THIS IS IT. The Top 12 screenplays from the 2018 Slamdance Screenplay Competition! Congratulations to all our finalists and a huge thanks to all the writers who shared their work with us this year. The competition winners will be announced on October 11th at the WGA West.


2018 FINALISTS - Top 12
(in alphabetical order)

Feature:
Cancuncito by Carlos Alejandro Marulanda
Girls In Trouble by Brenna Perez
The Innocent and the Vicious by Dominique Genest & Nick Kreiss


Horror
Candle by Jonathan Redding
Causeway by Stanley Wong & Patrick Dorsey
Wendigo by Mike Langer


TV Pilot
Darkened Room by Tamara Maloney & Maeve McQuillan
The Peak by Jessica Sinyard
The Red by John Whitcher


Short
Ami by Matt O'Connor
The Settlement by Nikolas Benn
Sundown County by Victor Ridaura

Jessica Sinyard Takes Home Slamdance Grand Prize For Television Pilot “The Peak”
LOS ANGELES, CA (October 11, 2018) – Slamdance today announced the winners of its 2018 screenwriting competition, awarding its Grand Prize to writer Jessica Sinyard for her television pilot “The Peak.” Additional prizes were awarded during a ceremony hosted by Writers Guild of America West across feature film, horror, TV pilot and short film categories. Upwards of 3,000 submissions were received for this year’s contest, and more than $16,000 was awarded to 2018 winners across all categories.


“The Peak” is a psychological survival thriller that follows a team of eight overachievers in their attempt to climb Mount Everest. When a team member goes missing on the peak, paranoia and altitude sickness corrodes the reliability of survivor accounts. With a dual narrative that interweaves both the team’s ascent and descent, “The Peak” reveals a complex central mystery that explores the choices people make when they believe no one is watching.

“This year's competition proved that wherever you come from in this world our judges are waiting to discover and honor great new writing talent, especially if you are Jessica Sinyard from Saxby All Saints village in the north of England, “ says Slamdance President, Peter Baxter. “We are proud to award Jessica Slamdance's 2018 Screenplay Competition Grand Prize for her pilot ‘The Peak,’ a pulsating psychological survival thriller that is primed for production.”

“Slamdance is such a vivacious, distinctive and inimitable festival, it is such as honor to be selected,” says writer Jessica Sinyard.

Slamdance recognizes four categories in its Writing Competition and congratulates the top three screenplays in each category. The top three 2018 Slamdance screenplays in each prize category are as follows:

Feature1st place:
The Innocent and the Vicious by Dominique Genest & Nick Kreiss
Three young women embark on a dangerous mission to exact personal revenge in Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II.

2nd place:
Cancuncito by Carlos Alejandro Marulanda
Using gambling to escape from her social isolation, Valeria, a disabled woman with limited use of her hands, recruits a poor Afro-Mexican worker to help her play the casinos and attempts to seduce him. When her ultra religious mother threatens to destroy their burgeoning love affair Valeria must move beyond the limits of her disabilities.

3rd place:
Girls In Trouble by Brenna Perez
(1964) Based on historic events. A young, unmarried woman's pregnancy derails her college and career-track life when she gets sent to St. Mary's House for Unwed Mothers, where she is forced to secretly give birth and put her child up for adoption.


Horror1st place:
Candle by Jonathan Redding
When a demon stalks Manhattan, an ex-nun with a gift for the occult must return to protect the Sisterhood she left behind.

2nd place:
Wendigo by Mike Langer
In the near future, a young Native American mother and her twins, in the final stages of a terrifying genetic mutation, must survive the brutal American West while being hunted by a Man hell-bent on killing them.

3rd place:
The Causeway by Stanley Wong & Patrick T. Dorsey
When a zombie-like outbreak puts New Orleans under strict quarantine, a closed-off survivalist and a ragtag group of neighbors attempt to escape across the only road to safety -- the longest bridge over water in the world.


TV Pilot1st place:
The Peak by Jessica Sinyard*
Psychological survival thriller in which eight overachievers attempt to scale Mount Everest. But when a team member goes missing on the peak, paranoia and altitude sickness corrodes the reliability of survivor accounts. With a dual narrative that interweaves both the team’s ascent and descent, The Peak reveals a complex central mystery exploring the choices we make when we believe no-one is watching.

2nd place:
Darkened Room by Tamara Maloney & Maeve McQuillan
Set in 19th century London inside the darkened rooms of séances where everyone is a fraud, only Alma Havenswood, a dissident from the Victorian ruling classes, can truly connect to the beyond. When Alma's gift leads to the loss of her child, she turns her back on the spirit world only to discover that any hope of reuniting with her son rests in her ability to harness her talents and defeat the powers trying to destroy her both in this world and the other.

3rd place:
The Red by John Whitcher
A Cree prostitute helps a racist detective hunt a serial killer preying on Native sex workers –– only to uncover mounting evidence the killer is her Grandfather.

*Fun Fact: Jessica Sinyard actually submitted two TV Pilots that made it into the semi-finals. Her sci-fi investigative thriller 'Over The Rainbow' came in at a close 4th place.


Short 1st place:
Ami by Matt O'Connor
A young girl must navigate the perils of an isolated existence in a crumbling dystopian future, with the help of her AI assistant cube, AMI.

2nd place:
The Settlement by Nikolas Benn
A silver tongued salesman tries to con a grandmother out of what little time she has left.

3rd place:
Sundown County by Victor Ridaura
When the United States government passes a sunset law that eliminates all the constitutional guarantees and rights of any minority in the country after the sun goes down, a Latino interracial family try to make it to Atlanta, a haven city, before the sun sets down on them.


Feature
1st place: The Innocent and the Vicious by Dominique Genest & Nick Kreiss
2nd place: Cancuncito by Carlos Alejandro Marulanda
3rd place: Girls In Trouble by Brenna Perez

Horror
1st place: Candle by Jonathan Redding
2nd place: Wendigo by Mike Langer
3rd place: The Causeway by Stanley Wong & Patrick T. Dorsey

TV Pilot
1st place: The Peak by Jessica Sinyard
2nd place: Darkened Room by Tamara Maloney & Maeve McQuillan
3rd place: The Red by John Whitcher

Short
1st place: Ami by Matt O'Connor
2nd place: The Settlement by Nikolas Benn
3rd place: Sundown County by Victor Ridaura

Over the past 23 years, the success of the Slamdance Screenplay Competition and its winning writers continues to attract the attention of industry professionals searching for the best new independent writing talent. Slamdance Screenplay Competition winners that have gone to production include Maria Full of Grace from writer Joshua Marston and The Woodsman co-written by Nicole Kassel and Steven Fechter. Recent competition winners that have gone on to be produced include 100 Bloody Acres from co-writers Colin and Cameron Cairn and Jug Face written by Chad Crawford Kinkle.

The Slamdance Screenplay Competition is dedicated to discovering emerging writing talent. Since 1995 the organization has established a strong track record for identifying and supporting new screenwriters, and they welcome screenplays in every genre, on any topic, from anywhere in the world.

In addition to cash prizes, the top three screenwriters in each category receive prize packages that include Festival Passes good for all screenings and parties at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah (January 25-31 2019). Top three screenwriters in the Feature and Horror categories are eligible for membership in the Writers Guild of America West’s Independent Writers Caucus, and winners in both of these categories receive $2,500 in legal services from Pierce Law Group, LLP. All winners also receive a collection of Slamdance merchandise and will be included in the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival program which is distributed to industry professionals in Park City and year round.


About Slamdance
By filmmakers, for filmmakers. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching​ ​careers,​ ​independent​ ​and​ ​grassroots​ ​communities​ ​can​ ​do​ ​it​ ​themselves.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing community with several year-round initiatives. These include the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, its educational program Slamdance Polytechnic, DIG showcase of Digital Interactive and Gaming art, distribution efforts through Slamdance Presents, worldwide screening series Slamdance on the Road, and LA screening series Slamdance Cinema Club

Notable Slamdance alumni include: The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War, Welcome to Collinwood), Christopher Nolan (​Dunkirk, Interstellar​), Oren Peli (​Paranormal Activity​), Marc Forster (​World War Z​), Jared Hess (​Napoleon Dynamite​), Lena Dunham (​Girls​), Benh Zeitlin (​Beasts of the Southern Wild​), Jeremy Saulnier (​Green Room​), Seth Gordon (​Horrible Bosses​), Lynn Shelton (​Outside, Humpday​), Sean Baker (​The Florida Project​), and Matt Johnson (​Operation Avalanche​). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $17 billion​ ​at​ ​the​ ​Box​ ​Office​ ​to​ ​date.


For more information on Slamdance, visit: https://www.slamdance.com
Follow Slamdance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Medium.

'Happy Face', directed by Alexandre Franchi. Photo courtesy of Stéphane Gérin-Lajoie

11 Narrative and 9 Documentary Features To Be Showcased in Competition During 25th Annual Festival, Including 18 World, North American, and U.S. Premieres. Festival Also Announces Inaugural Breakouts Section Lineup

LOS ANGELES, CA (November 26, 2018) - The Slamdance Film Festival today announced the Narrative and Documentary Feature Film Competition programs, as well as the lineup for its new Breakouts section, for their 25th edition, taking place January 25-31, 2019 in Park City. Slamdance continues to be the premiere film festival “by filmmakers, for filmmakers”, dedicated to fostering a community for independent emerging artists. The Directors Guild of America and Blackmagic Design are Presenting Sponsors of the festival.

The feature competition lineup boasts 18 premieres, including 10 World, 4 North American, and 4 U.S. debuts. In addition to the United States, films come to Slamdance from countries around the globe, including Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Poland, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. All competition films are feature length directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million USD, and without US distribution. Featured films were selected by a team of Slamdance alumni via a blind submission process and are programmed democratically. Films in both categories are also eligible for the Audience Award and Spirit of Slamdance Award, the latter of which is voted upon by filmmakers at the festival.

“When it comes to discovering talent, Slamdance has consistently shown that its artist led community can do it themselves,” said Slamdance Co-founder and President, Peter Baxter. “In a milestone year, our competition lineup symbolizes this ongoing endeavor. It’s full of incredible talent representing a global diversity that we believe will play a significant role in our cultural future.”

In addition, the 2019 festival will see the return of the Russo Fellowship -- a $25,000 prize launched in 2018 by celebrated festival alumni Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: Civil War, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War) to enable a deserving filmmaker the opportunity to continue their journey with mentorship from the filmmaking duo. Presented by AGBO Films in partnership with the festival, the inaugural fellowship was awarded to filmmaker Yassmina Karajah for her narrative short Rupture.

Also announced today is the lineup for the festival’s all-new Breakouts section. Breakouts are films by non-first-time-feature directors who demonstrate a determined vision of filmmaking that is instinctively becoming their own. These artists continue to push boundaries in genre and form, and are beacons of light that predict the future of film. Slamdance’s goal is to help daring and resilient filmmakers connect with bigger audiences and take their well-deserved place on the world cinema stage. The 2019 Breakouts feature the work of several Slamdance alumni, including Steven Soderbergh, who executive produced Beats, and Canadian filmmaker Alexandre Franchi who received the Audience Award for best Narrative Feature at the 2010 festival for The Wild Hunt.

"Our newly minted Breakouts section celebrates a group of experienced directors, including some Slamdance alumni, who are genuinely intent on taking bigger risks with their storytelling and career paths,” said Paul Rachman, Slamdance co-conspirator and Breakouts programmer. “These are films from around the world that deliver a bold vision from filmmakers with drive and intent to establish their unique cinematic voices."

Established in 1995, Slamdance is dedicated to discovering and supporting new talents in independent filmmaking. In addition to the Russo Brothers, notable Slamdance alumni include: Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Bong Joon Ho (Okja), Lena Dunham (Girls), Ari Aster (Hereditary), Gina Prince-Blythewood (Shots Fired), and Sean Baker (The Florida Project).

