For more than 20 years, the Dramatic Competition has offered a first look at groundbreaking new voices in American independent film. Fueled by fierce creativity and vision, these 16 films are guaranteed to leave a lasting impact on the next generation of cinema. Another Earth DIRECTOR: Mike Cahill SCREENWRITERS: Mike Cahill, Brit Marling U.S.A., 2011, 90 min., color When Rhonda Williams, a beautiful, bright MIT astrophysics student, leans out of her U.S. Dramatic car window to catch sight of a newly discovered planet, she slams into a minivan, Competition killing a man’s family. After serving four years in prison, she returns home and feels compelled to meet the bereaved husband and father who was left behind. This tenth, new planet, which now can be seen in the sky, is a mirror planet. An essay contest is being held with the winner granted a spot on a civilian space shuttle to visit the planet. Having been burned by her passions, Rhonda wonders, what would a mirror version of herself, someone who had made different choices, be like? In this auspicious debut, director Mike Cahill offers a taut, superbly conceived science-fiction romance that marks the emergence of the multitalented actor/screenwriter Brit Marling. Marrying character with high concept, Another Earth lures audiences to go where no one has gone before.—S.F. ExP: Tyler Brodie, Paul Mezey Pr: Hunter Gray, Mike Cahill, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker AsP: Phaedon Papadopoulos Mu: Fall on Your Sword Ca: James Calleri, Paul Davis Principal Cast: William Mapother, Brit Marling, Jordan Baker, Robin Lord Taylor, Flint Beverage Monday, January 24, 12:15 p.m. - ANOTH24CD Eccles Theatre, Park City Tuesday, January 25, noon - ANOTH25YD Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City Thursday, January 27, 6:00 p.m. - ANOTH27LE Library Center Theatre, Park City Friday, January 28, 9:30 p.m. - ANOTH28GN Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC Saturday, January 29, 8:30 a.m. - ANOTH293M Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City 14 Casting Casting Ca: Costume Designer CoD: Music Mu: Another Happy Day Benavides Born Circumstance Sound So: DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Sam Levinson DIRECTOR: Amy Wendel DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: U.S.A., 2011, 115 min., color SCREENWRITERS: Daniel Meisel, Amy Wendel Maryam Keshavarz U.S.A., 2011, 91 min., color U.S.A./Iran/Lebanon, 2011, 105 min., color A wedding at her parents’ Annapolis estate Art Director hurls high-strung Lynn into the fire of primal, English and Spanish with English subtitles Farsi with English subtitles ArD: Byzantine family dynamics. It’s the wedding In a small south Texas town, there aren’t many Teenagers Atafeh, and her best friend, of Lynn’s son, whom she was deprived of career options for young people besides oil Shireen, are experimenting with their raising because of her acrimonious divorce, rigs, the military, or fast-food restaurants. Luz burgeoning sexuality amidst the subculture of and a feud still rages between Lynn and her Garcia, a fiery high-school athlete, is deter- Tehran’s underground art scene when Atafeh’s ex-husband’s hot-tempered wife. Meanwhile, Production Designer mined to forge a different future; she’s gained brother, Mehran, returns home from drug the three children Lynn did raise display a PrD: admission to the University of Texas at Austin. rehab as the prodigal son. Battling his demons, panoply of disturbing behaviors like cutting The problem is she can’t afford to go. With her Mehran vehemently renounces his former life Editor and drug addiction, which Lynn’s mother and one shot at a scholarship riding on the state as a classical musician and joins the morality Ed: sisters alternately ridicule and blame her powerlifting championship, she police. He disapproves of his sister’s for. As Lynn attempts catharsis, her mother sees no choice but to bend the rules to developing intimate relationship with Shireen sweeps issues under the rug, but painful ensure her victory. Although Luz’s rashness and becomes obsessed with saving Shireen truths bubble and spurt. Clan members deploy and frustration land her in increasingly from Atafeh’s influence. Suddenly, the two Cinematographer ricocheting arrows to protect themselves— Ci: hotter water, they also fuel her with courage siblings, who were close confidants, are and wound others—as the fine lines between and empowerment. entangled in a triangle of