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Sundance Film Festival · 2006

Sundance Film Festival 2006

Spectrum

Introduced in 2006. This new out-of-competition category incorporates the categories previously known as American Spectrum and Special Screenings, and has expanded to include international dramatic and documentary films. These changes allow for each of the six out-of-competition categories to present international films. Spectrum films are eligible for the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Programme

24 films · 9 reviews

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Adam's Apples (Adams æbler)

A priest who believes in the essential goodness of everything struggles to deal with a neo-Nazi in his church.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2005; Director: Anders Thomas Jensen; Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen; Stars: Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Paprika Steen, Ole Thestrup, Ali Kazim, Nicolas Bro)

Full review

US Premiere

An Inconvenient Truth (A Matter Of Degrees)

Review preview for An Inconvenient Truth

If [Al Gore] was a school-teacher, no-one would have ever skipped class.

Chris · 5 out of 5
Al Gore investigates global warming.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Davis Guggenheim; Stars: Al Gore)

Full review

Shown at Sundance under the title A Matter Of Degrees. World Premiere

All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise

Documentary about the maiden voyage of a cruise founded by Rosie and Keli O'Donnell, specialising in gay family holidays.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Shari Cookson; Stars: Pam Elliott, Judy Gold, Megan Jacoby, Kelli O'Donnell, Rosie O'Donnell, Jane Skorina, Esera Tuaolo)

World Premiere

Battle In Heaven (Batalla En El Cielo)

An ugly taxi driver and the prostitute daughter of a general go at it and at it and (yawn).

(Country: Mexico/France/Germany/Belgium; Year: 2005; Director: Carlos Reygadas; Writer: Carlos Reygadas; Stars: Marcos Hernandez, Anapola Mushkadiz, Berta Ruiz, David Bornstien, Rosilanda Ramirez)

Full review

US Premiere

Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon

A documentary about a rural Oregon timber town that is torn apart when a rift between conservative and liberal values in the school district threatens a college scholarship that has paid the tuition of every local graduate for the last 40 years.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Peter Richardson)

World Premiere

Dreamland

A young woman living in a trailer park in the desert struggles with the question of caring for her hapless father and ill friend or fulfilling her own destiny.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Jason Matzner; Writer: Tom Willett; Stars: Agnes Bruckner, Kelli Garner, Justin Long, John Corbett, Gina Gershon, Brian Klugman, Chris Mulkey, Luce Rains, Olive Bureker, Jenny Gabrielle, )

World Premiere

Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out

A rare documentary compiled from the drummer’s personal Super 8 footage gives an intimate, inside look at what it was like to be a member of the 80's rock band The Police, from CBGB's to Shea Stadium.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Stewart Copeland; Stars: Terry Chambers, Ian Copeland, Miles A. Copeland III, Stewart Copeland, Dave Gregory, Colin Moulding, Andy Partridge, Danny Quatrochi, Jeff Seitz, Sting, Andy Summers)

World Premiere

Factotum (Factotum (A Man Who Performs Many Jobs))

Review preview for Factotum

As compulsive as a 40-a-day fag habit.

Kotleta · 5 out of 5
Portrait of the drinker as an artist.

(Country: Norway, US, Germany, Italy, France; Year: 2005; Director: Bent Hamer; Writer: Bent Hamer, Jim Stark, based on the writings of Charles Bukowski; Stars: Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, Fisher Stevens, Didier Flamand, Adrienne Shelly, Karen Young, Tom Lyons, Dean Brewington, James Cada, James Michael Detmar, Kurt Schweickhardt, Dee Noah, James Noah, Michael Egan, Terry Hempleman, Emily 'Sophia Simo)

Full review

US Premiere

Forgiving The Franklins

A repressed, God fearing Southern family is spiritually changed by an auto accident and their transformation puts them at odds with the conservative values of their community.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Jay Floyd; Writer: Jay Floyd; Stars: Aviva, Jenica Bergere, Tracy Berna, Mari C. Blackwell, Robertson Dean, Andy Forrest, Vince Pavia, Kimberly Price, Doug Purdy, Khris Scaramanga, Elizabeth Anne Swenson)

World Premiere

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes

Examination of the hip-hop culture.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Byron Hurt; Writer: Byron Hurt; Stars: Carmen Ashurst-Watson, William Jelani Cobb, Chuck Creekmur, Chuck D., Mos Def, De La Soul, Michael Eric Dyson, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Stephen Hill, Byron Hurt, Jadakiss)

World Premiere

Jewboy

A film about a young orthodox man searching for his place in the world, his family and his faith.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2005; Director: Tony Krawitz; Writer: Tony Krawitz; Stars: Ewen Leslie, Naomi Wilson, Saskia Burmeister, Leah Vandenberg, Nicholas Eadie, Chris Haywood, Nathan Besser, Alice McConnell, Kelly Butler, Alan Flower, Richard Green)

North American Premiere

Journey From The Fall

Set during the thirteenth anniversary of the Vietnam War, Journey From The Fall tells the epic story of a family who is painfully torn apart by the war, forced to emigrate across a dangerous sea, reunified and struggling to survive in America.

(Country: Thailand, US; Year: 2006; Director: Ham Tran; Writer: Ham Tran; Stars: Kieu Chinh, Long Nguyen, Diem Lien, Jayvee Mai The Hiep, Khanh Doan, Cat Ly, Nguyen Thai Nguyen, Raul Alba, George Bui, Alex Dorman, Jose Gutierrez)

See: Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 7

North American Premiere

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

Review preview for Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

Emotionally electric and so deeply felt, Lian Lunson's infuriatingly artsy documentary style fails to dilute the privilege of the experience.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
A tribute concert for Leonard Cohen, with snatches of interviews and scrapbook photos.