2019 competition features include:

NARRATIVE FEATURES

A Great Lamp (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Saad Qureshi
Screenwriters: Saad Qureshi, Donald R. Monroe, Max Wilde
On the river towns of North Carolina, two sad vandals and an unemployed loner wait for a fabled rocket launch.
Cast: Max Wilde, Spencer Bang, Steven Maier, Julian Semilian, Laura Ingram Semilian, Netta Green, Connie Stewart, Smokey, Spaz

Boni Bonita (Brazil, Argentina) - North American Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Daniel Barosa
Reeling from the death of her mother, Beatriz moves to Brazil where she begins an intense and toxic relationship with Rogério, an older musician struggling with his family's artistic legacy.
Cast: Ailín Salas, Caco Ciocler

Cat Sticks (India) - World Premiere
Director: Ronny Sen
Screenwriters: Ronny Sen, Soumyak Kanti DeBiswas
A pack of Calcutta youth seek greater lust and life in their relentless pursuit of Brown Sugar (dirty heroin)... and it’s unsustainable high.
Cast: Tanmay Dhanania, Sumeet Thakur, Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Rahul Dutta, Saurabh Saraswat, Sreejita Mitra, Raja Chakravorty, Kalpan Mitra

Crystal Swan. Photo courtesy of Andrew Brown

Crystal Swan (Belarus, USA, Germany, Russia) - North American Premiere
Director: Darya Zhuk
Screenwriter: Helga Landauer
In mid-90s Belarus, a young DJ's big overseas plans get derailed when a typo on her Visa application sends her to a backwater factory town where she is determined to fake her way to the American dream.
Cast: Alina Nassibulina, Ivan Mulin, Yury Borisov

Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture (USA, Canada) – North American Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Nicole Brending
A puppet-animation charting the rise and fall of fictional child pop star, Junie Spoons.
Cast: Aneikit Bonnel, Sydney Bonar, Nicole Brending, Erik Hoover, Maggie Morrisson, Peter Ooley, Adam Sly

Hurry Slowly (Norway)
Director/Screenwriter: Anders Emblem
Hurry Slowly follows Fiona over a few life-changing summer months on the north-western coast of Norway, where she juggle the care of her brother, her job at the local ferry and her interest in music.
Cast: Amalie Ibsen Jensen, David Jakobsen, Lars Halvor Andreassen

Impetus (Canada) - US Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Jennifer Alleyn
In the process of her ongoing film shoot in New York City, a filmmaker finds herself questioning the origin of impulsion. As she tries to overcome loss through creation, an unexpected event enlightens her journey.
Cast: Pascale Bussières, Emmanuel Schwartz, Jorn Reissner, Esfyr Dyachkov

Lost Holiday (USA) - World Premiere
Directors/Screenwriters: Michael Matthews, Thomas Matthews
Two old highschool friends solve a Christmas mystery in D.C.
Cast: Kate Lyn Sheil, Thomas Matthews, Keith Poulson, William Jackson Harper, Ismenia Mendes, Tone Tank, Joshua Leonard and Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Spiral Farm (USA) - World Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Alec Tibaldi
When two outsiders arrive on an isolated intentional community, seventeen-year old Anahita begins to question her role at home, and what a future out in the world-at-large could be.
Cast: Piper de Palma, Amanda Plummer, Jade Fusco, Teo Halm, Cosimo Fusco, Landen Beattie, Akuyoe Graham, Kayleigh Gilbert

The Vast of Night (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Andrew Patterson
Screenwriter: James Montague, Craig W. Sanger
At the dawn of the space-race, two radio-obsessed teens discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town.
Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Gail Cronauer, Bruce Davis

We Are Thankful (South Africa) - North American Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Joshua Magor
When Siyabonga, a young South African actor hungry to expand his craft, gets wind of a movie production that is shooting in a neighboring town, the eager actor decides to set out a journey that will take him away from his quiet home life and out into a bustling world of possibility.
Cast: Siyabonga Majola, Sabelo Khoza, Xolani “X” Malinga, Amanda Ncube, Percy Mncedicy Zulu, Ntokozo Mkhize, Sibusiso “Sbu” Nzama, Luthando “Cminzah” Ngcobo

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Behind the Bullet (USA) - World Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Heidi Yewman
An in-depth look at four individuals who have pulled the trigger and the profound impact it’s had on their lives.

The Beksinskis. A Sound and Picture Album (Poland) - US Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Marcin Borchardt
A famous Polish painter known for his dark and twisted imagery chronicles his son's troubled life from the 1950s through the millennium.

Desolation Center (USA) - US Premiere
Director: Stuart Swezey
Screenwriters: Stuart Swezey, Tyler Hubby
The untold story of a series of Reagan-era anarchic punk rock desert happenings that still reverberate throughout our culture.

Dons of Disco (USA)
Director: Jonathan Sutak
A lip-syncing scandal pits an American singer against an Italian male model over the legacy of 1980s 'Italo Disco' star Den Harrow.

Markie in Milwaukee (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Matt Kliegman
A mid-western transgender woman struggles with the prospect of de-transitioning under the pressures of her fundamentalist church, family and community.

Memphis ‘69 (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Joe LaMattina, Screenwriters: Joe LaMattina, Lisa LaMattina
A year after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, a group of blues legends came together to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of Memphis, TN. This concert documentary, shot over 3 days in June of 1969, celebrates an American art form that unites us all.

The Professional: A Stevie Blatz Story (USA) - US Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Daniel La Barbera
A behind-the-scenes look at the magic of Stevie Blatz, an entertainment entrepreneur in Bethlehem, PA.

Seadrift (USA) - World Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Tim Tsai
In 1979, the fatal shooting of a white crab fisherman in a Texas fishing village ignites a maelstrom of hostilities against Vietnamese refugees along the Gulf Coast.

Sudan: The Last Male Standing. Photo courtesy of Andrew Brown
Sudan: The Last Male Standing (USA, Kenya) - World Premiere
Director: David Hambridge
Through the conservation efforts of a rhino caretaker unit in Kenya, we peer past the headlines into the emptiness of extinction in real time.

BREAKOUT FEATURES

Beats (UK) - North American Premiere
Director: Brian Welsh, Screenwriter: Kieran Hurley, Brian Welsh
A universal story of friendship, rebellion and the irresistible power of gathered youth – set to a soundtrack as eclectic and electrifying as the scene it gave birth to, BEATS is a story for our time.
Cast: Cristian Ortega, Lorn Macdonald, Laura Fraser

Demolition Girl (Japan) - World Premiere
Director: Genta Matsugami, Screenwriters: Yoshitaka Kasui, Genta Matsugami
A high-school girl who lives in a rural town in Japan struggles to define her own way in life. To help her impoverished family she works as a video fetish performer which leads to problems for her and her family with a criminal underworld.
Cast: Aya Kitai,Hiroki Ino,Haruka Imo,Yura Komuro,Yota Kawase,Ko Maehara,Ryohei Abe,Nobu Morimoto

Happy Face (Canada) - US Premiere
Director: Alexandre Franchi, Screenwriter: Alexandre Franchi, Joëlle Bourjolly
Desperate to become less shallow, a handsome teenage boy deforms his face with bandages and attends a support group for disfigured people.
Cast: Robin L’Houmeau, Debbie Lynch-White, David Roche, E.R. Ruiz, Alison Midstokke, Cindy Nicholsen, Noémie Kocher.

History of Love (Slovenia, Italy, Norway) - North American Premiere
Director/Screenwriter: Sonja Prosenc
A teenage swimmer/high diver Iva, endures a grieving process, as family secrets and mysteries, especially her mother’s, unveil.
Cast: Doroteja Nadrah, Kristoffer Joner, Matej Zemljic, Zoja Florjanc Lukan, Matija Vastl, Zita Fusco

###

ABOUT SLAMDANCE:
By filmmakers, for filmmakers. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing community with several year-round initiatives. These include the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, its educational program Slamdance Polytechnic, DIG showcase of Digital Interactive and Gaming art, distribution efforts through Slamdance Presents, worldwide screening series Slamdance on the Road, and LA screening series Slamdance Cinema Club

Notable Slamdance alumni include: The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Marc Forster (Christopher Robin), Jeremiah Zagar (We The Animals), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), Gina Prince-Blythewood (Shots Fired), Lynn Shelton (Outside In, Humpday), Sean Baker (The Florida Project), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) and Ari Aster (Hereditary). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $17 billion at the Box Office to date.

For more information on Slamdance, visit: https://www.slamdance.com
Follow Slamdance on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
#Slamdance25

PRESS CONTACT:
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SLAMDANCE TO HONOR ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER STEVEN SODERBERGH WITH 2019 FOUNDERS AWARD
The director’s newest film HIGH FLYING BIRD to sneak preview as part of the festival honorFestival Also Announces Opening and Closing Night Films, Special Event Screenings and Short Film Lineup
December 11, 2018 (Los Angeles) - The Slamdance Film Festival today announced that Academy Award winning director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Magic Mike) will be presented with their 2019 Founders Award, given to a Slamdance alumnus who has continued to represent the Slamdance organization and support the filmmaker community of Slamdance well into their careers. The award was first presented in 2015 to director Christopher Nolan (Inception, Dunkirk) and in 2018 was awarded to Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War). Soderbergh will participate in a live discussion with Slamdance Co-founder and President Peter Baxter before a sneak preview of his newest film, High Flying Bird.

Written by Oscar-winner Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight) and starring André Holland, Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg, Sonja Sohn, Zachary Quinto, Kyle MacLachlan and Bill Duke, High Flying Bird takes place during a pro basketball lockout and follows a sports agent (Holland) as he pitches a rookie basketball client (Gregg) on an intriguing and controversial business proposition. The film was produced by Joseph Malloch and executive produced by Holland and Ken Meyer. High Flying Bird will launch globally on Friday, February 8, 2019 on Netflix.


"’Don't ask for permission!’ That was Steven Soderbergh's advice to us when Slamdance was getting started and it continues to be the core of our brand. We answer to no one,” said Baxter. “Slamdance filmmakers have changed the entertainment industry and Steven Soderbergh showed us the way. Without his involvement over the last 25 years both as a filmmaker and mentor to our filmmakers, Slamdance wouldn't be the organization it is today."

Slamdance has also announced the world premiere of Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story as their 2019 opening night film. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Patrick Creadon (Wordplay) and produced by Jeff Conroy under his production banner BoBCat Studios, as well as Joe Berry of Lorton Entertainment, the documentary chronicles the life and times of legendary filmmaker Warren Miller, who served as a driving force in the development and promotion of skiing in America and throughout the world. Miller, who died earlier this year at the age of 93 while the documentary was still in production, sat with the filmmakers months before his passing in what would prove to be his final interview.

In addition to Miller himself, Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story features interviews with Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley, ski legends Scot Schmidt, Dan and John Egan, Kristen Ulmer, Brad Vancour, and fellow ski filmmaker Greg Stump, along with members of Miller’s family and the filmmaking team.

(left) A scene from Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story directed by Patrick Creadon. Photo courtesy of Warren Miller Co. (right) A scene from This Teacher, directed by Mark Jackson. The Closing Night film at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Mark Jackson

The festival’s closing night film, This Teacher, is directed by Slamdance alumni Mark Jackson (Without) and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival in September. In his third feature, Jackson follows a French Muslim woman (Cesar-winner Hafsia Herzi) as she travels to New York City to visit her childhood best friend. When the reunion proves disastrous, Hafsia disappears to a remote cabin upstate where her vacation gradually descends into a terrifying study of the intolerance and suspicion she encounters and reflects back to an Islamophobic America.

“Being premiere agnostic means Slamdance can shine a spotlight on exceptional films and filmmakers who might otherwise slip through the cracks,” said Slamdance co-conspirator Paul Rachman. “The Teacher is a timely and poignant story, beautifully written and directed, anchored by a powerful performance from Hafsia Herzi.”

Getting its world premiere out of competition will be The Drone from director Jordan Rubin (Zombeavers). The film follows a newlywed couple as they get terrorized by a consumer drone that has become sentient with the consciousness of a deranged serial killer. In addition, Slamdance has added a special event presentation of Blessing Yen and James Kaelan’s America the Beautiful to the lineup. An audience favorite during their September DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming) showcase in Los Angeles, America the Beautiful was shot entirely on iPhone and has been called the found-footage thriller for our turbulent political moment.

The 2019 shorts lineup was also unveiled today by Slamdance, showcasing 78 short films from countries around the world including the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The lineup includes 26 World, 5 North American and 6 US Premieres. Shorts in the Narrative, Documentary and Animation sections are eligible for the 2019 Oscar® Qualifying Shorts competition.

Added to the 2019 short film program is an all-new Episodes category showcasing episodic work in any style, genre and format intended for broadcast – from comedy and drama to documentaries and social commentary and beyond.

"Our new Episodes program focuses on the next generation of series storytellers who are distorting familiar story structures with unfiltered or unique setups and story arcs," said Episodes program Co-Captain Craig Parish. "We continue to support and be excited by creators who are challenging perceptions and shaping their own art with fewer creative constraints than have traditionally been in place."

The Slamdance shorts program has a rich history of screening the first works of filmmakers who have gone on to highly successful careers in Hollywood, including Rian Johnson, Lena Dunham, Benh Zeitlin, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Don Hertzfeldt, Ari Aster, Andrew Thomas Huang, Jeremiah Zagar, Jon M. Chu and Ana Lily Amirpour.


The 2019 shorts program includes:

NARRATIVE SHORTS

023_GRETA_S (Germany) – World Premiere
Director: Annika Birgel
A young actress' audition quickly spirals out of control, turning into an intimate and manipulative interrogation.
Cast: Lilian Mazbouh, Tania Carlin, Gerrit Neuhaus

Akeda (USA)
Director: Dan Bronfeld
An orphan boy has his humanity tested when a film director encourages him to give a violent performance that will blend fiction with reality.
Cast: Karim Saleh, Gustavo Quiroz

Autumn Waltz (Serbia, USA) – World Premiere
Director: Ognjen Petković
A couple is attempting to escape their besieged town when they run into a barricade of unfriendly soldiers and must think fast.
Cast: Tanja Pjevac, Jovo Maksić, Ljubiša Milišić, Marjan Apostolović

Blast Beat (Canada) – US Premiere
Director: Pascal Plante
It ain't easy singing for a black metal band...
Cast: Corinne Cardinal, Alexandre Dostie

Butt Fantasia (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Mohit Jaswal
With the help of a magic hat, a man contemplates the good and bad times his butt has been through.
Cast: Bruce Patzke

Charmer (New Zealand)
Director: Judah Finnigan
Torn between two competing needs, a middle-aged woman is forced to make a difficult decision during a rocky first date with a disagreeable bachelor.
Cast: Robyn Malcolm, Stephen Lovatt

Chicken Wraps and Condoms (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Jacob Gregor
A darkly comical look at the culture and making of YouTube videos.
Cast: Ray Bruster, Bryant King, Jacob Gregor

Clams Casino, Narrative Short. Photo Courtesy of Pam Nasr

Clams Casino (USA)
Director: Pam Nasr
Arcelia Diaz invites an unknown audience to an extravagant seafood dinner as she struggles to rebuild her relationship with her mother.
Cast: Eloisa Santos, Roma Lopez, Rina Mejia, Sarah Lynne

East of the River (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Hannah Peterson
Teonna is unexpectedly suspended from school and is faced with a day on the streets of Washington, DC.
Cast: Ayiana T. Davis, Steloni Mason, Malachi Mack

