Sundance London: the line-up

Robert Redford’s Utah film festival is the coolest in the calendar - and now he’s bringing it to the O2 in Greenwich. Nick Roddick has a first look at the line-up
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Nick Roddick26 April 2012

Next month, Robert Redford will be shipping one of North America’s best-known and buzziest film festivals, Sundance, from its snow-blanketed location at Park City, Utah, to the O2 in Greenwich. The four-day event (April 26-29) will be overseen personally by Redford, the Lord of Sundance, who brings a line-up of 14 films, unveiled here for the first time.

Among them is Liberal Arts, the new film featuring Martha Marcy May Marlene star Elizabeth Olsen, which received a standing ovation at Sundance, a festival usually too cool to allow such things. Also in the line-up is Shut Up and Play the Hits, a documentary about the final concert by New York dance-punk outfit LCD Soundsystem, which was likewise rapturously received in Utah.

Music — and music documentaries — have always played a major role at Sundance. And the same is planned for this side of the pond, too. Sundance London is co-sponsored by sport and entertainment multinational AEG, which runs the O2, and has teamed up with Redford to add some musical moments to the cinematic mix [see panel opposite].

All of this, along with film-related events, discussions and talks by the film-makers, should make Sundance London’s Festival of Film and Music one of the more intriguing artistic events to take place at the O2 this year. And although schedules are still being finalised, don’t be surprised if the red carpet gets rolled out a few times.

Local talent will get a look-in as well: a short film competition on the theme “Story of our Time” is being co-sponsored by Greenwich council, with prizes awarded by a jury of film-makers yet to be confirmed. The rest of the programme will consist of 14 of the best films seen at Park City’s original Sundance in January.

Dreamt up by Redford as a way of preserving the ideals of the New Hollywood cinema of the Seventies, Sundance revolutionised the American movie business. Hugely influential throughout the Nineties, it was a kind of Cannes Film Festival with snowmobiles.

Edgy films were shown to young audiences and not-so-young industry insiders desperately looking for the next big thing (one of the first breakout indie hits, Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies & Videotape, was first shown at Sundance).

The scope of Sundance reaches beyond the festival itself: the Sundance Institute runs programmes and film labs throughout the year and around the world; it has its own cable TV channel and, over the past few years, has experimented with showing its premieres in Utah simultaneously in a number of US arthouse movie theatres. But this is the first time the organisation has tried taking the festival brand outside the US.

The choice of London — and indeed of the O2 — came from Redford himself. “It was his idea,” says his festival director, John Cooper. “We’ve been talking for a while about what we can do for US independent film in terms of getting it seen outside the States. Redford really pushed this through: he liked the O2 because he’s always been keen on the connectivity between different art forms — film, new technology, art, music — and because we could have everything together in one venue.

“We wanted to try to create a communal space for everyone who is coming to the festival to get together and talk about the arts,” adds Sundance’s chief programmer Trevor Groth. “We wanted to gather it all under one roof and hope that everyone who comes for one thing will stay for a few more.”

The Sundance folk remain undaunted by the cavernous nature of the 02. The films will be screened in the on-site Cineworld multiplex. But the event will extend into many of the local restaurants and bars. “We’re hoping we can bring some of the Sundance vibe to the place,” says Cooper, who admits that having a fully equipped cinema is a relief after the improvisation that is a big part of the Park City experience. “It’s great to have something that we just step into,” he says, “instead of having to create a theatre out of a banqueting room.”

Helping further raise the profile of Sundance London will be a series of talks, chief among them an on-stage discussion between two legends: Redford himself and 12-time Grammy-winning musician, producer and soundtrack composer T Bone Burnett (Cold Mountain, Crazy Heart), which will be chaired by novelist Nick Hornby.

It is, says Cooper, all about “alternative arts trending over into something non-mainstream, something adventurous and open-minded. If the films are good and the music is good and the events are good, they’ll start people talking about film and about art — and that’s what Sundance has always been about.”

