NYWIFT Blog

From the documentary The Hunting Ground.

Members of New York Women in Film and Television have films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Utah. Here’s a sneak peek:

ADVANTAGEOUS
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director: Jennifer Phang
Screenwriters: Jacqueline Kim, Jennifer Phang
Production Designers: Dara Wishingrad (NYWIFT Member), Aiyana Trotter
Editors: Sean Gillane, Gena Bleir
Producers: Robert Chang, Theresa Navarro (NYWIFT Member), Moon Molson, Ken Jeong, Jacqueline Kim
Co-Producers: Qi Luo, Liz Ortiz Mackes (NYWIFT Member)
Cinematographer: Richard Wong
Composer: Timo Chen
Casting: Liz Ortiz Mackes (NYWIFT Member)

In a metropolis in the near future, Gwen Koh, a beautiful woman full of poise and grace, works as the spokesperson for the Center for Advanced Health and Living, a company that offers a radical new technology allowing people to overcome their natural disadvantages and begin life anew. But when a shift in company priorities threatens her job and her family, will Gwen undergo the procedure herself?

EXPERIMENTER
Section: Premieres
Director: Michael Almereyda
Screenwriter: Michael Almereyda
Producers: Uri Singer, Fabio Golombek, Aimee SchoofIsen Robbins, Per Melita, Danny A. Abeckaser
Director of Photography: Ryan Samul
Editor: Kathryn J. Schubert
Production Designer: Deana Sidney
Composer: Bryan Senti
Casting Director: Billy Hopkins
Post-Production: Light Iron (including NYWIFT Member Megan Marquis)

In 1961, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted the “obedience experiments” at Yale University. The experiments observed the responses of ordinary people asked to send harmful electrical shocks to a stranger. Despite pleadings from the person they were shocking, 65 percent of subjects obeyed commands from a lab-coated authority figure to deliver potentially fatal currents. With Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram’s Kafkaesque results hit a nerve, and he was accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster.

HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Director: Alexandra Shiva
Producer: Alexandra Shiva and Bari Pearlman
Director of Photography: Laela Kilbourn (NYWIFT Member)
Editor: Toby Shimin
Composer: Bryan Senti

In Columbus, Ohio, a group of teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum prepare for an iconic event – a spring formal dance. They spend 12 weeks confronting and practicing their social skills in preparation for the big event, to be hosted at a local disco. Working with their trusted psychologist, they deconstruct fear and larger-than-life social anxiety one step at a time by picking dates, dresses, and, ultimately, a King and Queen of the Prom. How to Dance in Ohio is a story of the universal human need to grow, connect and belong as uniquely dramatized by individuals facing the deepest struggle toward social survival.

THE HUNTING GROUND
Section: Doc Premieres
Director: Kirby Dick
Producer: Amy Ziering
Executive Producers: Tom Quinn, Jason Janego, Vinnie Malhotra, Amy Entelis, Regina Scully, Paul Blavin, Bob Compton, Ruth Ann Harnisch (NYWIFT Member), Sukey Novogratz, Mark & Barbara Gerson, Maria Cuomo Cole

The statistics are staggering. One in five women in college are sexually assaulted, yet only a fraction of these crimes are reported, and even fewer result in punishment for the perpetrators. From the intrepid team behind The Invisible War, comes The Hunting Ground, a piercing, monumental exposé of rape culture on campuses, poised to light a fire under a national debate.

I AM MICHAEL
Section: Premieres
Director: Justin Kelly
Screenwriters: Justin Kelly, Stacey Miller
Executive Producers: Gus Van Sant, Lauren Selig
Producers: Vince Jolivette, Michael Mendelsohn, James Franco, Scott Reed, Ron Singer
Cinematographer: Christopher Blauvelt
Editor: Aaron I. Butler
Production Designer: Michael Barton
Costume Designer: Brenda Abbandandolo
Post-Production: Light Iron (including NYWIFT Member Megan Marquis)

In 2007, Michael Glatze, the gay-rights advocate who embodied queer identity, shocked his friends and followers when he publicly renounced his homosexuality. What could have led to such an extreme change of belief? Justin Kelly’s piercing exploration is as compelling and complex as Michael’s transformation. The film depicts the years when an idealistic Michael, with his long-term partner, empowered a new generation of gay youth through their writing and films.

LARRY KRAMER: IN LOVE AND ANGER
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Director: Jean Carlomusto
Editor: Geof Bartz
Asst Editor: Gladys Murphy
Producer: Ellin Baumel
Executive Producers: Jacki Glover, Sheila Nevins
Composer: Wendy Blackstone, (NYWIFT Member)

From the onset of the AIDS epidemic, author Larry Kramer emerged as a fiery activist, an Old Testament-style prophet full of righteous fury who denounced both the willful inaction of the government and the refusal of the gay community to curb potentially risky behaviors. Co-founder of both the service organization Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the direct action protest group ACT UP, Kramer was vilified by some who saw his criticism to be an expression of self-hatred, while lionized by others who credit him with waking up the gay community—and, eventually, the government and medical establishment—to the devastation of the disease.

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS
Section: Premieres
Directors: Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman
Screenwriters:Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Executive Producers: Charlotte Ubben, Shari Springer Berman, Pamela Hirsch
Producers: Anne Carey, Amy Nauiokas, Luca Borghese, Trudie Styler, Celine Rattray
Cinematographer: Ben Kutchins
Production Designer: Stephen Beatrice
Composer: Garth Stevenson
Costume Designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb
Post-Production: Light Iron (including NYWIFT Member Megan Marquis)

Jude Keffy-Horn—named after a Beatles song by his hippie parents—spends his high school days in small-town Vermont getting high with his best friend, Teddy. Beneath Jude’s mind-numbing activities lurks a desire to reconnect with his estranged father, Les, who abandoned the family when Jude was nine. When Teddy dies of an overdose on the last day of 1987, Jude’s mother sends him to live with Les in New York City’s roiling and raw East Village. As Jude struggles to establish an identity within the cultural upheaval downtown, he forms an unlikely surrogate family with Teddy’s straight-edge brother and a troubled, rich uptown girl.

If you’re a NYWIFT member and have a film at Sundance, let us know (via the ASK button above) and we’ll add your screening info to this post!

(Edited on January 15, 2:04 am EST.)