Go Into The Story at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival: January 30

Notes and reflections from Park City, Utah.

I am part of a group from the DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts participating in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. You can read about our Day One and Day Two experience here and here.

Day Three began with a Q&A discussion with Julius Onah, writer-director of the movie Luce. Onah commented that the movie delves into the dynamic how white people — even well-intentioned parents like Amy (Naomi Watts) and Peter (Tim Roth) — have “blind spots” when it comes to race relations.

The following Q&A session featured Chinonye Chukwu, writer-director of the prison drama Clemency. As pointed as the movie is with its focus on the trauma of capital punishment, Chukwu said that a key theme is “We all just want to be seen and heard.”

Then it was on to two movie premieres: The Farewell, written and directed by Lulu Wang. Plot: A Chinese family discover their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies.

I love this movie! It’s a character driven drama-comedy which is both really funny and really touching. It offers an immersion into Chinese culture in relation to universally relatable themes: family, death, weddings, and the lies we tell each other to survive. I’m thrilled the movie landed with A24 as I’m sure they’ll do a great job rolling out and promoting the film in theaters.

My next movie was The Tomorrow Man, written and directed by Noble Jones. Plot: Ed Hemsler spends his life preparing for a disaster that may never come. Ronnie Meisner spends her life shopping for things she may never use. In a small town somewhere in America, these two people will try to find love while trying not to get lost in each other’s stuff.

The movie features two excellent performances by veteran actors John Lithgow and Blythe Danner.

The movie, picked up for distribution by Bleeker Street, appears to be slated to roll out as counter-programming this summer.

I’ve been walking from event to event, thoroughly enjoying the sights and sounds of the Festival at Park City. Wonderful to hear nearly every passersby talking about movies.

An exciting day tomorrow: Three movies, plus a Q&A conversation with The Farewell writer-director Lulu Wang

Twitter: @depaulcinema, @sundancefest.