Taking place January 19th-29th, the fest marks some key milestones for us. We’re thrilled that Beasts of the Southern Wild, the first Cinereach Production to hit Park City, will premiere in competition. We’ll also be celebrating the achievements of the Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute, a fruitful three-year partnership that has provided $1.5 million to complement Sundance Institutes’ invaluable support of fiction and nonfiction works-in-progress.

We look forward to watching these films on the big screen with you, at Sundance and beyond!

From Cinereach Productions:

Beasts of the Southern Wild U.S. Dramatic Director: Benh Zeitlin Written by: Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin Producers: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn EP: Philipp Engelhorn, Paul Mezey, Michael Raisler Cast: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna rerun from the grave, and everything south of the levee is goin’ under, in this tale of a six year old named Hushpuppy, who lives with her daddy at the edge of the world. Sundance Screening Times

Films Supported by the Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute:

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry U.S. Documentary Director: Alison Klayman Producers: Alison Klayman, Adam Schlesinger The inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics. Sundance Screening Times

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty New Frontier Director: Terence Nance Producers: Andrew Corkin, James Bartlett, Terence Nance A quixotic young man humorously courses live action and various animated landscapes as he reaches for self-awareness after a mystery girl stands him up. Sundance Screening Times Compliance NEXT<=> Director: Craig Zobel Producers: Sophia Lin, Lisa Muskat, Tyler Davidson, Theo Sena, Craig Zobel When a caller posing as a police officer convinces a fast food restaurant manager to interrogate an innocent young employee, no one is left unscathed. Based on true events. Sundance Screening Times

I Am Not A Hipster NEXT<=> Director: Destin Daniel Cretton Producers: Ron Najor, Destin Daniel Cretton, Trevor Fernando A young singer-songwriter with a growing local following wanders through his apathetic life in San Diego. When his dad and three sisters show up to spread his mother’s ashes, he’s reminded of the part of himself he left back in Ohio and is forced to deal with the person he’s become. Sundance Screening Times

Keep the Lights On U.S. Dramatic Director: Ira Sachs Producers: Marie Therese Guirgis, Lucas Joaquin, Ira Sachs The story of a tumultuous, decade-long relationship between two men in New York City, chronicling the bonds that keep them together and the addictions that tear them apart. Sundance Screening Times

The Queen of Versailles U.S. Documentary Director: Lauren Greenfield Producers: Lauren Greenfield, Danielle Renfrew Behrens A character-driven documentary about a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis. Sundance Screening Times

The Forgiveness of Blood
Director: Joshua Marston
Fiction | Supported through Cinereach Productions & Winter 2009 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Contemporary World Cinema

In The Forgiveness of Blood, the lives of a teenage boy and his younger sister are thrown into turmoil after a killing in a dispute over land draws their northern Albanian family into a blood feud.

Girl Model
Directors: David Redmon & Ashley Sabin
Nonfiction | Summer 2009 & Summer 2010 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Real to Reel – World Premiere

Girl Model follows U.S. and Russian model scouts who travel through remote Siberian villages looking for thirteen to fifteen year old girls suitable for modeling jobs in Japan. This poetic film brings viewers into a modeling industry rife with mirrors, images, facades, and uncertainty. It is difficult to know who these young girls can trust and where the industry takes them when their eyes are covered.

Habibi
Director: Susan Youssef
Fiction |Winter 2009 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Discovery – International & North American Premiere

Habibi, a story of forbidden love, is the first fiction feature set in Gaza in over 15 years. Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town.

The Patron Saints
Directors: Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky
Nonfiction | Winter 2009 & Winter 2011 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Canada First – World Premiere

The Patron Saints is a disquieting and hyperrealistic glimpse into life at a nursing home. Bound by the candid confessions of a recently disabled resident, the film weaves haunting images, scenes and stories from within the institution walls. Sidestepping conventional documentary methods for a heightened cinematic approach to storytelling, the film employs lyrical realism and black humor in its charged portrait of fading bodies and minds.

Pariah
Director: Dee Rees
Fiction | Winter 2009 & Winter 2010 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Discovery

When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Porfirio
Director: Alejandro Landes
Fiction | Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute 2011
Festival Screening Information – Visions – International & North American Premiere

Confined to a universe that stretches only from bed to wheelchair, Porfirio – a man in diapers who sells call time on his cell phone in a faraway city on the outskirts of the Colombian Amazon – dreams that he can fly.

Gasland by Josh Fox
This fest will mark the D.C. premiere of Gasland by Josh Fox. The film chronicles Fox’s 24-state journey to investigate the consequences of natural gas drilling. It received support from the Sundance Reach Fund (part of the Cinereach Project at the Sundance Institute), won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and just took home the Artistic Vision Award at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

Screening information:
FREE SCREENING
Date: 3/16/10 7:00pm
Venue: Carnegie Institution for Science, Elihu Root Auditorium, 1530 P St., NW
A discussion with filmmaker Josh Fox follows screening.

The Road Ahead: The First Green Long March by Cinereach Productions
The first feature documentary from Cinereach’s in-house production arm, The Road Ahead: The First Green Long March is a meditative portrait of the growing student environmental movement amongst Chinese College students. Directed by Ryan Wong and produced by Cinereach’s Michael Raisler, The film is an official selection of the Hamptons, Connecticut and Cleveland Film Festivals.

Screening information:
FREE SCREENING
Date: 3/23/10 12:00pm
Venue: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Ronald Reagan Building, One Woodrow Wilson Plaza, Sixth Floor Auditorium, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
The film will be introduced by Jennifer L. Turner of the China Environment Forum, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.