Top independent films lauded at Sundance
The Sundance Institute, which was founded by Robert Redford in 1981, was created to aid the development of artists of independent vision and the Sundance Film Festival, held each January, is considered the premier showcase for American and international independent film.
On Saturday, the award-winning films, directors and actors showcased at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival were announced, each picked by the festival’s Grand Jury for their unique merits in the independent film industry.
“American Splendor” directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini was awarded the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize for this year’s festival. It’s a story about Harvey Pekar, who works at a VA hospital in his hometown and fills his time reading, writing and listening to jazz music. He decides to write his own brand of comic books after his buddy earns acclaim in comic art. After finding empty success, Harvey teams up with the equally depressive Joyce Brabner, and they tackle life together. Principle cast includes Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis and James Urbaniak.
“Capturing the Friedmans,” which was directed by Andrew Jarecki, captured the Documentary Grand Jury Prize. The Friedmans are a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking crimes. Given access to the family videos, Jarecki builds the movie as an investigation, but by constantly changing perspectives, “Capturing the Friedmans” embodies the difficulty of capturing the truth.
The Directing Awards went to Jonathan Karsh for “My Flesh and Blood” in the documentary category, which showed the world of 11 special-needs children and the mother who cares for them, and to Catherine Hardwicke for “Thirteen” in the dramatic category, which tells the story of the road that prepubescent and teenage children must travel along in the new millennium.
Excellence in Cinematography Awards were presented to Steve James’s documentary “Stevie,” which reconnects the film maker with a troubled youth he’d been a “big brother” to 10 years earlier and to Joey Curtis for “Quattro Noza,” the dazzling romantic film of illegal street racing and love.
The Dramatic Jury bestowed Special Jury Prizes for Outstanding Performance to both Patricia Clarkson for her work in “The Station Agent,” “Pieces of April” and “All the Real Girls” and Charles Busch for his role in “Die Mommie Die.”
The Documentary Jury bestowed Special Jury Prizes to “The Murder of Emmett Till,” which was directed by Stanley Nelson, and to “A Certain Kind of Death,” directed and produced by Blue Gadaegh and Grover Babcock.
For more information on the award-winning movies, visit the Sundance Institute’s home page at www.sundance.org.
–yanobi@hotmail.com