A still image from JEOM, written and directed by CalArts alum Kangmin Kim. I Image: Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
CalArtians were out in full force at last month’s 33rd annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, which ran Jan. 18 through 28, 2018. Founded in 1985 by actor, director and philanthropist Robert Redford, it remains the largest independent film festival in the United States.
For the 2018 festival, 110 feature-films were selected representing 29 countries and 47 first-time filmmakers. CalArts alumni and faculty who represented at the festival include:
- JEOM, written and directed by Kangmin Kim (Film MFA 11), was presented as part of the Animated Short Films programs. The film follows a father and son with the same big birthmark on their butts.
- Andrew Ahn (Film MFA 11) directed This Close, an entry in the Indie Episodic Program, which follows the travails of two deaf best friends. He was also supervising producer on Mud (Hashtł’ishnii)—about the last day in the life of Ruby, an alcoholic mother in Window Rock, Ariz.—in the Shorts Program.
- Christine Beebe (Film MFA 05) served as a creative producer on Hal, an exuberant portrait of 1970s film director Hal Ashby, which was presented as part of the U.S. Documentary Competition.
- As a producer on the film Columbus, recipient of Sundance Institute’s inaugural Creative Distribution Fellowship in 2017, Giulia Caruso (Film MFA 13) participated on the Producer’s Confidential panel. Alongside four other producers, Caruso presented her personal experience bypassing all-rights film distributors to get her work seen on
- Noah Grossman (Film BFA 20) worked as a VFX artist on The Show About the Show, whose second season was screened on the Indie Episodic program. The series follows an unhinged Brooklyn filmmaker as he attempts to make a TV show.
Helena Howard and Molly Parker appear in ‘Madeline’s Madeline’ by CalArts faculty Josephine Decker, an official selection of the NEXT program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. | Image: Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
- Director, screenwriter and Film Directing Program faculty Josephine Decker’s film Madeline’s Madeline was included in the Next Program. Starring Miranda July and Molly Parker, the film tells the story of Madeline, a teenager dedicated to her theatre workshop much to the worry of her protective mother. Decker also appeared alongside filmmakers Jim Hosking, Crystal Moselle and Boots Riley on This Is Not A Panel, the festival’s annual and unpredictable non-panel panel.
- And Nina Menkes, Program in Film and Video faculty, gave a presentation Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Oppression, as part of the EOS World Fund launch event. During the event, Menkes–along with feminist film pioneer Julie Dash–was presented with the first EOS World Fund grant, which will go toward the financing of her next feature film, Minotaur Rex.
Next year’s Sundance Film Festival takes place Jan. 24 through Feb. 3, 2019, in Park City.