Sundance

Currently a senior programmer and Director of Strategic Initiatives, John Nein has worked at the Sundance Film Festival since 2001. He also curates the festival’s preservation initiative, Los Angeles Library’s “Lost & Found at the Movies” conversation series; and serves as the consultant for American cinema at the Locarno Film Festival.

It’s that time of the year again: Hollywood and the international film industry are descending on Park City to kick off the year in movies. The weather forecast is freezing: when the high is 30F, you just know you better pack those earmuffs for a night out on Main Street.

An intimately scaled, uniquely heartrending nonfiction film that serves as an emotionally fortifying takedown of the dehumanizing demagoguery dominating much of the discourse of the modern-day American political landscape, Midnight Traveler is a powerful snapshot of refugee reality, capturing the first-person dangers and universal love of a family on the run. Shot entirely on three cell phones and telling the story of a journey spanning over 3,500 miles and three-plus years, Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s movie, which just enjoyed its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, is a handcrafted, openhearted vaccination against ignorance and hate.

Best known as the author of the Millennium trilogy, a brooding and gritty series of crime novels which introduced readers to the complex character of Lisbeth Salander and collectively sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, late Swedish writer Stieg Larsson was actually also an investigative journalist. He dedicated his life to studying and exposing the dark world of xenophobia and anti-democratic political movements – an endeavor that obviously has increased relevance today.

Part mystery and part history lesson, director Jacqueline Olive’s Always in Season is an ambitious and extraordinarily timely documentary about race relations, equality under the law, and the lingering aftereffects of a dark and violent past that still lurk, like a latent infection, in too many parts of the United States. Narrated by Danny Glover, and melding the story of the suspicious 2014 death of an African American teenager found hanging from a swing set with a broader exploration of the country’s history of lynching, the film is a pained howl for justice and reconciliation in a divided America.

Another Sundance is in the books. In spite of the currently changing film and media landscape and the rise of episodic drama, Robert Redford's indie showcase remains a crucial showcase for exciting, original art – even in the age of streaming content.

The world – or at least Park City, UT – looks like it has been dipped in milk – but there are still splashes of color, and perennial black is always a staple.

Documentaries are no longer feature films’ poor little relation and it's in no small way thanks to the Sundance Festival that has attracted, promoted and nursed many of them to successful runs, first in theaters,  and later on cable and streaming channels. It was at Park City that Alex Gibney premiered one of the hottest docs four years ago, Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief, and two years later Vice President Al Gore brought the sequel to his climate change film An Inconvenient Truth which itself caused a stir in 2006.

Knock Down the House is an apt title for the documentary by Rachel Lears, which follows the campaigns of four insurgent candidates as they try to pull upset primary victories against Democratic incumbents ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections. The four women are part, as we are appraised at the beginning of the film, of a nationwide grassroots movement sparked in opposition to Donald Trump’s election, which aims to wrest control of the House of Representatives from Republicans but also to reshape the Democratic establishment with an infusion of young, independent-minded citizen-candidates.

PARK CITY-  The Great Hack, by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim's (previously at Sundance with The Square) is a deep dive into the election influence scandal which appears to have had an outsized role in shaping the outcome of the Brexit and Trump elections and favoring the rise of global populism. The film follows two main characters.