For more than 40 years, the Sundance Film Festival has been the premiere festival for independent cinema, and this year was no different.
Initially, the 2022 Sundance Film Festival was to be a hybrid event, combining in-person and online screenings. Due to a sudden surge in COVID cases, the festival organizers were forced to cancel all in-person events, and everything was made virtual. The online festival featured an incredible and inspiring collection of diverse films from a variety of countries, showcasing exciting new voices in the world of cinema. Each film was preceded by a director introduction, and followed by a Q&A with the movie’s cast and crew. The Sundance team did a phenomenal job bringing people together, even as we were physically separate.
Tabitha Jackson, acclaimed documentary film producer, was this year’s Sundance Festival Director. One of her focuses was to remove barriers that may have been in place during prior years. Specifically, she wanted to improve the experience for the visual and hearing impaired communities. Her goal was to make this year the most inclusive version of the festival thus far. One example is every Q&A included someone who translated everything that was said into American Sign Language. It was also important to Jackson to include diversity in every aspect of the festival. This included the filmmakers, as well as the Sundance programming team and the film critics covering the festival. Each critic fills out an application to cover the festival, and this year priority admission was given to BIPOC individuals and members of the LGBTQ+ communities.
In terms of film selections, Jackson wanted to highlight movies that emphasized freedom of expression. Tabitha Jackson is a movie lover above all else, and she's someone who truly understands and appreciates film as an art form. The movies that were selected for Sundance this year were ones that combined the elements of sound, image, and structure in unique ways. As a documentary film producer, Jackson was also interested in the space between fiction and nonfiction. Great efforts were made to put the documentary and narrative film categories on equal footing, even if the former often receives less attention than the latter in the film world.
This year’s documentary category was incredibly strong. It featured a wide range of films with topics that ranged from personal to universal. The category was divided into the U.S. Competition and the World Cinema Competition. In the U.S. Competition, awards included the Audience Award for Navalny, Directing Award for I Didn’t See You There, Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for Fire of Love, Special Jury Award: Impact for Change for Aftershock, and Special Jury Award: Creative Vision for Descendant.
Fire of Love was a particular highlight. Directed by Sara Dosa and narrated by filmmaker Miranda July, Fire of Love tells the story of Katia and Maurice Krafft, two volcanologists that died doing what they love: studying volcanoes up-close in increasingly dangerous circumstances. The film is reminiscent of another Sundance classic: Grizzly Man. Both films primarily feature footage shot by the subject of the documentary, and compiled together after their deaths. Both films are a tribute to amateur filmmaking, and feature protagonists who died doing what they love. Timothy Treadwell and the Kraffts pursued dangerous situations for a living, and these respective movies present nature as unflinching and unforgiving, while also highlighting the wild nature within the human subjects of the films.
The top award at Sundance is known as the Grand Jury Prize, and in the U.S. Documentary Competition, it was given to The Exiles, Directed by Violet Columbus and Ben Klein. It tells the story of Christine Choy, a documentarian and professor who influenced a generation of artists. It's a fabulous ode to filmmaking, as it documents Choy’s efforts to finish a film she began in the late 1980’s about the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China. This movie within a movie chooses to focus on four of the men who were exiled from China following the 1989 attack, in the process making a valiant defense of freedom of speech and the right to protest.
The World Cinema Documentary Competition was equally exciting. Awards included the Audience Award and Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft for The Territory (Brazil/Denmark), Directing Award for A House Made of Splinters (Denmark), Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking for Midwives (Myanmar), and the Grand Jury Prize went to All That Breathes (India/UK). Directed by Shaunak Sen, All That Breathes is about brothers Saud and Nadeem working to rehabilitate local birds called black kites in New Delhi. These birds are believed to expel troubles in the Muslim community, and when they start falling from the polluted skies, the brothers band together to nurture them.
The Territory was another highlight, and also showed the negative effects humans have had on our planet. Directed by Alex Pritz, this film focuses on the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau population living in Brazil as they witness their rainforest territory being torn down by logging and mining camps, as well as illegal land invasions. It's heartbreaking to witness, but the individuals fighting for their land are inspiring and fearless.
The narrative films at the festival featured an incredible variety. Like the documentary competitions, the categories were divided into U.S. Dramatic Competition and World Cinema Dramatic Competition. In the U.S. division, awards included Audience Award for Cha Cha Real Smooth, Directing Award for Palm Trees and Power Lines, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Emergency, Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast for 892, and Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision for Blood. The Grand Jury Prize went to Nanny, directed by Nikyatu Jusu. These films were excellent selections, with Nanny in particular deserving its award. The film features an incredible central performance from Anna Diop as Aisha, an undocumented Senegalese immigrant working as a nanny for a wealthy Manhattan couple. Incorporating supernatural elements of West African folklore, the film uniquely depicts the difficulties of immigrants trying to make a living for their families, with a heartbreaking focus on the separation between parents and their children in these dire situations.