Hair: The Story of Grass (Saudi Arabia, Canada)
Director: Maha Al-Saati
Abandoned by her prince, an Arabian Cinderella is left serving guests while her mentally-challenged ward attempts to escape the body of the hairy grown up he is trapped in.
Cast: Nada Tawhid, Aziz Gharbawi, Abdulhalim Alnami, Fahad Alghamdi

Hands and Wings (South Korea) – World Premiere
Director: Sungbin Byun
One day, a disabled son rejects his mother's help.
Cast: Seonghoon Hong, Geumsoon Kim, Wookyum Kim

Hierophany (USA)
Director: Kevin Contento
Living on the margins of American society, a Florida boy comes in contact with the sacred.
Cast: Jean Voltaire, Wiltavious Mckelton, Roy Thompson Jr., Malik Hall

Midnight Confession (Canada, USA)
Director: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
Manny Jumpcannon wants your sympathy.
Cast: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, August Diehl, Breeda Wool

Mothering (UK) – US Premiere
Director: Lucy Bridger
On her first day in a new foster home, Mia faces an awkward new challenge.
Cast: Sapphire Paine, Ursula Jones, Angela McHale

My Expanded View (USA)
Director: Corey Hughes
A YouTube Yoga tutorial. A collapsed body. An expanded view.
Cast: Malek Robbana, Aidan Spann, Danielle Criqui, Cooper Wright, Tyler Davis, George Cessna, Christian Hughes, Fiona Sergeant, Corey Hughes

Nettles, Narrative Short. Image Courtesy of Raven Jackson

Nettles (USA)
Director: Raven Jackson
Shot over the course of a year, in six chapters, Nettles delicately explores stinging moments in the lives of different girls and women.
Cast: Kamile Bailey, Jordan-Amanda Hall, MeeWha Alana Lee, Alicia Ocana

Norteños (UK) – US Premiere
Director: Grandmas
Barry, a mild mannered dimwit from the Northwest of England, tries to elicit the help of his former lover after a terrible incident involving his Nan.
Cast: Daniel Watson, Chelsea O'Connor, Shane Dickinson

Piu Piu (USA)
Director: Naima Ramos-Chapman
Jordan escapes into the city for a day to herself, only to be trailed by a stranger and pushed into finding her own weapon against him.
Cast: Natalie Paul, Jermaine Small, Trae Harris, Santana Caress Benitez

Ready for Love (USA)
Director: Dylan Pasture & Lauren McCune
Amber Lynn Weatherbee knows that the right man is out there. Maybe he's on The Bachelor?
Cast: Lauren McCune, Nancy Munger, Angeline Gragásin

Tunnel Ball (Australia) – World Premiere
Director: Davis Jensen
A boy goes to a new school. Everyone is identical and loves the sport Tunnel Ball. The only way to fit in is to beat them at their own game.
Cast: Reuben Ward, Wilson Moore

Users (Poland) – North American Premiere
Director: Jakub Piatek
A woman and a man try to wrench some feelings from each other on a video chat site that connects random strangers.
Cast: Maja Pankiewicz, Dobromir Dymecki

Wet Pavilion (UK)
Director: Yeva Cheema
A kid witnesses the disintegration of his older brother's love life in a car wash.
Cast: Filippo D'antuono

Woman in Stall (Canada)
Director: Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli
A woman finds herself trapped in a bathroom stall by a man whose intentions are not entirely clear.
Cast: Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Ben Kerfoot


DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Acadiana (Canada) – World Premiere
Directors: Yannick Nolin, Guillaume Fournier, Samuel Matteau
May 2017: Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, is the theatre of the mythic Crawfish Festival

All on a Mardi Gras Day (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Michal Pietrzyk
In a gentrifying New Orleans, Demond sacrifices to be Big Chief in a secret hundred-year culture known as Mardi Gras Indians: African-American men from the city’s roughest neighborhoods who spend all year sewing feathered suits they’ll wear only once, in a battle to decide who’s “the prettiest.”
Cast: Big Chief Demond Melancon, Alicia Winding, Spyboy Walter "Trigga" Blakk, Spyboy Rashaud "Shaudy" Brown

Betty Feeds the Animals (USA) – World Premiere
Director: James P. Gannon
Betty loves animals, she loves them so much that everyday she puts 30 bowls of food outside of her home to feed them. She feeds skunks, raccoons, cats, foxes and the occasional opossum. This is her story.
Cast: Elizabeth Gannon

Dramatic and Mild (Russia) – North American Premiere
Director: Nastia Korkia
Visitors are free to briefly enjoy a painting by Visily Kandinsky in a small enclosed room of a former power station. Art is in the eye of the beholder.
Cast: Vladimir Bolshedvorskiy

Enforcement Hours (USA)
Director: Paloma Martinez
In a climate of xenophobia and confusion, a San Francisco hotline aims to provide limited assistance to a targeted population.

Gloria's Call (USA)
Director: Cheri Gaulke
From the cafés of Paris to the mountaintops of Samiland, a scholar’s life is forever changed through her friendships with the women artists of Surrealism.
Cast: Gloria Orenstein

Guns Found Here (USA)
Director: David Freid
Every gun sold in America has a serial number. A few brave citizens are tasked with tracking them. This is their story.

Las Del Diente (Spain, USA)
Director: Ana Perez Lopez
Three women discuss the social pressure of having kids while celebrating the uniqueness of their bodies.
Cast: Ángela Stempel, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Aitziber Olaskoaga

Roughly Delicate (USA) – US Premiere
Director: Heqiuzi Wang
Firearm and footwear. Food and space. Memory and reality. It’s a story of Chinese women immigrants using shooting guns and dancing to fight their insecurities.
Cast: Jenny Dai, Jun Wang, Helen Chen

Swatted (France) – North American Premiere
Director: Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis
Online players describe their struggles with "swatting", a life-threatening cyber-harassment phenomenon that looms over them whenever they play. The events take shape through youtube videos and wireframe images from a video game.

Tungrus, Documentary Short. Image courtesy of Rishi Chandna

Tungrus (India)
Director: Rishi Chandna
In a cramped apartment in Mumbai, a family considers eating their hell-raising pet rooster, so that they can reclaim their lives.
Cast: The Bharde Family

Winners Bitch (USA)
Director: Sam Gurry
Inspired by a found archive on a doyenne of the dog competition world, a rumination on the many sacrifices it can take to be a woman of distinction.
Cast: Anni Weisband, Donald Gurry, Nancy Venezia, Dr. Michael Buxbaum

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

601 Revir Drive (USA)
Director: Josh Weissbach
A series of spatial limits are defined while a maker imbibes.

Applied Pressure (USA)
Director: Kelly Sears
Ease the pain from past physical and mental distress.

Exit Strategy #4 (USA)
Director: Kym McDaniel
I confront memories that have contributed to my chronic pain. The fourth in a series examining how a head injury has asked me to cope with emotional and physical traumas.

Mudanza Contemporánea, Experimental Short. Image courtesy of Teo Guillem

Mudanza Contemporánea (Spain)
Director: Teo Guillem
Armchairs, mattresses, feet, blankets, arms, memories, mops, tubes or plastic dance, twist, fall, fly and break in this emotional choreography in which a man and his army of objects try to defeat a ghost from the past.
Cast: Teo Guillem, Cristina Pérez

Nothing Blue (USA)
Director: Laura Herman
A letter of grief across the solar system.
Cast: Laura Herman

A Study of Fly (USA)
Director: Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu
A reflection on the relationship between insect, human, environment and the universe. The fly in this film can be approached as a living being, a metaphor for human desire to reach beyond, and a state that demonstrates the capacity to move between the realms of life and death.
Cast: Wen-Chu Yang, Zheng Fu

Watermarks (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Sara Suarez
Along the James River in Richmond, Virginia, impressions of a buried world emerge beneath the monuments on the surface, questioning how the past is recorded or suppressed.
Cast: Audrey Collette, Mavra Peponi

Wayward Emulsions (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Tina Takemoto
Queer glimpses of a wayward woman captured in bits of emulsion lifted from stray reels of a 35mm Asian drama.

ANIMATION SHORTS
11010 (Brazil) - North American Premiere
Director: ONZE (Gabriela Monnerat + Rodrigo Amim)
Ada and Evon live in a town being abandoned. A scenario dominated by artificialities, exchanged by virtual environments. It's love? Is it a binary code?

Bloeistraat 11 (Belgium, Netherlands)
Director: Nienke Deutz
Inseparable best friends spend their last summer holiday of childhood amusing themselves around the house. As summer progresses their bodies start to morph and shift and an awkwardness descends on their friendship. Puberty seems determined to interrupt their bond.

Egg (France, Denmark)
Director: Martina Scarpelli
A woman is locked in her home with an egg, which she is both attracted to and scared of. She eats the egg, she repents. She kills it. She lets the egg die of hunger.

Eyes at the Specter Glass (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Matthew Wade
An otherworldly vision of the power of light and the weight of planets. "Its memories are not its own."

Frontier Wisdom (USA)
Director: Jenna Caravello
In the dry desert space between here and there, a phone repairwoman encounters a chatty corpse, a self-propelled peanut, and some portents of the rapture.
Cast: Diana Cioffari, Anna Cangellaris, Jake Acosta

Get Up, Pierrot (USA)
Director: Gurleen Rai & F. Anthony Shepherd
Pierrot is an existential pastry made by folding layers of identity upon itself with equal parts tears and smiles.
Cast: F. Anthony Shepherd, Kit Pfisto

Goodbye Forever Party (USA)
Director: Jonni Phillips
Lilith, a performer for a children's show called The Scrumbos, struggles with her job, mental illness, and relationships.
Cast: Aster Pang, Emily Martinez, Victoria Vincent, Noah Malone, Lorenzo Fresta, Kai Lynn Jiang, Isabel Higgins, Jonni Phillips

Hedge (USA) - US Premiere
Director: Amanda Bonaiuto
A singularly comical/surreal vision of a family visiting a funeral home.

Saw/Ate Sad Bird (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Lauren Flinner
I saw a bird. I caught a bird and I ate it. Now there is a sad bird in me.

Shalva, Animation Short. Image courtesy of Danna Grace Winsor

Shalva (Tranquility) (USA)
Director: Danna Grace Windsor
An alternative vision of a female superhero. In a synthetic meditation space, an empty shell seeks power.
Cast: Danna Grace Windsor

Sparky (China, USA)
Director: xinbaonuzi
Sparky likes to gaze out of the window, to see every possible or impossible thing.

Via (USA)
Director: Maria Constanza Ferreira
A unique look at the vivid colors and surprising textures of macro-geographic structures. Roads, Rivers, Cities. Arteries, Veins, Neurons.

EPISODES

Asian American Studies, Episodes. Image Courtesy of Woody Fu.

Asian American Studies (USA)
Director: Woody Fu
A hyper-paced sketch series examining the plight of yellow life in a white-filtered world.
Cast: Woody Fu, SJ Son, Fumi Abe, Christopher Simpson

The Big Spaghetti (Australia) - North American Premiere
Director: Zoe Pepper
Perhaps the best way to get over that special someone, is to become somebody else. A lesson in reinvention for just us girls.
Cast: Tim Watts, Adriane Daff, Andrea Gibbs

Bobo Touch Helpline: Bushwick Tarzan (USA)
Director: Mike Rizzo, Brian Bonz
It's a sausage way of life for this bizarro neighborhood hero who thwarts a strange doctor while confronting the meaning of love.
Cast: Mike Rizzo, Brian Bonz, Azusa SHESHE, Patrick Estrabrook

Division Street: Fish Out of Water (USA)
Director: Traven Rice
A withdrawn little girl is reluctantly sent to live with her cranky grandmother in NY's Lower East Side. What feels, at first like punishment, soon blossoms into wonderment as the gritty neighborhood is oddly transformed into a place that's truly magical.
Cast: Naledi Makel Murray, Jodi Carol Harrison, Amy Rutledge, Jeffrey Farber

Finding The Asshole (USA)
Director: Melissa Stephens
It's like playing 'Where's Waldo?' only, you are searching for Waldo in a world of couture, cluttered with super-annoying Waldos.
Cast: Christine Woods, Melissa Stephens, Tom Detrinis, Tina Huang, Courtney Pauroso

No. 3: In the Absence of Angels (Canada) - World Premiere
Director: Camille Hollett-French
In the brutal aftermath of sexual assault in broad daylight, Crystal, a streetwise community mentor, is forced to make a crucial decision that will shape the person she becomes.
Cast: Camille Hollett-French, Abanoub Andraous, Brett Donahue and Juno Rinaldi

Propolis, part 7 (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Patricia Beckmann Wells
Siblings, Liz and Beaux, remain trapped inside a closet as punishment served by their alcoholic mother, however, escape means the pair will face a far more nefarious world that awaits just beyond.
Cast: Lilly Manzaneda, Jack Chiu, Patricia Beckmann Wells, Scott Wells

Rage Room (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Exasperated with life, a newly determined woman opens a business using her paltry alimony. The emotionally-charged space becomes an unusual place welcoming all who seek healing by unleashing their anger through demolition and more.
Cast: Summer Chastant, Sarah Lancaster, Johnny Ramey, Adam Huss

The Rocky Roads (USA)
Director: Robert Kleinschmidt
Rejoice! The beloved, yet forgotten, children's show 'The Rocky Roads' is back with all new goopy adventures!
Cast: Star Childe

They Quit Botherin' Norman Tibbs (Stories by Dick) (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Christopher Noice
Bullied and ignored, young Norman is encouraged by an unlikely mentor to stand tall for himself, once and for all.
Cast: Dick Noice

Tijuana (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Mary-Lyn Chambers
It's 1924 in Tijuana, Mexico during U.S. Prohibition. Carmen, a wildly ambitious and deviously calculating woman, manipulates her husband into launching a tequila-smuggling business that triggers a chaotic downward spiral.
Cast: Ilana Guralnik, David ‘Blak’ Plascencia, Ruby Pedroza, Enrique Castillo

ANARCHY

Apex (UK)
Director: Stuart T Birchall
Emergence of a hybrid human-alien consciousness from the void.
Cast: Pixie Le Knot

Dog in the Woods (USA) - World Premiere
Directors: Christian Chapman, Paul Jason Hoffman
A downtrodden house dog escapes into the woods at night to follow the psychedelic temptations of the natural world.
Cast: Alice Chapman, Astrid Chapman, Suzanne Chapman, Micheal Chapman

Dominant Species (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Joseph Sackett
10 aliens in human host bodies learn how to be men.
Cast: Julian Cihi, Colby Minifie, Will Seefried, Vasile Flutur

Filtrate (Canada) - US Premiere
Director: Mishka Kornai
Far from now in a subterranean compound, tucked below a desolate world, five characters seek to connect. Shot entirely on iPhone 7 in the Montréal underground, FILTRATE is an exploration of digital connectivity and physical isolation.
Cast: Taylor James, Elie-Anne Ross, Namo Chanethomvong, Gama Fonseca

Grosse Auge (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Everett Kelsey
Mortality and spirituality wrestle behind the enlightened eyes of a Man engulfed within the eternal moment
Cast: Everett Kelsey

King Wah (I Think I Love You) (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Horatio Baltz
A disgruntled delivery man, a woman with chronic déjà vu, Pat Sajak, and a slow dance in a Chinese takeout restaurant.
Cast: Vincent Leong, Lucy Cottrell, Napoleon Emill

Perfect Town (Switzerland)
Director: Anaïs Voirol
In search of perfection a city obeys blindly to selection.

