Sundance 2023: Making the Utah production stage ready for film: State’s cinematic industry made big strides in 2022

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Part I is an overview of the Utah film industry in the current moment. Part II (tomorrow) will offer a summary preview of the Sundance 2023 feature-length and short films, which The Utah Review will cover. Like nearly 2,400 of their peers who are listed in a directory of Utah film industry professionals, … Read more

Sundance 2022: Utah’s film industry continues to grow; finds solid representation in slimmer festival slate

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Part I is an overview of the Utah film industry in the current moment. Part II (tomorrow) will offer a summary preview of the Sundance 2022 feature-length and short films, which The Utah Review will cover. It was so close. Three weeks before Sundance 2022 (Jan. 20–30) was slated to open, organizers had … Read more

Sundance 2021: Ailey is elegant documentary of legacy highlighting one of the greatest American choreographers of the 20th century

In the U.S., the art of dance has been a revolutionary art form. Dance artists and choreographers have expanded the possibilities of movement languages and their own distinctive vocabularies to produce work that often speaks to the urgency of the contemporary dynamics socially, politically and culturally through magnificent storytelling without the necessity of text. It … Read more

Sundance 2021: Bring Your Own Brigade riveting, immensely elucidating documentary about California wildfires with surprising epiphanies

In a Bay Nature magazine essay published earlier this month about what Californians should learn from recent years of devastating wildfires, Don Hankins poses the central question and context: Where did we go wrong, and what can we do differently to live in this land? To recognize that fire is the law of the land is … Read more

Sundance 2021: Four documentaries, one narrative highlight Utah connections to festival slate; Tumbleweeds for Kids selections

EDITOR’S NOTE: Part II summarizes the films and programs from Sundance 2021 that are part of The Utah Review coverage. For Part I which is an overview of the state of the film industry in Utah, see here. Films premiering this week at Sundance include documentaries about one of the greatest American choreographers of the … Read more

Utah Film Center to present live stream event of 306 Hollywood, award-winning documentary, surefire audience pleaser

As The Utah Review noted as part of its Sundance coverage in 2018, “there is a beautiful curation of artistry in every element of 306 Hollywood, a gem of a documentary directed by Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín.” This award-winning documentary, which premiered at Sundance and was a Utah Film Center fiscal sponsorship, will be … Read more

Sundance 2020: The Glorias unique creative nonfiction take on the life’s work of Gloria Steinem

Director Julie Taymor had hoped to close The Glorias, an admirable creative nonfiction treatment of Gloria Steinem’s historic life that premiered at Sundance, on a different note. Anticipating that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 presidential election, Taymor, who also directed the exceptional biopic about artist Frida Kahlo, wanted to close her latest film on … Read more

Sundance 2020: Feels Good Man documentary lives up to its title as perfect entertainment with important lessons about ourselves in contentious times

Making its Sundance premiere, Feels Good Man, directed by Arthur Jones, is a perfect documentary of multidisciplinary value. In addition to being thoroughly entertaining, it offers an outstanding case study about social media, its role in politics, the framing of cultural identities, and the global dynamics of memes along with their strategic appropriation; the implications … Read more