Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2012 >> US Documentary Competition
The world premieres of 16 American documentary films.
View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Documentary Premieres, New Frontier, NEXT <=>, Park City At Midnight, Premieres, Spotlight, Sundance London Full Schedule, US Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, World Cinematic Dramatic Competition
How To Survive A Plague and Finding North
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
(Country: US, China; Year: 2011; Director: Alison Klayman; Stars: Changwei Gu, Ai Weiwei, Evan Osnos, Ying Gao, Tehching Hsieh, Huang Hung, Zuzhou Zuoxiao, Yanping Liu, Danqing Chen, Inserk Yang), Official Site
Renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has garnered international attention as much for his ambitious artwork as his political provocations and increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government.
World premiere
The Atomic States Of America
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Don Argott, Sheena M. Joyce)
World premiere
In 2010, the United States announced construction of the first new nuclear power plant in more than 32 years. A year later, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Fukushima Power Plant in Japan sparking a fierce debate in the US over the safety and viability of nuclear power.
Chasing Ice
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Jeff Orlowski; Writer: Mark Monroe; Stars: James Balog, Svavar Jonatansson, Adam LeWinter, Jeff Orlowski), Official Site, Trailer
Time-lapse photography of glaciers over several years providing tangible visual evidence of climate change.
World premiere
Detropia
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady), Official Site
World premiere
The woes of Detroit are emblematic of the collapse of the US manufacturing base. This is the dramatic story of a city and its people who refuse to leave the building, even as the flames are rising.
Escape Fire: The Fight To Rescue American Healthcare
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Susan Frömke, Matthew Heineman), Official Site
World premiere
What can be done to save our broken medical system? Powerful forces are trying to maintain the status quo in a profit-driven medical industry, but a movement to bring innovative methods of prevention and healing is finally gaining ground – potentially saving the health of a nation.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Chasing Ice
Finding North (A Place At The Table)
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Kristi Jacobson, Lori Silverbush)
Documentary examining the hunger crisis threatening America.
World premiere
The House I Live In
(Country: Netherlands, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, US; Year: 2012; Director: Eugene Jarecki; Writer: Eugene Jarecki, Christopher St John; Stars: Eugene Jarecki, Nannie Jeter, Betty Chism, Dennis Whidbee, Elzie Hooks, Robert Wilson, David Simon, Michael Correa, Gabor Mate, Charles Bowden, Mark W Bennet, Maurice Haltiwanger, Jim K McGough, Eric Franklin, Don Walker), Official Site
Does the War on Drugs do more harm than good?
World premiere
How To Survive A Plague
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: David France), Official Site, Trailer
The story of Act Up and the ordinary people who transformed the tratment of AIDS.
World premiere
The Invisible War
(Year: 2012; Director: Kirby Dick), Official Site
Probe into rape in the US military.
World premiere
Love Free Or Die: How The Bishop Of New Hampshire Is Changing The World
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Macky Alston), Official Site
World premiere
One man whose two defining passions are in conflict: An openly gay bishop refuses to leave the Church or the man he loves.
The Invisible War and The Queen Of Versailles
Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present)
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Matthew Akers; Stars: Marina Abramovic, Ulay), Official Site, Trailer
Marina Abramović prepares for a major retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York hoping to finally silence four decades of skeptics who proclaim: 'But why is this art?'
Me at the Zoo
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Chris Moukarbel, Valerie Veatch; Stars: Chris Crocker), Official Site
World premiere
With 270 million hits to date, Chris Crocker, an uncanny young video blogger from small town Tennessee, is considered the Internet's first rebel folk hero and at the same time one of its most controversial personalities.
The Other Dream Team
(Country: Lithuania, US; Year: 2012; Director: Marius A. Markevicius; Writer: Marius A Markevicius, Jon Weinbach; Stars: Jim Lampley, Bill Walton, Greg Speirs, Mickey Hart, Arvydas Sabonis, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Dan Majerle, David Stern, Charles Smith, Jonas Valanciunas, Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond, David Remnick, Vytautas Landsbergis, P.J. Carlesimo), Official Site
The 1992 Lithuanian National Basketball Team went from the clutches of Communism to the Summer Olympics in Barcelona – a testament to the powerful role of sports as a catalyst for cultural identity.
World premiere
The Queen Of Versailles
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Lauren Greenfield)
Snapshot of the effect of the mortgage crisis on billionnaire 'Timeshare King' David Siegel and his family.
World premiere. Day one film
Slavery By Another Name
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Samuel D Pollard; Writer: Sheila Curran Bernard; Stars: Turron Kofi Alleyne, Tyler Hollinger, Tom Martin, Shane Guilbeau, Douglas A. Blackmon, David Levering Lewis), Official Site
World premiere
As slavery came to an end with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, a new system of involuntary servitude took its place with shocking force, brutalising, terrorising and ultimately circumscribing the lives of hundreds of thousands of African Americans well into the 20th century.
Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present and The Other Dream Team
We're Not Broke
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Victoria Bruce, Karin Hayes; Writer: Victoria Bruce, Karin Hayes), Official Site
World premiere
As American lawmakers slash budgets and lay off employees, leaving many people scrambling to survive, multibillion-dollar corporations are concealing colossal profits overseas to avoid paying US income tax. Fed-up Americans are taking their frustration to the streets.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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