Placenta, Anarchy Short. Image courtesy of Robert Broadhurst

Placenta (USA) - North American Premiere
Director: Robert Broadhurst
Sacco de Bambino Erotico.
Cast: Tavet Gillson, Michael Hurst, Anna Lewis, Nick Vargas

Prizefighter (USA) - World Premiere
Director: Lyndon J Barrois
Prizefighter is an animated sportrait depicting three days in the life of heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, battling his fiercest opponent - racism.
Cast: Keith David, Peter Macon, Nathan Ives, JB Blanc

Remission (USA)
Director: John Charter
Inspired by co-creator of the film Paul Kaiser’s struggle with PTSD and his real life mission to reconnect with his daughters, three creatures are manifestations of an unknown soldier’s war trauma and his vast, lonely pilgrimage toward emerging from a purgatory loop.
Cast: Kumaresan, Bharati Kapadia, Sravasti Banerjee

Signal (USA)
Director: Steven Lapcevic
A reliable glut of misinformation.

Slip Road (Australia) - World Premiere
Director: Raphael Dubois
A young man leaves the life he has always known, to strike a deal with a creature, but strange forces pull him into something deeper.
Cast: Izaak Love, Sohaib Zaman

Ykcowrebbaj (Austria, Germany, India) – World Premiere
Director: Helen Hideko
Once upon a time, Alice came across a curious Looking-glass poem called, “Jabberwocky” that was all in some language she didn't know. Now, follow the little green bird into this Looking-glass world and see a mesmerising version of the poem that Alice read there...
Cast: Kumaresan, Bharati Kapadia, Sravasti Banerjee


###

ABOUT SLAMDANCE:
By filmmakers, for filmmakers. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing community with several year-round initiatives. These include the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, its educational program Slamdance Polytechnic, DIG showcase of Digital Interactive and Gaming art, distribution efforts through Slamdance Presents, worldwide screening series Slamdance on the Road, and LA screening series Slamdance Cinema Club

Slamdance alumni are unique in their ongoing support of up and coming filmmakers. Some notable names include: The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Marc Forster (Christopher Robin), Jeremiah Zagar (We The Animals), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Greg Mottola (The Daytrippers), Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), Gina Prince-Blythewood (Shots Fired), Lynn Shelton (Outside In, Humpday), Sean Baker (The Florida Project), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) and Ari Aster (Hereditary). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $17 billion at the Box Office to date.

The 2018 Slamdance Film Festival takes place in Park City, Utah from January 25th - 31st and is presented by sponsors Blackmagic Design and Directors Guild of America.

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Tickets and Passes now on sale for Slamdance 2019!

PRESENTING THE 2019 SLAMDANCE JURY
The 2019 Slamdance Jury brings together alumni from across our 25 years, along with filmmakers and industry leaders whose work embodies the spirit of experimentation and adherence to independence that we support at Slamdance. Meet the Jury members of the 25th Slamdance Film Festival.


Narrative Features
Frédéric Forestier
Frédéric was born in Paris, February 8th, 1969. He made his first film at age 10 and decided to work in cinema. After he graduated with a baccalauréat in micro technics and optics, he studied at ESCA in Paris for 2 years, founded his production company, and self-produced his first short films. One of them, Paranoia hit Slamdance, got him an agent in Los Angeles, and his first feature film starring Dolph Lundgren and Roy Scheider in 1996 at age 27.




Shih-Ching Tsou
Shih-Ching is a New York City-based filmmaker. She co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced Take Out with Sean Baker, which debuted at Slamdance in 2004 and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. Following Take Out, Tsou continued to collaborate with Baker, executive producing Starlet, serving as producer, costume designer and art department on Tangerine, and producing The Florida Project, which premiered at the Directors' Fortnight of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Tsou is currently working on her second feature, Left Handed Girl, a family drama set in a night market in Taipei, Taiwan.

Jeremiah Zagar
Jeremiah grew up in South Philly. At the age of 19, he premiered his documentary short Delhi House at Slamdance 2002. In 2008 he completed his first feature documentary, In A Dream, which screened theatrically across the US and in film festivals around the world. It was broadcast on HBO, shortlisted for an Academy Award and received two Emmy nominations, including “Best Documentary.” His next documentary Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart premiered in competition at Sundance and aired on HBO in 2014. His latest film, the feature-length narrative We The Animals, premiered at Sundance in 2018 and took home the NEXT Innovator Award.





Documentary Features and Shorts
Dana Nachman
Dana is an award-winning filmmaker of both fiction and documentary films. Nachman’s 2018 feature doc Pick of the Litter was sold within 48 hours of its Slamdance premiere and is being released by IFC Films. Nachman’s 2015 film Batkid Begins was bought and distributed by Warner Bros./New Line Cinema. She has won three regional Emmys, dozens of festival Jury and Audience Awards, and many more. Nachman’s films have also been shown on television networks like MSNBC, OWN and PBS. Dana is currently on the festival circuit with three films and is working on a trilogy of romantic comedies.


Mark Moskowitz
Mark Moskowitz's first documentary feature, Stone Reader, won a Slamdance Special Grand Jury Award in 2002. It went on to a U.S. theatrical release, picked by many critics as one the year's 10 Best films. His latest documentary, a limited series called It Was the Music, will premiere in 2019.






Stefan Avalos
Stefan Avalos is filmmaker who enjoys jumping between genres and job descriptions. His psychological thriller, The Last Broadcast (co-directed with Lance Weiler), made history as the first feature to be released digitally to theaters. Stefan is a Slamdance alum; his 2017 documentary, Strad Style, won two Sparkys - the Audience Award and the Grand Prize for Best Feature Documentary.








Experimental and Animation Shorts
Kelly Gallagher
Kelly Gallagher is an experimental animator, filmmaker and Assistant Professor of Film at Syracuse University. Her award winning films have screened at The National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Ann Arbor Film Festival, LA Film Forum, and Anthology Film Archives. Upcoming screenings of her commissioned animations include: Sundance, MoMA, and PBS.





Skizz Cyzyk
Skizz Cyzyk has held positions at MicroCineFest, Maryland Film Festival, Slamdance, and Atlanta Film Festival, as well as serving on juries and advisory boards at many other festivals. His films include Icepick To The Moon, Hit & Stay, Freaks In Love, plus many shorts and music videos (Beach House, Young Fresh Fellows). He serves on the Board of Directors for Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and performs music with The Stents, Go Pills, The Jennifers, Garage Sale, Half Japanese and Mink Stole & Her Wonderful Band.



Bryan Wendorf
Bryan Wendorf co-founded the Chicago Underground Film Festival while working in a video rental store in 1994 and remains its Programmer and Artistic Director. He has served on the board of directors of IFP Chicago and has curated film programs at numerous venues including Conversations At The Edge at the Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago) and the Revelation Film Festival (Perth). He's served on juries at Chicago International Movies and Music, Onion City and Lake County Film Festivals among others, and has written articles for a variety of publications including New City Chicago and Indiewire.





Narrative Shorts

Andrew Hevia
A filmmaker from Miami, Andrew Hevia's producing credits include the Oscar winning film Moonlight, and projects by Phil Lord, Amy Seimetz and Hannah Fidell. He co-founded Miami's Borscht Corp. and currently works as a Producer and Vice President at Fabula US, the production company started by director Pablo Larraín.






Jeremy Yaches
Jeremy is the executive producer and co-founder of Public Record, a production company that specializes in film, TV, branded content, and commercials. His most recent film, We The Animals, won the NEXT Innovator award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and is nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards. His doc work includes In a Dream, which screened all over the world and was broadcast on HBO, as well as the Netflix original Voyeur, which premiered at the 2017 New York Film Festival.



Gus Krieger
Gus Krieger is a Los Angeles-based writer/director/producer of stage and screen. His first produced feature screenplay The Killing Room starred Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton, Academy Award nominee Chloe Sevigny, and premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Recently, Krieger produced Fender Bender for Mark Pavia and the Chiller Network, and Kevin Shulman’s I Am Fear for Roxwell Films. As writer-director-producer, Mr. Krieger’s feature films include the philosophical thriller The Binding, and the hip-hop drama My Name Is Myeisha (Slamdance 2018 Winner - Audience Award, Acting Award for Rhaechyl Walker).

Pics from Slamdance 2017 by Ian Stroud

The 4th annual Slamdance DIG showcase will take place at



LA Artist Collective
630 St. Vincent Court
Downtown Los Angeles
September 13-15, 2018



DIG (Digital, Interactive and Gaming) is a community-driven showcase of interactive art that challenges us to rethink what we know about storytelling. DIG provides a platform to both emerging artists and established creators whose work goes beyond traditional art.

This year's lineup includes VR and AR, live performance, installation, video games, and an interactive theatre experience. Learn more here.

Slamdance is very excited to announce the quarter-finalists for the 2018 Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Congratulations to our Top 106!

We received so many amazing screenplays this year, and each year the final decisions get tougher to make. To those who did not make the quarter-finals, we wish to assure you that Screenplay Competitions are not the final say on writing, cinema and certainly not on artistic achievement. Many screenplays we have not selected in the past have gone on to great success at other contests and have been produced.

The semi-finalists will be announced on September 24th.
Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements on our website and social media!


2018 QUARTER-FINALISTS - Top 106
(in alphabetical order)
Feature:
A Hunt For The Devil by Michael Machin
A Native Land by Caitlin McCarthy
A Texas Story by David Martin-Porras
The Anklebiter by Andy Jones
Baron of Havana by Alex Simon
Bullfrog by David O'Neill
Bury Me at Naper High by Michael Lackos
Calle De Los Negros by Daniel Holland
Cancuncito by Carlos Alejandro Marulanda
Cataumet by Matthew Percival
Coastline by Ned Farr
The Divide by Christopher San Diego
Doodle by Jonathan Medici
Drag by J Nava
Experience by Taj Jenkins Musco
Fast Fashion by David Mandell
Firelight by Matt Harry
Flightless by Kristine Stephenson
Forget-Me-Nots by John Dummer
Girls In Trouble by Brenna Perez
Glitter Pony by Kai Collins
Grit N' Glitter by Seth Donsky
I Am The Wolf by Joel Gregoire
In Burton's Shadow by Michael Selditch
Inang's Land by Arvin Bautista
The Innocent and the Vicious by Dominique Genest & Nick Kreiss
Labour The Dogs of London by Mike L. Goforth
The Last Party Girl by Thomas Vickers and Jacob Hatley
Mail THief by Charlie Tarabour
May December by Sebastian Davis
Men by Rebecca Dreyfus
Midnight at the Movies by Jennifer Gutierrez
Mirsada by Patrick Holden
Orwell’s War by Larry Bogad
Penthouse B by Casey Schroen
Please Let Everything Be All Right by Paul Chang
Polly Freed by Brooke Berman
Rare Medium by Greg Wayne
The Rescuer by Lina Roessler
The Reset Button by Jennifer Rapaport
Roll The Bones by Donn Kennedy
Sacagawea by Peggy Bruen
Saving America by Michael Lederer
Scout by Samuel Goodwin
Shared Vision by Manuel Brandozzi
Shells by Justin Horowitz
Shrimp by Nicole Jones
Stall Boy by Luke Toye
The Terrible Child by Rebecca Pecaut
Toxic by Bennet De Brabandere
Trigger Spell by Kyle Ferchen
Tussle by Aaron Yarber
Twenty-Five Dangerous Crimes by Ward McMasters
Versus by Ariel Schmiedhauser
Water Boy by Annique Arredondo
When The SIidewalk Ends by T Sahara Meer
Young Monsters by Christine Vartoughian

Horror
Bar Mitzvah '94 by Michael Reich & Michael Pinkey
Blood in The Water by Laura Gillis
Candle by Jonathan Redding
The Causeway by Stanley Wong & Patrick T. Dorsey
Night Wind Howls by Connor Savage
The Retreat by Alyson Richards
So Lonely I Could Die by Andrew Todd & Johnny Hall
The Undertaker's Children by Natasha Le Petit
Video Nasties by Jake Yuzna
Wendigo by Mike Langer

TV Pilot
All Together Now by Jules Horowitz
Dark Horizons by Erin Carere, Carlo Carere
Darkened Room by Tamara Maloney, Maeve McQuillan
Durango by Robert Brickman
Fufu by William Horace
Hag by Dan Hass
Hater by John A. Griffin
Head by Annabel Seymour
Holy Ghosts by Mimi Jeffries
Hooked by Rachel Hroncich
Indians in America by Shane Sakhrani
The Nation by Jon Kauffman
Over The Rainbow by Jessica Sinyard
The Peak by Jessica Sinyard
Phantom by Dan Williams
Politics as Usual by Nora Jobling
Prince of Vice by Christopher Beaton and Justin Talley
R.P.M. by Jeffrey Jackson
The Red by John Whitcher
The Resurrectionist: Pilot by Josh Katz and Josh Thorud
Salute by Kadija Moulton
Sasquatch by Rebecca Bohanan
Satanic Panic by JB Herndon & Celina Paiz
Scarlet by Keaton McGruder
Simple Lies, Hard Truths by Myles Reid
V-A-N-N-A by Laura Pollak
The Weather Underground by Brian Burstein

Short
Ami by Matt O'Connor
Blight by Brittany Clemons
Heartland by Monica West
Icon by Joshua Branstetter
P.O.V. by Justin Ching
The Proposition by Neha Aziz
The Settlement by Nikolas Benn
Standoff by Thomas Patrick
Sundown County by Victor Ridaura
That's the Password in This Town by Marfisia Bel
To Sonny by Maggie Briggs
Violet by Rafael Gamboa

Driven, co-presented by Slamdance, is a scripted series by Stephen Elliott (The Adderall Diaries, After Adderall) that delves into the world of on-demand car services and the lives behind those who ride and those who drive. It's also a commentary on how people live in post-Trump America.

