New life for independent films

From horror movies to comedies, intimate dramas to powerful documentaries, the 30th Sundance Film Festival offers a diverse field showcasing the resurgence of independent film.
The festival in the mountain town of Park City, Utah, which runs until Sunday, was founded 30 years ago by Hollywood icon Robert Redford with the aim of providing a platform for independent movies in a market where the major studios reign supreme.
From modest beginnings, the event has grown into one of the world’s biggest independent film festivals, a meeting place for filmmakers that has helped launch the careers of such directors as Quentin Tarantino, David O Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh and Darren Aronofsky.
This year’s festival has 121 features, including 100 premieres, from 37 countries. The haul includes 54 entries from first-time directors, 35 of which are in competition.
The films were chosen from a staggering 12,218 submissions, a figure that reflects the renewed confidence in a sector which had been hit hard by the global financial crisis in 2008.
Festival officials say the resurgence also reflects independent filmmakers willingness to embrace genres such as horror, suspense, action and thrillers.
“We are finding independent filmmakers are incorporating genre elements in their films because digital technology has made it possible,” Sundance Festival director John Cooper says. “Genres help audiences engage with offbeat ideas in a comfortable way.”
Reflecting that trend are films such as zombie romance “Life After Beth”, and “Jamie Marks is Dead”, a ghost story about a bullied teenager.
While many Sundance offerings will be the work of unknowns, several films on show will feature established stars.
“Twilight” starlet Kristen Stewart plays a guard deployed to the controversial post-9/11 Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba in “Camp X-Ray”, while Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway features in the drama “Song One”.
Philip Seymour Hoffman appears in “God’s Pocket” and Lena Dunham, the creator and star of hit HBO series “Girls”, features in “Happy Christmas”. Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad” co-stars with Juliette Lewis in “Hellion”. And “Avengers” star Mark Ruffalo is in “Infinitely Polar Bear”. “Bridesmaids” funny lady Kristen Wiig is in “The Skeleton Twins”.
One of the most anticipated films is “Boyhood” by Sundance regular Richard Linklater. The film starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette was shot intermittently over a 10-year period and follows the journey of a family as their son grows up.
Out-of-competition entries feature an array of acting talent, including Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Willem Dafoe, Steve Coogan and Ryan Reynolds.
The documentary section, the second pillar of the festival, includes several titles dealing with the sociological impact of the Internet.
“Web Junkie” spotlights Internet addiction in China while “Love Child” looks at the horrific case of a South Korean baby who died from malnutrition as her parents played online games.
The murky world of arms dealing is addressed in “The Notorious Mr Bout”, which looks at the rise and fall of Viktor Bout, the arms smuggler arrested in Thailand in 2008 as a result of a US government sting.
Oscar-winning documentary director Alex Gibney returns with “Finding Fela”, providing a portrait of Nigerian Afro-beat superstar Fela Kuti.
Recent history will also be examined in “Mitt”, which goes behind the scenes of Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful US presidential campaign. There’s also “Whitey: The United States of America v James J Bulger”, which explores the violent life and crimes of the feared Boston mobster who was jailed for life last year after a sensational trial.
For the first time, the festival will also feature a section for children, with the world premiere of the American version of the Oscar-nominated French animated feature “Ernest and Celestine”.