Other highlights from the U.S. Dramatic Competition include Dual, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., and When You Finish Saving the World. The latter was directed by actor Jesse Eisenberg, and features complicated characters brought to life by Finn Wolfhard and Julianne Moore. They present a complicated mother-son relationship, and both actors do a phenomenal job.
Directed by Adamma & Adanne Ebo, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is a satirical mockumentary about an African American couple running a successful Southern Baptist megachurch. Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown are incredible as Trinitie and Lee-Curtis Childs, pastors at Wander to Greater Paths. Lee-Curtis faces sexual misconduct allegations, and the film sees the couple dealing with the aftermath.
Directed by Riley Stearns, with cinematography from the incredible Michael Ragen, Dual is an interesting movie set in the near future. Karen Gillan plays Sarah, a young woman who's diagnosed with an incurable disease. New technology allows her to clone herself, leaving behind a new version for her family. Things get complicated when she no longer wants the clone, but rules stipulate they must fight to the death to determine who the true Sarah will be. The film is a commentary on violent society, and a cautionary tale of technology potentially leading us to a more dystopian future.
The World Cinema awards included the Audience Award for Girl Picture (Finland), Directing Award for Klondike (Ukraine/Turkey), Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit for Leonor Will Never Die (Philippines), and Special Jury Award: Acting for Teresa Sánchez in Dos Estaciones (Mexico). The Grand Jury Prize went to Utama (Bolivia/Uruguay/France). Directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, the latter is a beautifully-filmed story of an elderly couple living in a remote and drought-ridden region of Bolivia. When their estranged grandson comes to visit, inviting them to live in the big city with his family, the grandfather is resistant. He speaks of history, tradition, and dignity in death. The film has big issues on the mind, particularly changing times, and the sadness of lost land and traditions.
Besides the worthy award winners, other highlights included Gentle (Hungary) and You Won’t Be Alone (Australia). The former tells the story of a female bodybuilder, exploring and blurring the lines between masculinity and femininity in a truly complex character study. The latter is a fascinating period piece about a witch searching for love, meaning, and safety. She shifts from body to body, switching identities along the way to finding herself.
Other non-competition sections of the festival included the Spotlight, Midnight, and Next Sections. The Spotlight Section featured films that had already been featured at other film festivals, but the Sundance team wanted them to be highlighted as well. Standouts in this area include Kogonada’s After Yang and Joachim Trier’s Worst Person in the World. Trier’s film showcases the ups and downs of falling in love, with a particularly fantastic performance from lead actor Renate Reinsve.
The highlight of the Next Section was undoubtedly Something in the Dirt, an inventive and claustrophobic movie made during quarantine, and featuring directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as the lead actors in the film. They play two paranoid LA residents who are obsessed with capturing a supernatural occurrence on video. This meta-film is about the collaborative and creative process of filmmaking.
The Midnight Section at Sundance was particularly strong this year. Hanna Bergholm’s Hatching (Finland) and Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil (Norway) became instant classics in the horror genre. If they had competed in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, there’s a good chance one of them would have won the top award.
Speak No Evil was particularly memorable, and perhaps the best film at the entire 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Clearly influenced by other European provocateurs Michael Heneke and Lars Von Trier, Tafdrup has presented himself as one of the most exciting new filmmakers of this century. He builds tension throughout this movie in such a unique way. The film’s origination came from an anxiety-fueled hypothetical situation. Tajdrup and his brother wondered what would be the “worst case scenario” of a family visiting another family they became friends with while on vacation. The performances from all the actors are incredible, and the film is an intriguing indictment of politeness. It showcases extreme atrocities that can occur from not speaking up when something makes you uncomfortable.
The Sundance Film Festival also featured a wide array of short films, including fiction, nonfiction, animation, and “anniversary” films. The latter is an array of short films that had won awards in prior years of Sundance. This year’s awards included the Jury Award: U.S. Fiction for If I Go Will They Miss Me, Jury Award: International Fiction for Warsha (France/Lebanon), Jury Award: Nonfiction for Displaced (Kosovo), Jury Award: Animation for Night Bus (Taiwan), Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast for A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here (Brazil), and Special Jury Award: Screenwriting for Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver. The Grand Jury Prize rightfully went to The Headhunter’s Daughter from the Philippines, directed by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan. That film is about Lynn, a young woman leaving her family in the Cordilleran highlands to try her luck in the city as a country singer. It's a touching and tender short film with incredible cinematography.
The 2022 Sundance Film Festival was truly amazing. There were numerous films, and the quality was consistently top-notch across the board. The Sundance team clearly puts great effort and thought into the films they select. The movies featured this year present a bold step forward for international independent cinema, and provide great hope for the future, as many of the directors were quite young. We're truly lucky to be alive in a time of such exciting filmmaking, and the 2022 Sundance Film Festival showcased that fact impeccably.
Bobby Styles studied Film at UCLA, and worked as an editor and producer on several film, commercial, and music video projects in Los Angeles. He currently teaches the intermediate and advanced Video Production courses in the Multimedia & Technology Academy at Monache High School. His column appears in The Recorder every Tuesday.
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