Click here to view more episodes.



Paul Mitchell is 45 years old and lives in New York. He's the author of several books but hasn't written much in a long time. The day Donald Trump is elected Paul realizes he's tired of trying to write. He gives up and becomes a driver for Panda Car, a car-sharing platform rival to Uber.

Ep. 1 Cast: Jennifer Missoni, Paul Glover, Michael Cunningham, Will Dagger, Ariana Chevalier, Nina Binder, Stephen Elliott

2019 SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERS



Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture receives the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize while Kifaru takes Documentary Prize.

Audience Awards given to narrative feature The Vast of Night and documentary feature Kifaru, while Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story takes home Best of Breakouts Audience Award

Hannah Peterson, director of East of the River, receives Russo Brothers Fellowship

PARK CITY, UTAH (January 31, 2019) – The 25th Slamdance Film Festival today announced the winners of their annual Sparky Awards in Audience, Jury, and Sponsored categories. The festival also announced the recipients of their Russo Brothers Fellowship, the CreativeFuture Innovation Award, and a curated Acting Award. All winners were announced at a ceremony at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, Utah on Thursday evening, January 31.

“Slamdance has helped launch many filmmakers that have gone on to change the face of entertainment,” said Slamdance co-founder Peter Baxter. “Our artist led community, including the support and mentorship of this year’s Founder’s Award recipient Steven Soderbergh and alumni Anthony and Joe Russo, continues to focus on the discovery and support of great new artists. We congratulate the winners and everyone at Slamdance who represent the authentic voice of independent artists and our cultural future.”

2019 Audience Awards were given to three acclaimed films. The Vast of Night, directed by Andrew Patterson, took home the Audience Award for Narrative Feature, while director David Hambridge’s Kifaru won the 2019 Audience Award for Documentary Feature. Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story, directed by Patrick Creadon, walked away with this year’s Best of Breakouts Audience Award, given to films in the festival’s new Breakouts Section, which showcases filmmakers who have made a feature before.

Juries of esteemed filmmakers and industry professionals determined the Slamdance Jury Awards, which are given to films and filmmakers in four categories: Narrative Features, Documentaries, Narrative Shorts, and Animated/Experimental Shorts.

This year’s Narrative Jury Prizes were selected by Frédéric Forestier, Shih-Ching Tsou, and Jeremiah Zagar, who awarded the Narrative Feature Grand Jury prize to Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture directed by Nicole Brending, with an Honorable Mention given to Cat Sticks directed by Ronny Sen.

About the section’s winning films, the jury stated: “Dollhouse wasn’t like any other film at the festival or any festival. It was outrageous, bold, hilarious. We’re also giving it the grand prize because we think it really embodies the spirit of the Slamdance. Cat Sticks is unbelievably gorgeous and has some of the most incredible poetic moments of any movies we’ve ever seen. We hope it finds a vein in American culture!”

2019 Documentary Jury Prizes were selected by Dana Nachman, Mark Moskowitz, and Stefan Avalos, who awarded the Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize to Kifaru directed by David Hambridge. An Honorable Mention was awarded to Markie in Milwaukee directed by Matt Kliegman. The Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize went to Tungrus directed by Rishi Chandna, while Las Del Diente directed by Ana Perez Lopez was awarded the Honorable Mention.

“Good nonfiction films like any other stories need strong characters, a conflict, and a storyteller who understands that it is the way you tell the story that makes the story. All of the films in this year’s selection have the required ingredients,” stated the documentary jury. “The winning film, Kifaru, doesn’t just have technical, creative, and imaginative chops—which it does in spades—it has purpose. Both epic and intimate, the subject and subject matter is enormous, the characters strong, committed, and complicated individuals. It is a film packed with scenes you won’t forget, delivered as if you were there.”

The 2019 Narrative Shorts Jury Prize was selected by Andrew Hevia, Jeremy Yaches, and Gus Krieger, who gave their Grand Jury Prize to Woman In Stall, directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. East of the River, directed by Hannah Peterson, was awarded the Honorable Mention.

Animated and Experimental Shorts jury prizes were selected by Kelly Gallagher, Skizz Cyzyk, and Bryan Wendorf. Animated Shorts and Experimental Shorts Grand Jury prizes went to Shalva (Tranquility) by Danna Windsor, and Wayward Emulsions by Tina Takemoto, with Bloeistraat 11, directed by Nienke Deutz, and Applied Pressure by Kelly Sears taking home the categories’ respective Honorable Mentions.

This year’s Russo Brothers Fellowship was awarded to Hannah Peterson, director of East of the River. The $25,000 prize, presented by AGBO Films in partnership with the festival, is designed to enable a deserving filmmaker the opportunity to continue their journey with mentorship from Joe and Anthony as well as development support from their studio.

The 2019 CreativeFuture Innovation Award went to Bloeistraat 11, directed by Nienke Deutz. Slamdance and CreativeFuture have partnered for years to support new talent in the world of film and educate creatives on the importance of protecting their work. This award is given to an emerging filmmaker who exhibits the innovative spirit of filmmaking.

“Congratulations to Nienke Deutz for winning Slamdance’s CreativeFuture Innovation Award this year,” said CreativeFuture CEO Ruth Vitale. “Her film, Bloeistraat 11, exemplifies the innovative spirit of filmmaking by skillfully and soulfully telling a story through the expert use of animation. The award is well-deserved and we look forward to seeing more from Nienke.”

The Spirit of Slamdance Award, voted on by filmmakers and given to the filmmaker who best embodies the spirit of the Festival, went to Nicole Brending of Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture. The festival’s Outstanding Acting Award, which is curated by the Slamdance team, went to Siyabonga Majola from the film We Are Thankful. Honorable mentions were given to Aya Kitai from Demolition Girl and Lauren McCune of Ready for Love.

Slamdance’s 2019 feature competition lineup included 18 World, North American, and U.S. Premieres – including films from Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. In total, 11 narrative and 9 documentary features were showcased in competition. All competition films are feature length directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million USD, and without US distribution.

This year’s festival boasted the DGA as a presenting sponsor, Blackmagic Design as a presenting sponsor, CreativeFuture and Pierce Law Group, LLP as festival sponsors, and Variety as its media sponsor.

A full list of winners is below:

Jury Awards | Narrative Features
Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize - Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture (Dir.: Nicole Brending)
Honorable Mentions: Cat Sticks (Dir.: Ronny Sen)

Jury Awards | Documentary Features, Documentary Shorts
Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize - Kifaru (Dir.: David Hambridge)
Honorable Mention - Markie in Milwaukee (Dir.: Matt Kliegman)
Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize - Tungrus (Dir.: Rishi Chandna)
Honorable Mention: Las Del Diente (Dir.: Ana Perez Lopez)

Jury Awards - Narrative Shorts
Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Woman In Stall (Dir.: Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli)
Honorable Mention: East of the River (Dir.: Hannah Peterson)

Jury Awards - Experimental Shorts/ Animated Shorts
Experimental Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Wayward Emulsions (Dir.: Tina Takemoto)
Honorable Mention: Applied Pressure (Dir.: Kelly Sears)

Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Shalva (Tranquility) (Dir.: Danna Windsor)
Honorable Mention: Bloeistraat 11 directed (Dir.: Nienke Deutz)

Slamdance Acting Award:
Siyabonga Majola (We Are Thankful)

Slamdance Acting Award Honorable Mention:
Aya Kitai (Demolition Girl)
Lauren McCune (Ready for Love)

George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award Winner:
Nicole Brending (dir. Of Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture)

CreativeFuture Innovation Award:
Bloeistraat 11 (Dir.: Nienke Deutz)

The Russo Brothers Fellowship Award Winner:
Hannah Peterson, dir. of East of the River

Audience Awards:
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Vast of Night (Dir.: Andrew Patterson)

Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Kifaru (Dir.: David Hambridge)

Audience Award for Beyond Feature: Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story (Dir.: Patrick Creadon)

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ABOUT SLAMDANCE:
By filmmakers, for filmmakers. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing community with several year-round initiatives. These include the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, its educational program Slamdance Polytechnic, DIG showcase of Digital Interactive and Gaming art, distribution efforts through Slamdance Presents, worldwide screening series Slamdance on the Road, and LA screening series Slamdance Cinema Club

Notable Slamdance alumni include: 2019 Founder’s Award recipient Steven Soderburgh (High Flying Bird), The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Marc Forster (Christopher Robin), Jeremiah Zagar (We The Animals), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), Gina Prince-Bythewood (Shots Fired), Lynn Shelton (Outside In, Humpday), Sean Baker (The Florida Project), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) and Ari Aster (Hereditary). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $17 billion at the box office to date.

The 2019 Slamdance Film Festival was presented by the Directors Guild of America and Blackmagic Design.

By Melissa Ferrari

July 20th, 2018 marks the 100 year anniversary of the first animated documentary, Winsor McCay’s The Sinking of the Lusitania in 1918. In celebration of 100 years of this genre, we take a look back at McCay’s masterpiece and celebrate some of the fantastic independent animated documentaries that have since been featured at the Slamdance Film Festival.

While the question of veracity remains a point of contention for nonfiction animators even today, the genre pioneered by Winsor McCay still allows for vast creative potential. Practically, animation is a particularly invaluable tool for independent and DIY makers. While the conventional live-action documentary might turn to archival imaging or the daunting task of creating a tasteful live action re-enactment, animated documentarians can single-handedly depict any time, person, or place in the past, present, or future with just a pencil and paper. The use of animation has a variety of advantages: animations can convey what can’t be captured photographically while still providing compelling, emotional imagery. Filmmakers can depict events that aren’t physically visible to the eye, historical events that weren’t captured on film, vulnerable documentary subjects that need to maintain anonymity, events that take place in the mind (such as emotions or dreams), or even speculative futures. As an independent animated documentary, The Sinking of the Lusitania illuminates the unique process of the independent animated documentarian: the filmmaker often fills the role of director, animator, and researcher.

The Sinking of the Lusitania

While animation had been used previously in nonfiction work, The Sinking of the Lusitania is widely identified as the first commercially released animated documentary. Using elegantly rendered effects animation, subtle realist compositions, and informative text, McCay created a visualization of the tragedy surrounding the Lusitania. The Lusitania was a British passenger liner that was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in 1915. Of the 1,959 passengers aboard the vessel, 1,198 people drowned, including 128 U.S. citizens. Although the United States did not directly respond to the attack with a declaration of war, the incident is considered a contributing factor to the United States’ entry into World War I. According to animation historian John Canemaker, McCay’s primary motivation to create the film was “patriotic zeal.”

As McCay claims in the film, “The Sinking of the Lusitania” was not only “a historical record of the crime that shocked Humanity,” but “the first record of the sinking of the Lusitania.”

The Sinking of the Lusitania was self-funded by McCay and created with assistance from John Fitzsimmons and Apthorop “Ap” Adams.¹ McCay used ink, crayon, and pen on celluloid, live-action sequences, and photographic images to create an account of the Lusitania sinking that mimicked the aesthetic of contemporary nonfiction media.² There was an over-saturation of war films on the market at the time McCay’s film was released, and there were several other contemporary film productions based on the events surrounding the Lusitania.³ To set itself apart from these other films, which were predominantly live-action historical dramas, The Sinking of the Lusitania branded itself as the only “record” or “documentation” of the Lusitania’s demise, which had not been captured photographically on still or moving film.⁴ As McCay claims in the film, The Sinking of the Lusitania was not only “a historical record of the crime that shocked Humanity,” but “the first record of the sinking of the Lusitania.” Although the text in the film is manipulatively emotional and sensationalized, the majority of the actual images created by McCay were not overtly melodramatic and were the closest anyone had seen to a real visualization of the event.⁵

McCay used a variety of cinematic techniques to convey realism and contextualize his film as a document of truth. The majority of the animation is composed and illustrated in a way that mimics what a camera might have captured if observing the Lusitania’s descent from a safe distance. By employing patient timing, McCay allows slow action and long pauses that feels like live action. The simplified realism of McCay’s rendering style lends itself to a feeling of truthful depictions rather than artistically manipulated emotional visualizations.