And, he might have added, if the audiences are good, this could be the first of an annual programme of events bringing the best of US indie film and music to south-east London.

Sundance London: the films

2 Days in New York

The third of Julie Delpy’s freewheeling explorations of modern relationships, this time set in New York. Expect a transatlantic romp with comedian Chris Rock adding some Manhattan spice to the Gallic wit.

Chasing Ice

The first of several cutting-edge documentaries, in which film-maker James Balog answers his own question, “How can you take a picture of climate change?”, by using time-lapse photography to provide incontrovertible proof of global warming.

Filly Brown

The story of a raw young Mexican hip hop artist whose singing helps her deal with the fact that her mother is in jail. Look out for exciting new star Gina Rodriguez in the title role.

Finding North

Another look at our changing world, this time focusing on the looming food crisis and the shocking fact that one in six Americans doesn’t get enough to eat on a regular basis.

The House I Live In

Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize: a documentary showing how the US government’s “War on Drugs” has become a dangerous losing battle which — with 45 million arrests — has turned the US into the world’s largest jailer.

Liberal Arts

A rom-com about a college graduate whose life is on hold until he meets up with an enthusiastic female student on a trip back to his alma mater. Elizabeth Olsen stars opposite writer/director Josh Radnor.

LUV

An 11-year-old boy bonds with his troubled uncle on the streets of Baltimore. It’s a film about the city and was shot there by Sheldon Candis, a first-time film-maker whose home town it is.

Nobody Walks

Another Sundance winner: Manhattan meets LaLa Land as Martine, a New York artist, moves into a LA family’s pool house, torpedoing their sexual and emotional composure in the process.

An Over-Simplification of Her Beauty

A pioneering mix of live action and animation as a lonely artist tries to understand why the mystery girl he just met won’t be coming over tonight after all.

The Queen of Versailles

The American Dream collapses when billionaires Jackie and David’s dream of building America’s biggest house (inspired by the Palace of Versailles) runs head-on into the current economic recession. Rich people hurt too, you know.

Shut Up and Play the Hits

Documentary about the last 48 hours in the life of cult band LCD Soundsystem, as they prepare for their final gig at Madison Square Garden.

Under African Skies

The latest from master documentarian Joe Berlinger (who was a fly on Metallica’s wall a few years back) as he explores the making of — and the controversy surrounding — Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland.

Safety Not Guaranteed

One of Sundance’s weirder titles — maybe that’s why it won the Screenwriting Award — about three people investigating a Craigslist ad looking for a time-travel volunteer. Expect a dish of sci-fi farce with a side order of emotion.

For Ellen

Another music-themed movie with Paul Dano as a struggling musician on one of those all-American journeys: a road trip to stop his ex-wife getting sole custody of their daughter.

Sundance London: the music

An Evening with Robert Redford and T Bone Burnett

In a conversation helped along by Nick Hornby, Sundance’s founder talks about the way music and movies link, with a man whose soundtracks are sometimes as successful as the films they accompany. Producer T Bone Burnett is the go-to guy for a rootsy feel, as with his music for Walk the Line, Cold Mountain and O Brother, Where Art Thou? There’ll also be a “special musical guest”, we are told. April 26.

Tricky and Martina Topley-Bird

“To me, Sundance is like the opportunity Island and Chris Blackwell gave me: a chance for an artist to make their art without compromise for commercial reasons,” says Tricky. Here he does a track-by-track revisit of the album of his which came closest to the holy grail — great art that actually makes money — his 1995 debut, Maxinquaye. He’ll be joined onstage by his former partner, Martina Topley-Bird, for the first time in 15 years. April 27.

Placebo

The rock trio are an ongoing concern despite peaking commercially in the late Nineties — all but one of their albums, including the most recent, Battle for the Sun, reached the top 10. While they record their seventh, they’ll emerge for what is a relatively intimate show for them.

All festival events are at the O2, SE10 at Cineworld or IndigO2. Full details and film times are still to be announced (0871 220 0260, calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras, sundance-london.com).

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