Grad Film at Sundance 2022

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival lineup has been announced, featuring work from our spectacular alumni and current students.

FEATURES:

Nanny, a film written and directed by alumna Nikyatu Jusu, follows an undocumented nanny working for a privileged couple in New York City. As she prepares for the arrival of the son she left behind in Senegal, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together. The film was selected for the 2019 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Labs & Summit, the 2020 Screenwriters Lab and the 2019 IRP Project Forum. Nanny will compete in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, which has premiered acclaimed films such as The Farewell, Eighth Grade, and Sorry to Bother You.

Palm Trees and Power Lines, directed by alumna Jamie Dack, follows seventeen-year-old Lea, who spends her summer aimlessly tanning with her best friend, tiptoeing around her fragile mother, and getting stoned with a group of boys from school. This monotony is disrupted by an encounter with Tom, a man twice her age, who promises an alternative to Lea’s unsatisfying adolescent life. Her short film of the same title premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival as a Cinefondation Selection, and received the 2nd Place King Award at New York University’s Graduate Film Wasserman Awards. Palm Trees and Power Lines will have it’s World Premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Student Leah Chen Baker produced and alumna Chananun Chotrungroj served as DP.

A Love Song, written and directed by alumnus Max Walker-Silverman, centers on two childhood sweethearts, now both widowed, sharing a night by a lake in the mountains. A love story for those who are alone. The film is an Official Selection of the Opening Night NEXT Competition - a category for pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling - where it will have its World Premiere.  The film was DPd by alumnus Alfonso Herrera Salcedo; music by alumnus Ramzi Bashour.

Descendant, directed by alumna Margaret Brown, will premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition. Clotilda, the last ship carrying enslaved Africans to the United States, arrived in Alabama 40 years after African slave trading became a capital offense. It was promptly burned, and its existence denied. After a century shrouded in secrecy and speculation, descendants of the Clotilda’s survivors are reclaiming their story.

Girl Picture, directed by alumna Alli Haapasalo, follows Mimmi, Emma and Rönkkö, three girls at the cusp of womanhood, trying to draw their own contours. In three consecutive Fridays two of them experience the earth-moving effects of falling in love, while the third goes on a quest to find something she’s never experienced before: pleasure. The film will premiere in the International Feature category.

Blood - by Bradley Rust Gray,  DPd by alum Eric Lin, will premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. After the death of her husband, a young woman travels to Japan where she finds solace in an old friend. But when comforting turns to affection, she realizes she must give herself permission before she can fall in love again.

We Need to Talk About Cosby - a documentary by Kamau Bell, edited by alumna Jen Brooks — will screen in the Premieres category. Synopsis: Can you separate the art from the artist? Should you even try? While there are many people about whom we could ask those questions, none pose a tougher challenge than Bill Cosby. 

SHORTS:

The Inside World, supported by key collaborator alumna Annie J. Howell, is a 15-minute multimedia project. Digital Art NFTs meet gameplay in this community driven mystery, in which the city of Las Vegas is now operated by artificial intelligence. Fourteen AI “Managers” handle every sector of the city. The problem is, one of them is secretly human. The project will have its World Premiere in the New Frontier category.

Warsha, a France/Lebanon film by alumna Dania Bdeir, tells the story of a Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut who volunteers to cover a shift on one of the most dangerous cranes, where he is able to find his freedom. The short will have its World Premiere in the International Live Action Short Films category.

Family Remains, directed by alumna Tamara Jenkins, centers on a mother and daughter who are marooned in a sleepy community 10 years after the disappearance of the girl’s father. This fictional short was first shown at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, receiving the Award for Excellence in Short Filmmaking. This year, it will screen in the From the Collection Short Films segment.

Boneshaker, directed by alumna Nuotama Frances Bodomo and produced by alumna Shruti Ganguly, originally premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Lost in America, an African family travels to a Louisiana church to find a cure for its problem child.

Trevor - by director Peggy Rajski, edited by Professor John Tintori — first premiered at Sundance 1995, and received the Honorable Mention Short Filmmaking award. The short is a poignant and liberating look at a 13-year-old as he begins to discover his sexual identity. Trevor won the Oscar for Best Narrative Short in 1997.

Sikumi, directed by alumnus Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, tells the story of an Inuit hunter who inadvertently becomes a witness to a murder. This fictional short was first shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, receiving Jury Prize Short Filmmaking.

Find the full list at Sundance.