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Sundance Film Festival · 2013

Sundance Film Festival 2013

Documentary Short Films

Programme

15 films

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30% (Women and Politics in Sierra Leone)

Oil-painted animation brings to life the stories of three powerful women in postconflict Sierra Leone, revealing the violence and corruption women face as they fight for fairer representation in the governance of their country.

(Country: UK, Sierra Leone; Director: Anna Cady)

The Battle of amfAR

When AIDS strikes, two very different women – Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor and research scientist Dr. Mathilde Krim – join forces to create America’s first AIDS research foundation. The fight against HIV/AIDS has never been the same.

(Country: USA; Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Writer: Sharon Wood)

Catnip: Egress to Oblivion?

Catnip is all the rage with today's modern feline, but do we really understand it? This film frankly discusses the facts about this controversial substance.

(Country: USA; Director: Jason Willis)

Endless Day

For most people, sleep comes naturally, but for others, the night turns into an ongoing struggle to drift off into oblivion. This film explores what it’s like to be awake involuntarily and the feelings that accompany the passing of sleepless time.

(Country: Germany; Director: Anna Frances Ewert)

Fall to Grace

Former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey famously resigned from office after declaring himself “a gay American.” Since then, he has continued to use his connections to help rehabilitate women and to make peace with his journey from married governor to gay suburban priest.

(Country: USA; Director: Alexandra Pelosi)

Irish Folk Furniture

In Ireland, old hand-painted furniture is often associated with hard times, with poverty, and with a time many would rather forget. In this animated documentary, 16 pieces of traditional folk furniture are repaired and returned home.

(Country: Ireland; Director: Tony Donoghue)

Outlawed in Pakistan

Kainat Soomro, a Pakistani teenager, accuses four men from her village of gang-raping her. She takes her case to the Pakistani courts and faces a deeply flawed criminal-justice system.

(Country: Pakistan; Director: Habiba Nosheen, Hilke Schellmann)

Paraíso

Three immigrant window cleaners risk their lives every day rappelling down some of Chicago's tallest skyscrapers. Paraíso reveals the danger of their job and what they see on the way down.

(Country: USA; Director: Nadav Kurtz)

The Roper

A black man with hip-hop and zydeco roots hard grafts through the local, all-white rodeo circuits in the Deep South, as he dreams of competing in the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

(Country: USA; Director: Ewan McNicol)

The Secret of Trees

What do trees know that we don't? Thirteen-year-old inventor Aidan has discovered that trees use a mathematical formula to gather sunlight in crowded forests. Now he wonders why we don’t collect solar energy in the same way.

(Country: USA; Director: Albert Maysles)

Skinningrove

Photographer Chris Killip shares unpublished images chronicling time spent among the fiercely independent residents of a remote English fishing village.

(Country: USA; Director: Michael Almereyda)

A Story for the Modlins

The tale of Elmer Modlin, who, after appearing in Rosemary’s Baby, fled with his family to a far-off country and shut himself away in a dark apartment for 30 years.

(Country: Spain; Director: Sergio Oksman; Writer: Sergio Oksman)

When the Zombies come

At a remote hardware store, fans of the walking dead have turned their love of zombies into an obsession, warping the way they see the store and its customers.

(Country: USA; Director: Jon Hurst)

The Whistle

Marcin, a lowest-leagues football referee who lives in a small town near Krakow, dreams of better times. At his mother’s urging, he decides to change his life and find himself a girlfriend and a better job.

(Director: Grzegorz Zariczny)

You Don't Know Jack

Jack Andraka, a high school sophomore, has developed a revolutionary new test for pancreatic cancer, proving the future of science is in the hands of our youth.

(Director: Morgan Spurlock)