This year’s Sundance Film Festival is available virtually through the USA, with some content available freely without geographical restrictions.
Below I list some of my picks at this year’s festival, which runs until January 30, 2022.
TikTok Boom directed by Shalini Kantayya.
This documentary examines the algorithmic, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural influences and impact of the history-making app.
Summering directed by James Ponsoldt.
While planning how to spend their last weekend together, they stumble across a mystery that takes them on a life-changing adventure. The friends make a series of discoveries that are as much about solving the mystery as they are about learning the hard truths of growing up.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande directed by Sophie Hyde.
Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) doesn’t know good sex. Whatever it may be, Nancy, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had it, but she is determined to finally do something about that.
Neptune Frost directed by Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams.
This musical science fiction hybrid set in Rwanda is about a transcending connection between an intersex runaway, Neptune (played by both Cheryl Isheja and Elvis Ngabo “Bobo”), and a grieving coltan miner (Bertrand Ninteretse “Kaya Free”).
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power directed by Nina Menkes.
Using more than 175 film clips from canonical Hollywood favorites and cult classics as well as interviews with filmmakers and scholars, this documentary reveals a sinister framework of misogyny and paternalism that, from early cinema to the present day, infiltrates some of our favorite movies.
Master directed by Mariama Diallo.
Gail Bishop (Regina Hall), just instated as “Master,” a dean of students, discovers what lies behind the school’s immaculate facade; first-year student Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee) confronts a new home that is cold and unwelcoming; and literature professor Liv Beckman (Amber Gray) collides with colleagues who question her right to belong.
Mija directed by Isabel Castro.
This poignant documentary s an immensely emotional and intimate portrait honoring the resilience of immigrants and their children.
Something in the Dirt directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
This film tells a tale of these paranoid times, where every answer imaginable is just a Google search away.
For more on these films, watch my video below and visit festival.sundance.org.
