RTF at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival

Like it or not, the Sundance Film Festival is the tastemaker for indie film. Acceptance to Sundance is one of the surest ways for independent filmmakers to attract an audience, gain entry to other festivals, and lure a distributor. This week in Park City, Utah, several RTF filmmakers are among those lucky few who will be premiering their works to the 2014 Sundance crowd.

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

HELLION
Writer/Director, Kat Candler (RTF Lecturer)
Producer, Kelly Williams (BS '99, Lecturer)
Producer, Jonathan Duffy (BS ’00),
Co-Producer, Andrew Logan (BS ’04)
Actor, Chad Briggs (BS’97)
http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-2014-Kat-Candler/

Director Kat Candler and producer Kelly Williams are back in Park City for the third consecutive year with films written and directed by Candler. Expanding on Candler's lauded 2012 Sundance short by the same name, they developed the feature last year for the Sundance Creative Producer’s Lab. The filmmaking team gave RTF students the opportunity to observe and be involved in the film's real-time pre-production and development process, through a class they co-taught at UT Austin in spring 2013. A two-time IFP participant, Candler has screened her previous films at the Los Angeles Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, SXSW, and Slamdance and on PBS. She was recently awarded the San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation filmmaking grant. Last year, Williams also particpated in the festival as the producer for fellow Austinite Yen Tan's festival darling, the feature PIT STOP.

Synopsis
Thirteen-year-old Jacob is spiraling out of control. The motocross-obsessed teenager’s delinquent behavior pushes his family to the brink of collapse. All hell breaks loose when Jacob enlists his younger brother, Wes, as a partner in crime. Still reeling from his wife’s death, Jacob’s dad, Hollis, has all but abandoned his sons. When Child Protective Services removes Wes to live with his Aunt Pam, Hollis and Jacob are forced to face their culpability as they strive to bring Wes home. Hellion is set in southeastern Texas where the flames and lights of refineries frame the skyline and create a haunting backdrop for this fractured family of motherless men.

"Fueled by a commanding performance from Aaron Paul as Hollis, robust support from Juliette Lewis and Deke Garner, and a star-making turn by Josh Wiggins as Jacob, Hellion is as disturbing as it is powerful." —Sundance Film Festival reviewer, D.C.

KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER
Director/Co-screenwriter David Zellner (BS '96), along with his brother Nathan Zellner
http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-2014-Zellner-Bros/

These Austin-based siblings have been making films together since they were kids. Taking into account five award-winning shorts, their third feature after GOLIATH and KID-THING (which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival) represents the eighth Sundance Fest to showcase their films, and the first time in competition. In 2012, the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema held a retrospective of the Zellner brothers' work to date.

Synopsis
Kumiko lives in a cluttered, cramped apartment in Tokyo with her pet rabbit, Bunzo. She works as an office lady, robotically preparing tea and fetching dry cleaning for her nitpicky boss. But on her own time, she obsessively watches a well-known American film on a weathered VHS tape. Rewinding and fast-forwarding repeatedly, she meticulously maps out where a briefcase of castaway loot is buried within the fictional film. After hours of intense research—convinced that her destiny depends on finding the money—Kumiko heads to the United States and into the harsh Minnesota winter to search for it.

"The Zellners’ love for lonely eccentrics remains intact, and Rinko Kikuchi gives a fascinating performance as the introspective, withdrawn Kumiko, whose increasing discomfort in the world leads her to retreat ever further into isolation. Shot with breathtaking precision, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter soars to transcendence as it reveals the beauty in the quest for reality, even if that reality is just your own." —Sundance Film Festival reviewer, K.Y.

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

CAPTIVATED: THE TRIALS OF PAMELA SMART
Director of Cinematography, Naiti Gámez (MFA '07)

Films lensed by Naiti Gámez have screened at dozens of festivals worldwide, including Festival de Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, SXSW, Festival du Cinema de Paris, Woodstock Film Festival, Hampton's International Film Festival, Festival de Cine Internacional de Barcelona and Taos Talking Pictures. Her TV credits include ESPN, Showtime, MTV/MTV2, Discovery Channel, & tuTV. Gámez also wrote and directed the short Love, Sadie, which screened in the Short Film Corner at the Festival de Cannes and was a semi-finalist at the 2008 Student Academy Awards.

Synopsis
A small-town murder in New England became one of the highest-profile cases of the twentieth century. As the first fully televised court case, the Pamela Smart trial rattled the consciousness of America. From gavel to gavel, a nation tuned in, and reality TV was born. Pulsating with sex, drugs, betrayal, and murder, the trial inspired 20 years of television shows, books, plays, and movies, including To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Gus Van Sant.

"Unfolding with the suspense of a fiction film, CAPTIVATED: The Trials of Pamela Smart reexamines a case we thought we knew and cuts into deeper, hidden layers. With surgical precision, master filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar unmasks the role of the media in creating a skewed version of reality that the public now accepts as truth. Fascinating, sexy, and cunningly brilliant, CAPTIVATED makes us question everything we’re told as the line between journalism and entertainment continues to blur."
- Sundance Film Festiva reviwer, D.C.

NO NO: A DOCKUMENTARY
Director of Cinematography, John Fiege (MFA '06, former lecturer)

As a director of photography, Austin-based John Fiege has shot films that have played at festivals around the world, including Tribeca, Clermont-Ferrand, Edinburgh, San Francisco International, LA Film Festival, and SXSW. He has shot for a wide range of clients, including The New York Times, Discovery Channel, and CBS’s 48 Hours Mystery. As a director, Fiege works in both fiction and nonfiction, and his films have played at the Cannes Film Festival, The Museum of Modern Art, Miami International Film Festival, and Austin Film Festival, among many others. His film, Mississippi Chicken (distributed by Watchmaker Films), was nominated for a Gotham Award for “The Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.” His film awards include the Princess Grace Special Project Grant, the Princess Grace Award, Kodak’s Eastman Scholarship, the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund Grant, and the Carole Fielding Documentary Award.

Synopsis
The story of the pitcher who threw a no-hitter while tripping on acid—known by fans and nonfans alike—has become emblematic of professional baseball’s excess in the 1970s. However, that pitcher, Dock Ellis, had a career and a life that transcended this one-time use of LSD. During a time when the insular world of baseball was clashing with the world outside, Ellis was widely known as one of the most unabashedly black baseball players ever. Nearly suspended for wearing curlers in his hair and refusing to apologize for or moderate his aggressive behavior, Ellis used drugs to hide his crippling fear of failure.

"No No: A Dockumentary provides the backstory to an outrageous anecdote by presenting the full life—warts and all—of a unique baseball player and human being. From Jackie Robinson to Donald Hall, Ron Howard, and others, Dock Ellis touched the lives of many people, as told in this surprising story of redemption."
- Sundance Festival reviewer, S.S.
 

SHORTS COMPETITION

RAT PACK RAT, winner of Special Jury Award for "Unique Vision"
Writer/Director, Todd Rohal (RTF Lecturer)
Producer, Clay Liford (BS '97)

Todd Rohal wrote and directed The Guatemalan Handshake in 2006, participated in the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters Lab in 2009, and wrote and directed The Catechism Cataclysm in 2011. He has collaborated on music videos and DVD projects with filmmakers Cory McAbee and Jeff Krulik, and Austin band Ola Podrida.

Clay Liford is an Austin-based independent filmmaker. He's shot many shorts, directed a feature, and shot/edited over 20 other features.

Synopsis
A Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator, hired to visit a loyal Rat Pack fan, finds himself performing the last rites at the boy's bedside.