Posts Tagged ‘Sundance’

IndieFlix Signs Exciting New Titles at 2010 Sundance/Slamdance Festivals

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

junkoshamisen

Park City, Utah – Five titles featured at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival have signed with IndieFlix for film distribution.

The short documentary “Thompson,” directed by Jason Tippet, tells the story of best friends Matt and Ryan and the bonds they share over things like dirt bikes, speech impediments and weapons. The film captures the two men at life’s crossroad – Matt is working hard to become a commercial fisherman and finish high school; Ryan has been expelled during his senior year for calling in a bomb threat. The film captures the two life-long friends at a difficult point in their relationship, where go-carts and RC cars can’t outrun adulthood.

Junko’s Shamisen,” written and directed by Solomon Friedman, blends the aesthetic traditions of Japanese kabuki, contemporary Manga illustration and stop-motion animation in this beautifully produced animated short. Junko is a young orphan who returns to her home in the rural backwoods of feudal Japan to find her grandfather brutally murdered. She inadvertently encounters the evil samurai lord responsible for her grandfather’s murder, and avenges his death through gruesome acts of poetic justice.

Meatwaffle” is a fascinating short animated film written and directed by Leah Shore. It features an old man who reflects back on his bizarre memories in jumbled tangents of clocks, conversations and strange patches of skin-cloth. The film is told with a combination of stop-motion, pixelation and 2D hand-drawn animation.

Comedic short film and English import “Can We Talk?” focuses on that dreaded–usually final—relationship conversation. Vince gets dumped by his girlfriend, again. This time, he gets more than he bargained for. The film was written, directed and edited by Jim Owen.

His and Hers,” directed by Ken Wardrop, is a cinematic mosaic that tells a 90-year-old love story through the lives and voices of 70 Irish women at different points in their lives. The film celebrates the ordinary moments that make the extraordinary, creating a graceful portrait of love across generations.

Stay tuned for release dates through IndieFlix.com.

“Thompson” Accepted to Sundance

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Thompson-PosterWe loveThompson,” an  intriguing mini-doc about two lifelong friends who share a love of go-karts, guns and dirt bikes.

Thankfully, the festival world is noticing, too. Sundance has added “Thompson” to it’s roster and will be screening the film on their YouTube channel in the Documentary Shorts category. After Sundance, we’re going to work hard to make this short a part of the IndieFlix family.

Here is a link to the film’s Sundance schedule.

The best of luck to you, “Thompson” team!

Getting ready for Sundance 2009.

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Sundance Logo

Sundance is first up to kick off another year of film festivals. It’s always exciting and a little stressful preparing to be away from home and office.  Thank God we have such a phenomenal team at IndieFlix.  Looking at my calendar of panels, screenings, events and meetings I feel a little overwhelmed already.  Thank goodness I’m staying right on Main Street.  No waiting in bathroom lines for me this year; though it seems that’s where I usually run into the people I’m supposed to meet.

I guess I am somewhat of a Sundance Veteran. The last few years my colleagues and I confess that we might skip Sundance and focus on SXSW. We all seem to get much more actual business done in Austin but each year we still end up going to Park City.  There’s just no other festival like it.  It’s a bit like a high school reunion.  When I was a filmmaker I would have given my eyeteeth to go to Sundance, sleep in a condo with 22 other people, wait in long lines and spend every penny I had just to see new, original films and hit the parties.  Now I need to be on Main Street. I like to be on the party invite list and I have most of my meetings set before I get there but this year is slightly different. I want to allow myself the opportunity to discover and experience the festival with new eyes.

This year there are a lot of films directed by Seattle filmmakers in the festival. So, it will be somewhat familial in feeling and of course very fun. I see that social agenda for filmmakers and distributors is high on the priority list of topics to cover– that’s certainly good.  I always like to serve a cause but only if we can keep it interesting and it makes sense.  I hope we don’t get inundated with too many “goodie two shoes” films.

Well, back to packing…