McCay is known to start his films with expository live-action scenes that emphasize (and sometimes exaggerate) the laborious animated filmmaking process, and the opening scenes of The Sinking of the Lusitania feature a variety of strategies to show the process of documentary research and animation production. The opening scene places the viewer as a witness to the vital act of the filmmaker, McCay, acquiring knowledge from an expert on the subject of his documentary, Mr. Beach. The following shot shows a large team of animators, but in reality, McCay only used two animation assistants who aren’t even shown in the scene. As Canemaker describes, these phony, dramatized re-enactments serve to “emphasize the importance and difficulty of the production.”⁶ Similarly, McCay uses the scene with Mr. Beach to provide evidence into the truth claims by placing the viewer as a witness to his research.

…even in the earliest forms of animated documentary, directors were concerned with legitimizing the animation as a documentary medium.

Despite their artifice, these opening scenes show the unique process of the independent documentary animator: McCay serves as a researcher, animator, and director. The paratextual and aesthetic strategies used to contextualize the animation as nonfiction also reveal that even in the earliest forms of animated documentary, directors were concerned with legitimizing the animation as a documentary medium. However, McCay’s desire to present his film as an objectively true documentary is unsubstantial. While The Sinking of the Lusitania is a gorgeous film that is very influential and important in animated documentary history, contemporary viewers of the film as well as viewers today recognize that The Sinking of the Lusitania is ultimately a propaganda film fueled by McCay’s political beliefs.

Animated documentarians today face the same questions of how to convey authenticity, truth, or factuality to their audience, and given that animation is a medium that is entirely constructed by the animation artist, animated documentary comes with a unique set of concerns.

In recent decades, animated documentary as a medium has become an increasingly popular topic in animation and documentary discourse, with the persistent question of whether animation serves as a legitimate form of documentary. Subjectivity and the relationship between fact and truth are points of contention in all nonfiction filmmaking, particularly with the extensive postmodern discourse on the constructed nature of live-action documentary film. Animated documentarians today face the same questions of how to convey authenticity, truth, or factuality to their audience, and given that animation is a medium that is entirely constructed by the animation artist, animated documentary comes with a unique set of concerns. Ethical issues of representation and accuracy are magnified when the entire image is fabricated by the animator, and the animated documentarian must be accountable to verifying that their aesthetics are respectfully authentic to the subject. However, an increasingly complex understanding of the relationship between veracity and the absence of total objectivity in documentary filmmaking has allowed animated documentary to thrive without the burden of conveying truthiness.

While the question of truth remains relevant, a broader understanding of nonfiction animation filmmaking has allowed for modes of experimentalism, poetic documentaries, and a move towards Werner Herzog’s concept of “ecstatic truth.”

While the question of truth remains relevant, a broader understanding of nonfiction animation filmmaking has allowed for modes of experimentalism, poetic documentaries, and a move towards Werner Herzog’s concept of “ecstatic truth.”With the increased focus on production of animated documentary in the past few decades, today is a particularly flourishing point in the history of nonfiction animation. The Slamdance Film Festival, as one example, has increasingly highlighted films that push the medium of animated documentary forward into exciting new territories.

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Animated Documentary at Slamdance Film Festival

As a particularly invaluable tool for the independent creator, animated documentary aligns well with Slamdance’s independent spirit. Films screened at the festival have shown a breadth of approaches to independent animated documentary. Handmade forms of re-enactment are a common approach in films such as Fraser Munden’s The Chaperone (2013), Gabrielle Kash’s Lorem Ipsum (2017) or Matthew Salton’s Richard Twice (2016). By using animation to visualize scenes from the documentary audio, the filmmakers can explore sensationalized imagery that emphasizes the emotional nuances of the documentary subjects. The Chaperone and Richard Twice use hand-drawn animated styles that explode with surrealist visions and psychedelic abstractions to amplify the emotional state of the film’s storytellers. The raw punk aesthetics in both films fuel a Fear and Loathing style visual storytelling that complements the 60s/70s environment.

Freed from the conventional documentary concerns of photographic indexicality, animated documentarians can also employ the narrative potential of experimental techniques and privilege visual poetry over didacticism. The majority of animated docs featured at Slamdance have used hand-made animation, which allows an exaggerated level of emotion and draws the subjectivity of the animator’s hand to the foreground. Artists such as Sheila Sofian and Brian Smee embrace abstract sensibilities that evoke a sense of memory and nostalgia, for example in Sofian’s A Conversation with Haris (2002) or Smee’s Big Surf (2017).

In A Conversation with Haris (2002), Sofian uses visceral textures and visual metamorphosis to illustrate an interview with a young Bosnian immigrant, creating a complex portrait of the way a child experiences war. The ethereal nature of Sofian’s relentlessly morphing and disintegrating paint-on-glass animations leaves the viewer with a sense of fleeting instability, bringing the viewer closer to an emotional understanding of Haris’ experience.

Brian Smee’s exquisite experimental animated documentary Big Surf (2017) engages with the history of the St. Francis Dam collapse, a tragic flood disaster contemporary to the events in The Sinking of the Lusitania. Smee uses soft, organic abstractions and long pulsing landscape shots to evoke a sense of loss and memory, allowing the viewer to reflect on the disturbingly relevant themes of climate change, water shortages, and human-induced environmental disasters today.

Ainslie Henderson’s Stems (2015) poetically captures the enchanting process of stop motion puppetry, flattening time using stop motion animation to poetically discuss the wonder of puppet building. The initial live-action introduction in the film shows the tactility of the materials in stop motion puppetry, and as the pacing of the film progresses from live-action to time-lapse, the process of constructing a puppet is revealed. Gradually, the timing techniques transitions from time-lapse to fully animated frame-by-frame stop motion animation, capturing the sublime emotional experience of an animated puppets autonomy.

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Melissa Ferrari is an animator and documentarian. Phototaxis, her animated documentary that draws parallels between Mothman, a prophetic and demonized creature in West Virginia lore, and Narcotics Anonymous, the primary treatment program in West Virginia’s addiction epidemic, screened at Slamdance in 2018.

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Footnotes

¹ John Canemaker and Maurice Sendak, Winsor McCay: His Life and Art, 151–152.

² Annabelle Honess Roe, Animated Documentary, 15.

³ Michael Inman and The New York Public Library, “The Sinking of the Lusitania: How a Wartime Tragedy Occasioned a Landmark Animated Movie.”

⁴ Stephen Hanson, Patricia King Hanson, and Frank N. Magill, Magill’s Survey of Cinema: Silent Cinema Vol. 3., 995.

⁵ Inman.

⁶ Canemaker 154.

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An Experiential Artist Manifesto by Dekker Dreyer

The traditional media world demands that we reduce our artistic output to a short string of adjectives that fit neatly on a 3.5 inch business card. Everything that artists like myself do throws this notion into chaos.

I see an email I missed from earlier. It confirms that NASA is going to participate in a panel I’m planning at Slamdance DIG (digital, interactive, and gaming) — this year I’m an organizer. It’s 4am and I’m looking out across Hollywood excited for the possibilities. I’m one of a new wave of creators that’s merging interactivity, virtual reality, filmmaking, and live events into a hard-to-explain jumble of an art scene. It feels like I’m working twenty or more hours a day and I feel alive.

This week I’m launching an interactive animated film called Joy Ride with BroomX, a company in Europe that outfits spaces like hotels with 360 degree immersive projectors. Audiences will experience Joy Ride exclusively in this full room projection format at partner locations like Catalonia Hotels. I’ve never worked in this format before because it didn’t exist until a little over a year ago. This kind of shoot first, ask questions later approach is indicative of not just the kind of work that I produce, but the landscape of how immersive content is made. It’s a challenging laboratory of exotic platforms in unexpected locations — creators are one part theme park engineer and one part film director. Each project seems to have its own quirks that are completely different from the last. It’s the wild west, but at the same time it’s just how things are now. I can’t imagine settling on a set of guidelines. It’s always about each project being bigger and more engaging.

The traditional media world demands that we reduce our artistic output to a short string of adjectives that fit neatly on a 3.5 inch business card. Everything that artists like myself do throws this notion into chaos. A few years ago I put the television landscape on the backburner and moved squarely into the immersive media universe. I started a production company called Clever Fox with my wife and partner Julia Howe. Since then I’ve bounced between creating augmented reality touring shows like the 80’s set horror experience The Summoning, virtual reality interactive experiences, 360 degree documentaries and shorts, music videos, apparel, feature films, snapchat lenses, even original lenticular art prints that now live with buyers like Bob Odenkirk. My work has been experienced by millions of people, but the natural high of this falls apart when I’m asked what I do for a living. “A little bit of everything,” I say, shrugging my shoulders. I have no clear answer to give. The inevitable follow-up conversation where I frantically try to connect the collectable VHS release of my feature film The Arcadian, my work with special FX houses, theme parks, and even building an interactive spy museum for the video game Hitman 2 comes off sounding more like a lunatic conspiracy theory than a CV.

I know that the predominant school of thought is that you can either do one thing very well or you can do several things half-assed. My generation of creators flies in the face of this by embracing one of the key facts of 21st century life — that you’re required to be a life-long learner.

I know that the predominant school of thought is that you can either do one thing very well or you can do several things half-assed. My generation of creators flies in the face of this by embracing one of the key facts of 21st century life — that you’re required to be a life-long learner. If you don’t evolve you’ll become unemployable and obsolete. The tangible effect of this economic reality is that you’re going to breed a generation of polymaths. It also helps that we’re mostly digital natives, so that we can take the rapid pace of changing technology in stride.

The best way to explain this is to get a little nostalgic. I’m old enough to remember a world where computers filled giant office buildings instead of fitting snugly in your pants pockets, but I never worked in that world. I never sat at a drafting table and got my hands covered in ink or had to load film into a motion picture camera unless those were specific creative choices. In my professional life the computer and I developed together. I made my first animated short at age 12. It was created on a Wacom ArtPad II with software called Fractal Design Sketcher; I’d rotoscope footage that I recorded frame by frame using an underpowered video capture card and my VCR. At 13 I was building virtual reality worlds (VRML) and cg models with Caligari Truespace. I still use a Wacom drawing tablet, it’s just much larger, and my VCR has been replaced by Adobe Premiere and SD Cards. I’ve traded Truespace for newer programs like Maya, Unity, and Mudbox, but fundamentally my workflow hasn’t evolved much since before I could drive. My first real film was a short called Closed Circuit, which was commissioned by Miramax the year I turned 21. It was shot on digital 8 video specifically to be shown online as a sidecar project to the feature film Naqoyqatsi. This was four years before youtube bought their domain name. We can talk all day about how new and exciting digital media is, but for artists like myself we’ve been waiting a quarter century for the world to catch up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d be lying if I said that this isn’t partially motivated by the shaky viability of independent traditional media projects. It’s not a secret that over the last decade it’s become even more difficult to make a profit on indie films and records. That’s driving forward-thinking creators to look at the horizon and run toward the greener pastures of what might be there. We’re also not the first generation to try this. For whatever your opinions may be about Andy Warhol he was right about at least two things. Beyond predicting the timely notion of everyone getting their 15 minutes of fame, he was also the prototype of the 21st century artist. Not only has a Warhol-like notion of remixing and repurposing become the dominant artistic form of communication, but he popularized the idea that an artist’s body of work could transcend any medium and still retain the artist’s voice. Warhol might not be a direct influence on meme culture or hip-hop, but he was absolutely the biggest canary in the cave for the current artistic era. Warhol also dabbled in what we’d today call experiential events. Shows like Exploding Plastic Inevitable brought together films, light shows, and musical performances to become the forerunners of the kind of experience you get at venues like Meow Wolf. The baton has been passed around from Warhol to Burning Man to Banksy’s Dismaland and it’s come crashing down on Los Angeles like a ton of technicolored bricks.

On any weekend in LA you’ll find some kind of event that has an experiential or interactive exhibit attached to it. What gets lost in these events is a sense of artistic balance. There are two extremes right now. Any digital artist who pays a fee to a concert promoter can pop a tent next to a t-shirt booth in the corner of a warehouse and hope people find them through a cloud of marijuana vape. It’s frustratingly punk, but at least you’re representing yourself and your work. On the other end of the spectrum is something more complicated — the corporate digital art world. This is a world of tech demos and tradeshows. A company will commission a piece of art to showcase the technological advancements of their newest widget. Companies will largely strip away any deeper meaning or creator’s signature from the work. The work is further reduced to a dubiously credited talking point in a press release about venture funding or corporate partnerships. This has both the negative side effect of separating the art from any kind of true sense of authorship by the artist and feeding a culture that expects digital art to be intrinsically tied to new pieces of technology. If you develop a killer work of art using tools from a year ago you’re fighting an uphill battle to get it seen.

Audiences and writers are left asking themselves where all the great interactive artists are. They’re in the back of warehouses in art districts all over the world covered in sweat and dead tired from handing out fliers on street corners.

This cycle of new and different tech married to bland content has created an environment where even the press doesn’t completely know how to engage with interactive art. I understand their frustration. To write about anything you need to contextualize what you’re seeing and if that context is that experiences are always linked to new hardware you start to think that there are no artists making quality independently produced work. The media is being fed a steady stream of press releases about higher bit rates and slightly faster chips and I don’t blame them for starting to think that the only value in interactive art is when it’s showing off some new gadget. Audiences and writers are left asking themselves where all the great interactive artists are. They’re in the back of warehouses in art districts all over the world covered in sweat and dead tired from handing out fliers on street corners.

