Sydow making sure the heat is on him.

The suspense also has to do with the direction of the great Sydney Pollack. Most notably, the alley scene. I won’t spoil anything, but the tension is well built and the shots have a big part in that. Dynamic cinematography is not rare in thrillers, and Three Days of the Condor is no exception. Everything is perfectly put together, and the transitions are seamless.

The thing that really brings this film together is the final scene. Wow! A true battle of acting excellence. Redford vs. one of the other actors, mano y mano. (I’m not going to tell you who at risk of spoilers.) The two of them verbally tango until the film cuts out. Did I say “Wow” already?

I highly recommend this classic thriller for any fan of the genre or Robert Redford himself. Great movie, perfect for multiple viewings.

Traitor video This post is from our friend Kyle Patterson

Like Mother, Like Daughter movie

. Check out his review of The Natural below.

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The Natural (1984)

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Notable cast members: Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger, Glenn Close, Wilford Brimley

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Notable Awards 3 Acts of Murder download : Oscar, Best Supporting Actress, Glenn Close

This is the best sports movie of all time.

What an opening line, right?  Ok, maybe I can’t put just one sports movie above all others, but if there was only room for one at the top, The Natural would most certainly be among the last debated to take the title.  To this day, this film has always been a reliable supplier of goose bumps at its climax.  It’s good defeating evil.  It’s resilience winning out in the face of temptation.  It’s the inspiring story of Roy Hobbs, baseball phenomenon, overcoming misfortune and ill will to deliver his legacy to baseball.

I’m certainly not the Roy Hobbs of movie critics, but if I was, I would be so unequivocally the best at what I did and my version of a bat, my pencil, would have “Wonderboy” inscribed on its side.  In The Natural, Roy (Redford) introduces himself to the audience as just what the title would imply, a natural at his craft.  After an unforgettable scene where he throws three fastballs past the fictional representation of The Babe at a train stop, he sets out on his journey to eventually be, using his words, “the best there ever was at the game”.  Unfortunately, things take a dramatic turn for the worse after a regretful episode of poor decision making.  Over a decade later, for what must have seemed like an eternity to our protagonist, Roy finally gets to feel the big-league dirt beneath his cleats and the lumber between his palms when Pop Fisher, the coach of the New York Knights in a role Wilford Brimley was born to play, gives him his shot.  Roy wastes no time capturing the hearts of New Yorkers and instilling that edge into his teammates that takes the team from worst to first.  Then it’s time to cue the goose bumps when Roy discovers a new way to create fireworks in the deciding game for the pennant in the film’s climax.

The Natural is more than a story about a great baseball player who scraped and clawed to eventually fulfill his destiny.  In fact it can be argued that he didn’t fulfill his destiny as he only got to play one season in the major leagues as a right fielder.  But, why is that?  If there is a lesson this movie attempts to share with its audience, it’s that nothing in life is guaranteed and what you cherish most can be taken away from you at any moment.  Furthermore, The Natural reminds us that those whom we love bring out the best in us even in times of diversity and hardship.  Keeping these people nearby and close to the heart should be everyone’s M.O.

Best Line: Roy Hobbs:  “Pick me out a winner, Bobby.”