A River Changes Course
12 independent films will make their digital debut this spring through a variety of platforms and storefronts, via the Sundance Institute’s Artist Services program. Titles began premiering this week, and will roll out through June 3. Among the films making their digital premieres is A River Changes Course, which won the World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and paints an intimate portrait of the lives of three families struggling to maintain their traditions and way of life amidst the rapid changes and hard choices forced by globalization in Cambodia.
Additional documentaries making their digital premieres include two titles (DeNADIE, Rivers of Men) by acclaimed Mexican documentary filmmaker Tin Dirdamal. DeNADIE won the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats premiered at the first Sundance Film Festival in 1985. The film provides an insightful look into the short but prolific life of the Beat Generation writer. The spring lineup also features another renowned Jack in The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack, which pieces together live performances and documentary footage to paint the life story of American folk performer Jack Elliot, told through the eyes of his daughter.
Narrative films include Sleep Dealer, which was developed with the support of Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, participating in both the 2000 June Screenwriters Lab and the 2001 Directors Lab. The film went on to win both the Alfred P. Sloan Prize and the Waldo Salt Screeningwriting Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
TITLES AVAILABLE APRIL 15
DeNADIE (Director: Tin Dirdamal) — DeNADIE tells the story of Maria, a Central American immigrant who is forced to leave her family in search for a better life. On her way to the United States, she has to cross the border in to Mexico, where she experiences her worst nightmare. (2006 Sundance Film Festival)
The Revolutionary Optimists (Directors: Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen) — Children are saving lives in the slums of Calcutta. Amlan Ganguly doesn’t rescue slum children; he empowers them to become change agents, battling poverty and transforming their neighborhoods with dramatic results.The Revolutionary Optimists follows Amlan and four of the children he works with – Salim, Kajal, Sikha and Priyanka – on an intimate journey through adolescence, as they fight for the better future he encourages them to imagine is deservedly theirs. (2011 Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab)
Rivers of Men (Director: Tin Dirdamal) — The legend, the details and the lie surrounding the Bolivian city that went to war over water. (2007 Sundance Institute Documentary Film Grant)
TITLE AVAILABLE MAY 5
A Healthy Baby Girl (Director: Judith Helfand) — A Healthy Baby Girl is an intimate, humorous, yet searing exploration of what happens when science, marketing, and corporate power enter our deepest family relationships. The film is an inter-generational story of one family’s response to an ethical and technological crisis, experienced from their home in Merrick, Long Island. (1997 Sundance Film Festival)
TITLE AVAILABLE MAY 13
A River Changes Course (Director: Kalyanee Mam) — Three families living in contemporary Cambodia face hard choices as forces of radical change transform the country’s landscape and the dreams of its people. (2013 Sundance Film Festival)
TITLES AVAILABLE MAY 20
The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack (Director: Aiyana Elliott) — This fascinating portrait of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, directed by his daughter, Aiyana Elliott, weaves together live performances, archival footage, and contemporary interviews to create a film that takes us beyond the legend and into the psyche of the man. (2000 Sundance Film Festival)
Beyond the Ocean (Director: Tony Pemberton) — A young pregnant woman arrives in New York City only to have her mind drift back to her past to a time when she was coming of age in a coal-mining town in Russia. (2000 Sundance Film Festival)
The Corndog Man (Director: Andrew Shea) — A boat salesman in small-town South Carolina gets a pivotal sales call, the first of many from what he hopes is a buyer ready to spend tons of money on a vessel. But he soon realizes that the caller’s motivations are personal rather than business-related — and they’re vengeful motivations at that. Fearful for his life, the normally cocky merchant begins to fall apart at the seams, worried for his life. Who wants him dead? (1999 Sundance Film Festival)
Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats (Director: John Antonelli) — Jack Kerouac’s life is examined through fascinating and rare documentary footage and revealing interviews with many of Kerouac’s most famous contemporaries, such as Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. (1985 Sundance Film Festival)
Sleep Dealer (Director: Alex Rivera) — Mexico, the near future. Memo Cruz always dreamed of leaving his village and heading north. But when he does, Memo finds a bizarre new world full of drones, aqua-terrorists, and a woman with a secret. (2008 Sundance Film Festival)
The Woman Chaser (Director: Robinson Devor) — Richard is a shrewd salesman and used-car dealer. Fancying himself an artist, he completes his cherished film project, but forces beyond his control destroy it. A monstrous revenge is exacted on all who have crossed him. (2000 Sundance Film Festival)
TITLE AVAILABLE JUNE 3
The Cold Lands (Director and Screenwriter: Tom Gilroy) — After his mother’s sudden death, a young boy runs away into the deep woods of upstate New York and meets an unpredictable and mysterious drifter. (Released through Artist Services collaboration with Cinereach)