I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been able to straddle the line between brands, tech companies and artistic integrity, but for every person like me there are a staggering number of creators out there who don’t have the kind of access you get from being in a major city; especially one with an ecosystem like Los Angeles. Immersive creators with access need to build bridges with talented artists who don’t have it. We need to stick together and learn and teach and give opportunities. As part of this mission I designed a class that’s available at Columbia College Chicago Online about creating virtual and augmented reality projects and I’m working with Slamdance for the same reason.

This all comes back to 4am, looking out over Hollywood, thinking about Slamdance’s DIG. As someone who is acutely aware that I’m drifting between creative epochs I recognize how much DIG matters. This year’s show is a turning point. Alongside the gaming content that the show has heavily featured in the past there’s more virtual reality, augmented reality, immersive theater… all kinds of interactive art projects that blur the line between digital and physical. This is the type of showcase I’ve been waiting for and I know that audiences are going to love it.

This revolution in media isn’t something that’s happening on some far off calendar date, it’s something that’s already happening. It’s been bubbling to the surface for decades and now we’re drowning in it.

We’re also going full steam toward building a true community from the disjointed world of interactive art. We’re bringing together emerging artists with past alumni and speakers from places you wouldn’t normally think have much in common. On the same stage we’re hosting representatives from NASA’s The Studio at JPL and the founder of Lost Spirits Distillery. How are they related? The Studio creates interactive art installations which communicate NASA data in engaging ways, while the Lost Spirits Distillery tour has smashed through all kinds of barriers by creating a Willy Wonka-style experience to excite people about the science of making rum. They both take pretty dense subjects and make them accessible to the general public through interactive art. It’s a prime example of how DIG is representing the convergence of storytelling and it feels like home.

After all is said and done I could go on and on about how this is the future or how the next five years will do this or that… but I’d be disingenuous. This revolution in media isn’t something that’s happening on some far off calendar date, it’s something that’s already happening. It’s been bubbling to the surface for decades and now we’re drowning in it. That’s why I’m up at 4am, working on a new project, feeling excited and counting the days until DIG.

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Dekker Dreyer is a filmmaker and experiential artist. His work spans television, feature film, books, graphic novels and virtual reality. He is the creator of Columbia College Chicago’s VR/AR producing program and is a member of the Television Academy.

Dekker is co-curating Slamdance’s 2018 DIG Showcase, opening at LA Artist Collective from September 13–15. DIG features new and unseen works by emerging visual artists and indie game developers from around the world. Admission is free and open to the public. For more info, please visit Slamdance DIG.

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Tips and Insights from Slamdance Festival Programmers

We know the festival submission process can seem pretty mysterious and we want to make submitting to Slamdance a little more transparent. As our motto proclaims, we are filmmakers here to help fellow filmmakers. Most of us are alumni of the festival who have been in your shoes—confused and nervous about navigating the festival circuit with our first films. Somehow, through some combination of grit and magic, we are now on the other side as Slamdance programmers! We’ve been there, and we’ve been here, and we want to help.

How programming works at Slamdance

• We’re all filmmakers and we’re all volunteers. Almost all of us have screened films at Slamdance.
• Every film submitted is watched in its entirety by at least two different programmers.
• We have around 150 programmers from throughout the US and around the world. They are watching your online screeners at their convenience from wherever they are in the world.
• Every programmer has an equal voice. We don’t have lower tier screeners acting as gatekeepers.
• 100% of films selected come from our submissions pool. We don’t make promises to friends or celebrities. They have to submit just like everybody else.
• After every film is watched and scored at least twice, our programming teams meet in person. We spend a few weekends in late October and November rewatching and discussing high scoring films and duking it out, until our Festival Program finally emerges from the rubble of our battles.
• For Slamdance 2018, we received over 6100 submissions and programmed 95 films.
• Before they were household names but after they screened their first films at Slamdance, the Russo Brothers, Emma Thomas, Rian Johnson and Ana Lily Amirpour all participated in Slamdance programming —and that’s just a few examples from our 25 years of the festival. So you never really know who’s going to be watching your film!

“No one programs a film at Slamdance. We all do. Often messy, uneasy and always passionate, it’s the fairest process we know. “ — Peter B. (Narrative Features)

Here are some tips and insights from members of our programming team about what we love to see, how we program, and everything else in between. Read on to get a peek inside the minds behind the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival.

On standing out

“Roger Ebert had a great quote: “It’s not what a film is about, but how it’s about it.” Most films are about a subject in the same way a lot of other films are, and as a consequence they are forgettable. Ask yourself how your film is about its subject, and don’t be satisfied with an easy answer.”

“In order for your film to get programmed, at least one person on the programming team has to LOVE it. It has to be their favorite — so that they’ll fight for it and rally support for it. The converse is also true — if your film is really good but nobody loves it, the chances that it will get programmed diminish. If I can get the film I love programmed, it’s likely that I will understand and support another programmer’s favorite film even if I don’t necessarily respond to it, because I will respond to their passion.” — Blake R. (Narrative Features)

“Most films fail at the “let’s make a film about…” phase. Most of the rest fail during the development of that concept. In most cases, it seems like the filmmakers didn’t challenge themselves hard enough to make something unique and vital. Roger Ebert had a great quote: “It’s not what a film is about, but how it’s about it.” Most films are about a subject in the same way a lot of other films are, and as a consequence they are forgettable. Ask yourself how your film is about its subject, and don’t be satisfied with an easy answer. Push yourself to make something unusual, specific, and meaningful.” —Randall G. (Experimental, Animation and Narrative Shorts)

“MAKE IT UNIQUE. Might be a good topic, but not a very imaginative approach. I want to encourage you to do something risky, something more “out there” and I’ll love seeing that in between all the “regular”stuff. Be aware that there are TONS of filmmakers out there. Don’t underestimate your “competition.”— Sandra B. (Documentary Shorts)

“If you are in film school, try to make something radically different from the types of films produced in that school.” — Anonymous

“Being genuinely surprised by a short is becoming one of the qualities I’m most excited — and often convinced by. I don’t mean clever twist endings, but an overall feeling of unexpectedness in short-storytelling.” — Sébastien S. (Narrative Shorts)

“If I watch a film that’s the SAME as yours, both films are out. If there’s two of something, it’s not original. Avoid politically-driven, unless you have the BEST version ever, and a fresh way for me to digest it.” —Patrick S. (Documentary Features)

On knowing your festival

“I think the most important thing to note is to know the festival you’re submitting to and their requirements before blindly submitting.” — Bryce F. (Narrative Features)

“My feature documentary film was officially selected in 2017, and I fell in love with the people at Slamdance. But before that, I fell in love with the “idea” of the festival itself. Punk rock. A true indy festival — untainted, and designed to break brand new talent— talent that gets a bit crazy (what Sundance used to be, before it started premiering TV sitcoms). That’s the brand I look to service while I’m programming. So—while I’m watching your documentary, in the back of my mind, I’m constantly saying: “Is this Slamdance?” And it’s easy to tell when something is, and isn’t.” —Patrick S. (Documentary Features)

“Films that get a high score from me: unique or thought-provoking storytelling; well-executed, nontraditional visual style; no glaring mistakes; no gender/racial/cultural stereotypes or offensive representations; weird stuff. I think it’s important to understand Slamdance’s mission, and how that relates to what films are ultimately chosen (for example, a Disney-like animation is likely not going to be accepted).” — Zachary Z. (Animation Shorts)

“Check out some of our past years programs! They are usually out of the box and one of a kind with their story and filmmaking.” —Sarineh G. (Narrative Shorts)

On the sweetness of shortness

“I think the most common issue I’ve encountered is filmmakers taking an interesting idea and stretching it out too long” — Cory B. (Documentary Features)

“The real question here is, “Do you think your film could be shorter? Should be shorter?” If you do, then please make it shorter. We all watch hundreds of hours of film. There’s nothing wrong with setting a mood or hitting an emotional beat, but sometimes filmmakers end up with a runtime that is right on the cusp between a short and a feature (say, 35 or 60 minutes long), and these can be difficult to program just from a logistical point of view. We will program things that are these lengths, but the films in question better be damn good. If you’re on the fence about whether to shorten things up or puff them out, aim to shorten them up. Get some outside perspective. Consider telling your story in a different way. Get in touch with the essence of what you’re trying to say and make sure everything you put on screen can be tied directly back to that essence. If the film is tight, doesn’t waste any time, and stays true to itself, then any length will work. When I programmed short films, I thought 12 minutes was the ideal length, but two of my favorite programmed shorts were 30 minutes long.” —Beth P. (Doc Features)

“Shorter is better, sometimes. I’m programming doc features and thought many of them would have made much better short subject films. There are plenty of subjects and topics that deserve or need 90+ minutes, but there are also plenty of topics that can be effectively covered in a much shorter format. I would rather watch a captivating 15-minute film than one that drags on for over an hour.” —Ashley S. (Doc Features)

On quality of artistry vs. quality of technology

“You don’t need a huge budget or fancy equipment to make an interesting film. It’s good for beginners to remember that, in my opinion” —Ashley S. (Doc Features)

“In this day and age, the technical elements have to be strong—it doesn’t cost that much money to make your film look and sound really good anymore (it takes talent). For me, the acting must be really strong. Too many films, even those with little to no resources will be very well executed. If yours isn’t it, will struggle in comparison. This doesn’t mean they have to be known or famous actors — they just have to be very believable performances that don’t pull me out of the story. As a filmmaker going into film festival submissions, be aware that we are seeing 100’s if not 1000’s of films. So in order to stand out you’ve got to turn all the realities of your filmmaking circumstance, even if its a lack of resources, into a positive for your film. I want to see a better film because of your circumstances not an inferior film. If you don’t achieve that someone else will.”— Blake R. (Narrative Features)

“Films with handsome cinematography, professional-level acting, and other ‘calling card’ attributes are extremely common. All of these things can be great, but they are nothing without unique development of a strong concept. And it’s far easier to forgive poor cinematography than a poor concept.” — Randall G.(Experimental, Animation, Narrative Shorts)

Don’t mind us, make what compels you.

“Don’t chase after what you think programmers might like, because at the end of the day, out of thousands of shorts, there will literally only be a handful that ALL the programmers agree on. The rest are varying degrees of “yes’s” and “no’s” so you’re just dealing with (what sage programmer Randall calls) “a bunch of asshole programmers with opinions.” No single programmer has the answers, but as a collective we become Slamdance.” —Shaun P. (Narrative Shorts)

“What should I be doing?” This is an unanswerable question — the universe is vast and wide and guidance is scant. With regard to finishing a film you hope to screen at Slamdance: you should be working on your film, digging into yourself, and finding something uncomfortably vulnerable or incendiary to share. You should remember that us programmers don’t hold any sort of real formula. The turnover in programmers, the inclusion of new voices every year, means that there’s no list of requirements to check off. Only vague advice that is nonetheless true: make something true to yourself, take risks, be unusual, but also please be technically competent in your work. Keep the audience in mind, and keep them challenged. —Beth P. (Doc Features)

“The bottom line for me is this: Sincerity and heart. When a project feels forced it loses its essence and its truth. I think that this is very important.” —Clementine L. (Narrative Features)

“I am inspired by your films every day. What I appreciate most about programming is getting a chance to hear you, see you, and better understand you through your creative projects. What I hope to impress upon anyone creating work that they plan to submit to a festival is, be authentic. Don’t try to make a film you think someone will like. Don’t try and improve upon someone else’s vision. Don’t choose a subject because it’s popular. Rather, I encourage you to make the film that only you can make. Be empowered to be as authentic to your vision as possible. Trust yourself. I assure you, you will find your audience. And I know I can’t wait to see your submission.” —Breven W. (Narrative Shorts)

Some Practical Tips for Sanity’s Sake (Yours, and Ours)

• We don’t really care about Cover Letters, tbh. Lots of other festivals do, but we don’t. We’ll take them, and we might even enjoy reading about where you are coming from as a filmmaker, but our programmers are really judging only what they see on screen.
• Read the freaking category rules and submit to the right category. We won’t disqualify you if you are wrong, but we are busy folks.
• Have test screenings with your friends or strangers who will tell you what they truly think. Do it early so that you have time to reflect and make changes. Take notes, and make sure to be confident in all the changes you make.
• We accept works in progress…but do understand that many of the films submitted will be completed works or at least, picture-locked. Edit your film down until all the fat is gone. How you edit is more important than things like color-correction and sound mix.
• If you are submitting a work-in-progress, put a title card at the start of your screener that denotes what you are still working on. Then, programmers will know that, for example, the distracting scratching sound is not an artistic choice but just needs to be, and will be, cleaned up.
• We can’t update your screeners if you have a more updated version. Beyond the fact that it’s a little unfair to filmmakers who submit later and pay a higher fee, we just don’t have the bandwidth to change out screeners whenever filmmakers make a change to their film. (But there’s a VIMEO LOOPHOLE. If you submit a Vimeo link as your screener, you can change out the video uploaded to that link whenever you want. And there’s nothing we can do about it.)
• Submit early if you can!!! When you submit to Slamdance, whether it was the moment submissions opened or at 11:57PM on the absolute last day, your film will be watched by 2+ programmers. That’s a promise. But in the last 2 weeks of our 4-month long submissions period, we receive about 25–35% of our submissions. (Last year we received 1500 films in the last 10 days!) And then we have 3 weeks to watch them all twice! So if you submit early, you will more likely get programmers relaxing on their couch, drinking a cold beer and unwinding to your film after a day of work. If you submit late, you might get a programmer who has already watched 15 feature films that day, cramming to watch everything before our final deliberations meetings. Submitting early also gives programmers more time to reflect and absorb your film, and they may even change their scores after comparing it to others they watch (for better or worse).
• When in doubt — submit! You never know what the programmers will like or what might really resonate with someone. We make art so we can share, so please do share!