(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Lian Lunson; Stars: Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Bono, Jarvis Cocker, Martha Wainwright, Julie Christensen, Perla Batalla, Antony Hegarty, Beth Orton, Kate McGarrigle, Anna McGarrigle, Teddy Thompson, The Edge, Linda Thompson, Larry Mullen Jr, Adam Clayton)

Full review

US Premiere

Man Push Cart

Review preview for Man Push Cart

Since this film is unremittingly grim it keeps you at arm’s length.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The hard life of a Pakistani immigrant trying to survive in New York.

(Country: Iran, US; Year: 2005; Director: Ramin Bahrani; Writer: Ramin Bahrani; Stars: Ahmad Razvi, Leticia Dolera, Charles Daniel Sandoval, Ali Reza, Farooq 'Duke' Muhammad, Panicker Upendran, Arun Lal, Razia Mujahid, Hassan Razvi, Mustafa Razvi, Altaf Houssein)

Full review

North American Premiere

Off the Black

An unusual friendship develops between an aging high-school baseball umpire and a teenage pitcher after the young player vandalizes the older man's house.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: James Ponsoldt; Writer: James Ponsoldt; Stars: Trevor Morgan, Nick Nolte, Rosemarie DeWitt, Thomas Schall, Paul Urcioli, Johnathan Tchaikovsky, Noah Fleiss, Sonia Feigelson, Timothy Hutton, James Ponsoldt, Darrell Larson)

World Premiere

Open Window

A struggling young photographer and an assistant professor are newly engaged and madly in love when their lives are shattered by a random act of violence.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Mia Goldman; Writer: Mia Goldman; Stars: Joel Edgerton, Robin Tunney, Cybill Shepherd, Elliott Gould, Scott Wilson, Michaela Conlin, Daniel Betances, Justin Ashforth, Matt Keeslar, Shirley Knight, Donn Swaby)

World Premiere

The Proposition

Review preview for The Proposition

Cave's screenplay is full of rich incidents, impossible moral choices and, most of all, complex characters, brought to grimy life by the excellent ensemble cast.

Anton Bitel · 4.5 out of 5
In the 1880s, an Australian outlaw is offered a pardon if he tracks down and kills his psychotic elder brother.

(Country: Australia/UK; Year: 2005; Director: John Hillcoat; Writer: Nick Cave; Stars: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, Danny Huston, John Hurt, David Wenham, Richard Wilson, Robert Morgan, David Gulpilil, Tom Budge)

Full review

US Premiere

Punching At The Sun

In the aftermath of 9/11 and his older brother's murder, a fiery South Asian teen struggles to find a path between rage and redemption on the streets of Elmhurst, Queens.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Tanuj Chopra; Writer: Tanuj Chopra, Hart Eddy; Stars: Misu Khan, Nina Edmonds, Hassan El-Gendi, Ferdusy Dia, Kazi Rahman, Taran Singh, Mohammad Mirza, Rana Quraishi, Farhad Asghar, Raymond Vasquez, )

World Premiere

Special

Review preview for Special

The cool, detached, yet paranoid tone is impressively held, both through visual design and music, until around halfway through.

Scott Macdonald · 3 out of 5
An unexpected reaction to medication persuades an ordinary man that he's developing superpowers.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore; Writer: Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore; Stars: Michael Rapaport, Paul Blackthorne, Josh Peck, Robert Baker, Jack Kehler, Alexandra Holden, Ian Bohen, Christopher Darga, Erich Anderson, David Bear, Karyn Bryant, Amanda Carlin, Howard Ferguson, Howard Ferguson-Woitzman, Andrew Leeds)

Full review

World Premiere

La Tragedia De Macario

A drama inspired by the tragic, true events of immigrants struggling to cross the Mexican-American border.

(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Pablo Veliz; Writer: Pablo Veliz; Stars: Rogelio T. Ramos, Victor Agustin, Juanita Castro, Carlos Chavaria, Milicent Figueroa, Raul Figueroa, Marisal Garza, Antonio Guillen, Dawas Hassan, Murado Hassan, Allan Horwath)

World Premiere

What Remains

An investigation into the creative process and life of controversial and celebrated American photographer Sally Mann.

(Country: US; Year: 2005; Director: Steven Cantor; Stars: Sally Mann, Emmett Mann, Jessie Mann, Larry Mann, Virginia Mann)

World Premiere

Who Killed the Electric Car?

A documentary that investigates the death and resurrection of the electric car, as well as the role of renewable energy and sustainable living in our country's future.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Chris Paine; Writer: Chris Paine; Stars: Martin Sheen, Reverend Gadget, Dave Barthmuss, Ed Begley Jr, Jim Boyd, Alec N Brooks, Alan Cocconi, John R Dabels, Phyllis Diller, Colette Divine, Tom Everhart)

World Premiere

Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner

This documentary is a rich tapestry of the personal and political life of Tony Kushner, the award-winning playwright and activist whose provocative and truthful work has contributed to a national dialogue on the most pressing issues of our times.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Freida Lee Mock; Writer: Freida Lee Mock; Stars: Firdous Bamji, Bill Camp, Harrison Chad, Jay Charan, Linda Emond, David Marshall Grant, Marcia Gay Harden, Joseph Kamal, Justin Kirk, Sean T. Krishnan, Tony Kushner)

World Premiere

Who Needs Sleep?

Review preview for Who Needs Sleep?

A wake up call for anyone in any industry with a culture of long hours.

Keith Hennessey Brown · 3 out of 5
An investigation into the dangers of sleep deprivation and the long hours culture.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Haskell Wexler; Writer: Haskell Wexler)

Full review

World Premiere