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Sundance at MoMA: Short Film Program Announced Sundance at MoMA: Sundance Film Festival Shorts, running in New York April 22-29, is the second in an annual collaboration between the Sundance Institute and The Museum of Modern Art. The two organizations collaborated for the first time in 2003 with a film series called Illuminated Voices, which presented original and provocative documentary films from around the world. This year’s series promises to be every bit as intriguing with 24 titles that include new voices as well as works by more established names such as Andrew Jarecki, Spike Jonze, and Alison Maclean, all of whom have gone on to make acclaimed features. Four distinct programs reflect the innovation and energy inherent in the fertile field of shorts - ranging from narrative to documentary to animation, and with running times from under one minute to just over thirty. “I love the forced economy of the short film - the discipline of compressing a story/idea to it's most essential, while creating the illusion that you have all the time in the world,” says Alison Maclean, whose Kitchen Sink (1989) plays in the Sundance Film Festival Shorts 2: Discovery in Motion program which highlights films by then unheard of artists. This debut of talent at the Sundance Film Festival has been one of the Festival’s greatest attributes and draws cinephiles from all over the world to the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, for the January festival. Andrew Jarecki, the acclaimed director of Capturing the Friedmans (2002) which won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury prize in 2003, is in complete agreement observing, “some of my most interesting filmmaking experiences have been working on short films, and there are plenty of full length films that would have been much better as shorts!” He goes on to add, “The format is un-pressurized; you are free to experiment knowing that if you don't like what you come up with, you can always just throw it out and pretend it never happened. That promotes a kind of innovative, fearless storytelling.” Jarecki’s Just a Clown(2004) also plays in the Discovery in Motion program. The importance of short films in the career path of these acclaimed directors cannot be overstated. “Making Kitchen Sink changed everything for me as a young New Zealand filmmaker, and precipitated my move to New York,” says Alison Mclean. “It's the only film I've made that's ever generated income for me, in the form of a small cheque every year.” Alison went on to direct Crush (1992), which played at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993, as well as episodes of Sex And The City. “Capturing the Friedmans had started out as a film about professional children's birthday party clowns; it was only after working for months with David Friedman, New York's number one party clown, that I discovered he had a secret story,” adds Jarecki. “After that story evolved into Capturing the Friedmans, there was something intriguing about going back and revisiting that original clown territory with David. In context, now, the two pieces really inform each other.” Andrea Arnold, director of WASP (2003), which won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Short Film, Live Action says it’s too early to tell how the short changed her life, but change her life it did. “There was not one second when chasing the kids in WASP after a take, or sitting on the wet pub car park floor at 3am that I imagined this now,” says Andrea. “Even now with the Oscar on my desk in front of me it is hard to believe. I was surprised to get short listed and shocked to win. I don't think you ever think it will go that far. It's still only a month or so since (it happened) and too early to say what it will really mean but life has definitely changed!” WASP plays in Sundance Film Festival Shorts 1: Short Films-Big Winners. Sundance at MoMA: Sundance Film Festival Shorts gives New York native Peter Sollett an opportunity to present his Five Feet High And Rising (2000) which won a Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival to a New York audience. He says having it “presented at MoMA is a great privilege. It reminds me why we work so hard to make our films!” With 24 of the finest films the short film format has to offer on view including not one but two Oscar-winning shorts: Chris Landreth's Ryan (2004) screens in the series. Sundance at MoMA: Sundance Film Festival Shorts should not be missed, but in case you do the series also plays at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on Friday nights from July 8-29. A wide range of shorts, including a number of the films featured in this series are available for viewing at no charge on the Sundance Online Film Festival web site at www.sundance.org , along with interviews with filmmakers and behind-the-scenes coverage of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, this past January. For more info log onto the Sundance Institute’s website at www.sundance.org or the Museum of Modern Arts website at http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_media/2005/sundance_shorts.html SUNDANCE AT MOMA: SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS Friday, April 22 Saturday, April 23 Sunday, April 24 5:30 Monday, April 25 Wednesday, April 27 Friday, April 29 |