Submit to Slamdance 2020

Edited by Adele Han Li.

The post What the heck does it take to get my film into Slamdance? appeared first on Slamdance.

How to Turn Your Idol into Your Mentor into Your Collaborator

Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Love and Basketball”, “Shots Fired”) and Tina Mabry (“Mississippi Damned”, “Queen Sugar”) are unstoppable forces on the rise — writing, producing, and directing for TV and film while mentoring the next generation of filmmaking talent.

Gina premiered an early short film at Slamdance in 1998 (“Bowl of Pork”, starring Dave Chappell) before her breakout first feature “Love and Basketball”. The film that redefined sports films and broke new ground on how women and people of color are depicted onscreen inspired Tina Mabry to abandon her LSATs and apply for film school. Tina’s 2009 debut feature “Mississippi Damned” (starring Tessa Thompson with cinematography by Oscar nominee Bradford Young) won Gina’s admiration and respect and the two filmmakers have since become mentor/mentee, friends, colleagues, and are now collaborating on an upcoming film.

Both Slamdance alums, they came to our offices to discuss their experiences navigating the industry with all its highs and lows, and offered some valuable wisdom for fellow filmmakers. Listen to their conversation in it’s entirety or read some highlights below.

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“I mean, making a good movie is hard. Getting a movie made is a miracle.”

Tina on meeting Gina after watching “Love and Basketball” and stalking her for years:

Tina: The first time we actually met in person — it was at Sundance. It was like a little writer’s intensive. Ava [Duvernay] ended up introducing us because I was scared to go up to you. Just coming up and finally meeting you and being able to tell you how much of an effect you had on my life, I couldn’t help but cry. I couldn’t help it because you changed my life — and it’s not just me, you changed all our lives that we’re working right here today. And I guarantee you, you ask any one of us black females that are working as directors, producers or writers in this industry, we all bring you up. You changed the shit and you broke the mold.

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On making films worth giving your all to:

Gina: I don’t know who said it, but the talent is in your choices. And you know, sometimes it’s hard. Like I’ve been making movies for 15 years, well 18 years now and I’ve made 4. Which, 4 in 18 years doesn’t seem like a lot, but…

Tina: It is for us.

Gina: For us, and knowing what goes into making a film. Like this is a year, year and a half of your life. Now I have a family. If I’m going to be away for that long or that singularly focused on something, it has to be something I’m passionate about. Not all of us have that [luxury], but that’s the thing that’s going to give us longevity. That we care about what we’re putting out into the world, and not only care about it but care about it enough to give all of ourselves to it. Because that’s what it takes. I mean, making a good movie is hard. Getting a movie made is a miracle.

Tina: That’s what I always try to think about. Would I do this if they weren’t paying me? And if the answer is yes, that’s the damn project I need to take.

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On Stamina and Work Ethic

Tina: I don’t feel like I have the luxury to fail. If I fail at this then I’m not going to get another chance. So all of my all has to go into it. And for me, it’s like if I don’t sleep for this much time, it’s fine. I’ll rest later.

Gina: I just wish every girl could be in sports because of what it teaches you. For me, it’s “outwork everybody.” When I was training, and even now. If I’m not writing or studying a movie or something, I feel like, “damn, somebody else is,” you know? So outwork everybody. “Leave everything out on the floor” is a big one for me. You literally had to pull me off the floor at the end of the game of basketball. And now, with movies, I’m the first one there. And then I shoot, I go home, and I watch dailies. Then I put together my shot list, and then I go to sleep for a few hours, and then I’m back. And you have to do that.

That whole work ethic that not everybody has in this industry, it drives me crazy. Yes, I know there are work hours and stuff like that, but you take the opportunity to show that you care about this more than anybody. And you should if this is your passion. You should want to be on set or want to be in the office, or want to be reading everything you can. I don’t want to hear you “want to go home.” Because I didn’t, you know?

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“And to see the sexism and racism he had, that was something that really wasn’t surprising but it still hurts. The fact that he did not even have the respect for this particular show that he claimed to love. No, he loved himself.”

On dealing with disrespect on set as black female directors:

Tina: This particular [1st AD], like starting on day one, I could tell in prep that he wasn’t there and I just went ahead. I was looking at the agenda and I see nothing on this page. I see “Time: 9 to 5” and there is nothing else on there. So I’m like, “Well, where’s my concept meeting? Where’s my production meeting? Where’s my tone meeting? Where’s my show-and-tells?” Nothing was there!

What I learned is that he did not like a black woman — any woman, over him. And I had seen him actually 1st AD for a male director, because I was covering an episode that I wrote. So I saw how he treated him. Now I saw how he treated women.

And then on the one day…May 11th is the day my mom passed away. So every May 11th can be a little bit hard for me. So I had the crew together and I said, “So you know, I’m always laughing and happy and I’m still going to be laughing and happy, but if I’m having one second where I don’t respond real quick, just know this is a tough day for me, and that’s it.” And he immediately jumps in and gets on me in front of the whole crew trying to embarrass me, saying I didn’t know what I’m doing with these explosives and the squibs. And I said, “No, actually I do, I had this script 4 weeks before you had it. And I don’t ever like to be like this, but you’re pushing me to that point. Well, who’s name is on the call sheet on the front every day? It’s not yours, it’s mine.”

And you know, we had to bring in the studio and the network, and they’re worried about me. I’m like, “I’m fine. Worry about him.” We keep on pushing, and every time we came in on time, regardless of what he did.

It was just so unprofessional. And to see the sexism and racism he had, that was something that really wasn’t surprising but it still hurts. The fact that he did not even have the respect for this particular show that he claimed to love. No, he loved himself. And he let his own prejudices interrupt making a great show and the rest of us putting everything into it.

Gina: That’s the great thing about us moving into positions of power because there are people like that that permeate the industry. But the more of us that get into power, the more we actually don’t have to put up with that anymore. We can just let them go. And that first AD, having the arrogance of thinking that with you as a producer on that show, he could behave like that and there’d be no repercussions?

But it’s understanding our power as well. I think we’re not used to firing people. I think courage is a habit. And while you don’t want to have to go through things like that, the more you go through it, you’ll have the memory of it. And you’ll know how to handle it for the next time.

I dealt with a horrible experience with an actor on my…I’ll just say my second feature. After “Love & Basketball” being such an amazing experience, to come up and now I’m working with a star, and somebody I respected so much — to find out he is an incredible asshole. It was so bad. I had a female DP, Tami. He hated her too. He would say out loud in front of people that women shouldn’t be DPs, the camera’s too heavy for her — because she did her own camera. And the crew was starting to say, “God, we feel sorry for you guys.” And we didn’t want to hear it. I don’t want you feeling sorry for me. But he was a producer and I had to put up with his behavior.

Then the last day, we were shooting a big dinner scene with everybody and once he had finished his coverage, he said “we’re done.” And walked off set. He had walked off set twice before and each time I was like, “well, I guess I have to stop.” But it was the last day so I said, “you know what? I’m not done,” and we kept shooting without him. And suddenly who comes back? This dude sits back at the table and participates. And it was the ego of “Oh my God, she’s actually shooting without me.” But it took me the entire movie to get there. And then, I kicked myself — why did it take me so long to figure out how to deal with somebody like that? But it was so foreign to me.

He pulled something the very first… I should have known. We were supposed to meet before the movie started to talk about his character, talk about the script, talk about the shoot and we were supposed to meet at a restaurant. He never showed up, stood me up. Didn’t call, nothing. I was sitting at the restaurant for an hour. Then I got a call from the other producer that said — there was no apology, no nothing, “you can meet him at his house at 10 tonight.” And it’s funny, my husband was like,“uh… No.” But you know, being young, I’m thinking, “Well, I got to meet him! I’m the director!” But thank God I didn’t go. But that set the tone and I should have confronted him at that point. But it was the hierarchy thing of “he’s a huge star” — at the time — and “this is how it must be in the industry.” But it doesn’t have to be, and that’s because of us talking. Building a community among us like what we know other filmmakers have, you know? They’re hanging out and talking and we just have to do that more and more.

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On commanding a set through respect and consideration:

Gina: The director sets the tone on set and if I’m not yelling and bringing that negative energy, I don’t want somebody else to because it poisons the set. Nobody works harder because they’re scared. They’re going to work hard if they’re inspired and they feel a part of it and it’s strange that people don’t get that.

The first thing I say when I’m interviewing a 1st AD is that extras have the hardest and least respected job and I want them respected. And I don’t like that they have to wait for everybody else to eat. I hate that. It just seems rude. They’re part of the crew. Without their performances, the show or film is not going to be as good. You can tell a lot about a 1st AD by how they talk to our background actors.

Tina: When we were on “Power”, there was a key gaffer who had to drive to Vermont from New York every Friday night to see his wife and kids and then come back Sunday morning. So for me, I’m looking at those things. If I know exactly what I want to shoot and I got what I want plus some specialty stuff, let me go ahead and get him out of here so he can drive to his family safely. The magic that we’re creating is having someone from transportation say, “thank you for having a short day because I had a chance to read a bedtime story and tuck my 8 year old daughter in for the first time in months.” That means a lot to me.

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“…it feels like there’s a sea change and we get excited for a second but then you hear the numbers and you’re like, “Damn, where is the change?” But yes, there’s an absolute change happening. It’s incremental.”

On being a good mentor and mentee:

Tina: I consistently try to watch what you[Gina] do, what George [Tillman Jr.] does. I try to watch what Kasi [Lemmons] does. I just try to look at y’all and still learn because I feel like y’all are mentors. I don’t know if y’all have accepted me as a mentee but I just threw myself up in there. Please mentor me! Because that’s the thing, y’all haven’t ever said “no” to helping. You didn’t know me from nothing, and you sat and read my pilot script, had me come over to your house multiple times. We’re writing it in our socks! And that’s the very script that has gotten me every single writing job up until “The Hate U Give”. Every last one. And that’s you.

Gina: Well, no, it’s you, because the reason why I was happy to sit with you and talk with you is your script was so good! That’s a scary thing when you respect somebody and they send you a script. I was like, “God, please be good.” I already knew you were good from your movie, but then reading your pilot, I was like, “ok, she’s for real. Oh damn, she’s a writer.” So it was inspiring to help you because I want to help people who are dope. And then the fact that you take in…not everybody can take notes, I’ll say that. But you took notes and kept working on it, and working on it, as opposed to thinking, “this is as good as it’s going to get.” Not that we’re ever going to reach perfection, but you should be working towards perfection. Not everybody has that stamina. But you did. And I love to hear that other people are helping you because it’s not by accident. The talent is there and the personality is there. We want to help you because you’re cool.

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On reaching back and paying forward:

Gina: It’s so important for us that once we get in, we gotta reach back. There’s so few of us. Still, it feels like there’s a sea change and we get excited for a second but then you hear the numbers and you’re like, “Damn, where is the change?” But yes, there’s an absolute change happening. It’s incremental. But I really do believe that it wasn’t necessarily the industry itself, but it was those of us reaching back and shepherding or pushing others in the industry to take notice. It’s important that now that we’re in, one: to do our best work absolutely. And two: who do you see? What recent independent film, short, or script makes you say to yourself, “damn, this person is dope.” What can I do? And it’s not always giving them a job. I mean, Kasi just talked to me and said she believed in me and she didn’t know me. I just left that meeting feeling empowered. So, there’s different ways you can reach back and help folk. And that’s what we have to do to help this industry. Because the opportunity’s there, but it’s up to us at the end of the day to find our folk.

Tina: I try to do my best, especially when I’m directing an episode, to get the studio to let me bring a few mentees on. Just so someone can shadow me, because that’s something that I found the most pivotal and most important. I really thank Melissa Carter, our show runner for Queen Sugar Season 1. She let two or three people come in and actually watch us break story in a room all day long. And afterwards some mentees were like, “nope, don’t want to do that.” And some of them were like, “yes, definitely want to do that.” But how are you supposed to know what you want to do if you can’t ever see it?

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On adapting screenplays:

Tina: I’ve seen a million adaptations and a lot of them are just plagiarized. Literally. You can go through the book and you look across the page and the dialogue and you’re like, “You just copied and pasted, and you get the screenwriting credit for it.” And to me, to have someone actually be able to look at the material in its totality from the book and structure a story, then you actually wrote and adapted a screenplay.

Gina: The hardest thing about doing an adaptation — one: I do feel you have to stay true to the original because there’s a reason why people fell in love with that story or book. So why am I going to come in and throw it all out? That just feels wrong. But two: it can’t be your Bible, because you have to transfer it to film and it’s a different medium. You don’t need as much dialogue. You can use a look and that may take the place of a whole monologue in the book. But to be able to separate yourself for a moment is hard. Especially because with the adaptations I’ve done — I’ve done four now — I’ve worked with the author. But I want the author to love it more than anybody, even though I’m changing some stuff. But knock on wood, I’ve stayed really cool with the authors.

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On their upcoming collaboration:

Gina: I guess we won’t talk about the title yet until it’s out in the world, but it is an adaptation that I wrote. But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to direct and the question came up, “who should direct it? And who do you trust?” I have an extremely tiny list, but you [Tina] were right at the top. But you know, it’s one thing for me to say, “I think this woman can do it, “ but you had to go in and knock out that meeting, which you did. I mean, I heard you made them cry, so…

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The above excerpts have been edited for clarity and length. Edited by Adele Han Li

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