Sundance will dance this year on a hybrid footing.
The best-known American independent film festival will be held next month not only in the flesh in its usual mountains of the American West, but also on the internet, organizers announced Thursday.
A first for the cinematographic meeting which, this year, will feature a new documentary dedicated to the American artist Kanye West.
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Traditionally organized in January in Salt Lake City (Utah), the festival was forced in 2020 to adopt a 100% virtual formula due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A year later, the threat of the new Omicron variant of the virus prompted Sundance organizers to implement a hybrid, partly digital, approach to question-and-answer sessions between guests and the audience.
A formula which offers
"the greatest flexibility"
while
"winning on both counts: twice as much energy and publicity"
around the films presented, assured AFP the director of Sundance, Tabitha Jackson.
Documentaries galore
One of the most publicized films of the 2022 selection of the festival,
Jeen-yuhs
, a documentary series dedicated to rapper Kanye West will be particularly honored.
Directed by a longtime friend of the artist, Clarence "Coodie" Simmons, the series takes up sequences filmed during more than twenty years.
It won't be the only documentary screened in January, however.
We Need to Talk About Cosby
, devoted to the downfall of American television superstar Bill Cosby, or
The Princess
, on the life and disappearance of Princess Diana, are also on the program for the next edition of the Sundance Festival.
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Announced for January 20, the opening of the meeting will project to its audience of stars and journalists
Lucy and Desi
, portrait of the late comic legend Lucille Ball by comedian Amy Poehler. Director Rory Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, will examine in
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
, the series of errors that resulted, in quick succession, in two air disasters killing a total of 346 passengers in Boeing 737 Max aircraft on board. Due to the constraints linked to the pandemic, many directors have this year used
"archival images as a support for their creativity,"
notes Tabitha Jackson.
On the fictional side, the Japanese Nobel Prize for Literature Kazuo Ishiguro signs the screenplay for
Living
, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece
Vivre
, released in 1952, this time transplanted to London in the 1950s. The late Michael K. Williams , figure of the series
The Wire
(
On listening,
in French), will reappear alongside John Boyega in
892
, the story of an ex-American soldier forced to make violent and radical decisions during his return to civilian life to avoid to be thrown out on the street. In
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
, actress Emma Thompson plays a widow in her 50s who hires the services of a young sex worker while the creator of the
Girls
series
, Lena Dunham, will present the provocative
Sharp Stick
, her first feature film in more than a decade .
The festival will close on January 30.
Co-founded in 1978 by actor Robert Redford, Sundance is one of the largest and most renowned film festivals in the United States, appreciated for its ability to spot future talent, as was the case in 1992 for Quentin. Tarantino, at the time of
Reservoir Dogs,
or more recently with the American filmmaker Damien Chazelle, awarded in 2013 for
Whiplash
.