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Sundance Film Festival · 2020

Sundance Film Festival 2020

Documentary Premieres

Programme

13 films · 2 reviews

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Aggie

An exploration of the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund who sold Roy Lichtenstein’s painting Masterpiece in 2017 for $165 million to start the Art for Justice Fund to end mass incarceration.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Catherine Gund; Stars: Agnes Gund, Thelma Golden, John Waters, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Ava DuVernay, Agnes Gund, Thelma Golden, John Waters, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Ava DuVernay)

World premiere

Assassins

True crime meets global spy thriller in this gripping account of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader. The film follows the trial of the two female assassins, probing the question: were the women trained killers or innocent pawns of North Korea?

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Ryan White)

World premiere

Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen

An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Sam Feder; Stars: Laverne Cox, Mj Rodriguez, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Chaz Bono, Jamie Clayton)

World premiere

The Dissident

Review preview for The Dissident

The Icarus Oscar-winner's analysis is robust and well-illustrated and he moves at a pace, even if the scoring from Adam Peters is over-insistent in places.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world are left to piece together the clues to a brutal murder and expose a global cover up perpetrated by the very country he loved.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Bryan Fogel; Writer: Bryan Fogel, Mark Monroe)

Full review

World premiere

Giving Voice

Every year, thousands of high schoolers enter the August Wilson monologue competition for a chance to perform on Broadway. This film follows these students, examining how Wilson and his characters speak to a new generation, inspiring them to listen to his words and find their own voice.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: James D Stern, Fernando Villena)

World premiere

The Go-Go's

As the first all-female band to play their instruments, write their songs and have a No. 1 album, The Go-Go's made history. Underpinned by candid testimonies, this film chronicles the meteoric rise to fame of a band born in the LA punk scene who became a pop phenomenon.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Alison Ellwood; Stars: Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine, Jane Wiedlin)

World premiere

Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story

Exploring the rise and fall of the groundbreaking animated series Ren & Stimpy and its controversial creator, John Kricfalusi, through archival footage, show artwork and interviews with the artists, actors and executives behind the show.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Ron Cicero, Kimo Easterwood; Writer: Ron Cicero; Stars: John Kricfalusi, Robyn Byrd, Vanessa Coffey, Chris Reccardi, Richard Pursel, Bobby Lee)

World premiere

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind

Exploring actor Natalie Wood’s life and career through the unique perspective of her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and others who knew her best. An examination of her personal and professional triumphs and challenges, which have often been overshadowed by her tragic death at age 43.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Laurent Bouzereau)

World premiere

Okavango: River of Dreams (Director's Cut)

Review preview for Okavango: River of Dreams (Director's Cut)

The aim here is not to give chapter and verse on the habits of the various animals we are to meet but rather to admire them in their habitat.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An insiders’ view of one of the greatest river systems on the planet, presented as a love letter, exploring the layers of paradise, limbo and inferno in a natural history echo of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a river of dreams, or beauty of conflict and turmoil.

(Country: botswana; Year: 2020; Director: Dereck Joubert, Beverly Joubert; Writer: Dereck Joubert)

Full review

World premiere

Rebuilding Paradise

On November 8, 2018, a spark flew in the Sierra Nevada foothills, igniting the most destructive wildfire in California history and decimating the town of Paradise. Unfolding during the year after the fire, this is the story of the Paradise community as they begin to rebuild their lives.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Ron Howard)

World premiere

Taylor Swift: Miss Americana

A raw and emotionally revealing look at one of the most iconic artists of our time during a transformational period in her life as she learns to embrace her role not only as a songwriter and performer, but as a woman harnessing the full power of her voice.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Lana Wilson; Stars: Taylor Swift)

World premiere. Day One film

Untitled Kirby Dick/Amy Ziering Film

A brilliant former hip hop executive grapples with whether to go public about her rape by one of the most powerful men in the music industry. A gripping and profound examination of race, gender, intersectionality, and the toll sexual abuse takes on survivors and on society at large.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering; Writer: Kirby Dick, Sara Newens, Amy Ziering; Stars: Drew Dixon, Sil Lai Abrams, Sheri Hines, Joan Morgan, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Shanita Hubbard)

World premiere

Vivos

Since an attack on students of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College in 2014 resulted in six deaths and in the forced disappearance of 43, the students’ families have been living in limbo with their unanswered questions, their struggle embodying the psychological and emotional toll of endemic violence upon Mexican society.

(Country: Germany, Mexico; Year: 2020; Director: Ai Weiwei)

World premiere