suspense, victims and perpetrators blur. Rarely do we see a female protagonist surveillance, and betrayal as the once-liberal Many films have tread the terrain of with such agency, intelligence, and flawed haven of the family home becomes a place upper-class family dysfunction, but few of danger for the beautiful Atafeh. Associate Producer humanity, and the experience is enormously marshal as much sensitivity, rawness, AsP: satisfying. With lush naturalism, Benavides Splendidly constructed and saturated with and truth—and few performances penetrate Born nimbly portrays the textured world of a sumptuous sense of style and sensuality, as deeply as those of Ellen Barkin, Ellen an America seldom explored onscreen: a place Circumstance marks the arrival of an Coproducer Burstyn, and Ezra Miller as they navigate the where multifaceted, third-generation Mexican exciting, original talent. First-time feature CoP: emotional minefields of unmet needs that span American characters, conscious of obstacles writer/director Maryam Keshavarz registers generations.—C.L. and opportunities, fight to shape their own a rare glimpse of forbidden love in today’s lives.—C.L. Iranian youth culture.—S.F. Producer Pr: Celine Rattray, Pamela Fielder, Todd Traina, Pr: Johnny Lin, Michael Nardelli Ci: Ivan Strasburg Pr: Daniel Meisel, Susan Kirr Ci: Rob Hauer Pr: Karin Chien, Maryam Keshavarz, Melissa M. Lee Ed: Ray Hubley PrD: Michael Grasley Ed: Andres Santamaria PrD: Jade Healy CoP: Antonin Dedet Ci: Brian Rigney Hubbard CoD: Stacey Battat Ca: Cindy Tolan CoD: Amy Maner Ca: Toni Cobb Brock, Sally Allen Ed: Andrea Chignoli Mu: Gingger Shankar Principal Cast: Ellen Barkin, Ezra Miller, Principal Cast: Corina Calderon, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Principal Cast: Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy, Kate Bosworth, Demi Moore, Ellen Burstyn, Executive Producer Joseph Julian Soria, Julia Vera, Julio César Cedillo, Reza Sixo Safai, Soheil Parsa, Nasrin Pakkho, Thomas Haden Church, George Kennedy ExP: Julian Works, Leticia Magaña Sina Amedson Sunday, January 23, 3:30 p.m. - ANHAP23CA Saturday, January 22, 8:30 p.m. - BENAV22LN Saturday, January 22, 11:30 a.m. - CIRCU22LD Eccles Theatre, Park City Library Center Theatre, Park City Library Center Theatre, Park City Credit Legend Monday, January 24, 6:30 p.m. - ANHAP24GE Sunday, January 23, 9:45 p.m. - BENAV23BN Tuesday, January 25, 9:00 p.m. - CIRCU25WN Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC Broadway Centre Cinema V, SLC Tower Theatre, SLC Tuesday, January 25, 8:45 p.m. - ANHAP25LN Monday, January 24, 11:30 p.m. - BENAV24PL Wednesday, January 26, 11:30 p.m. - CIRCU26PL Library Center Theatre, Park City Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Special screening for Park City locals. Pass Holders and Wednesday, January 26, 2:30 p.m. - BENAV26PA Thursday, January 27, 12:15 p.m. - CIRCU27CD any others need to waitlist. Contact the Park City Main Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Eccles Theatre, Park City Box Office for ticket information. Friday, January 28, 3:15 p.m. - BENAV28CA Friday, January 28, noon - CIRCU28SD Thursday, January 27, 11:30 a.m. - ANHAP27PD Eccles Theatre, Park City Screening Room, Sundance Resort Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Saturday, January 29, 3:00 p.m. - BENAV29BA Saturday, January 29, 11:30 a.m. - CIRCU29PD Saturday, January 29, 8:30 a.m. - ANHAP29LM Broadway Centre Cinema VI, SLC Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Library Center Theatre, Park City U.S. Dramatic Competition sundance.org/festival 15 Gun Hill Road HERE Higher Ground DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: DIRECTOR: Braden King DIRECTOR: Vera Farmiga Rashaad Ernesto Green SCREENWRITERS: Braden King, Dani Valent SCREENWRITERS: Carolyn S. Briggs, U.S.A., 2011, 100 min., color U.S.A., 2010, 120 min., color Tim Metcalfe U.S.A., 2010, 109 min., color After three years in prison, macho Enrique English and Armenian with English subtitles (Esai Morales) returns home to the Bronx and Will (Ben Foster) is a satellite-mapping Charting one woman’s spiritual journey finds things changed. His wife, Angela (Judy engineer conducting a survey of Armenia. through life while exploring and embracing Reyes), is distant, and his teenage son, One morning at his hotel, he meets Gadarine her own humanity, Higher Ground is that Michael, has come out as Vanessa, a (Lubna Azabal), an Armenian expatriate and rare film that is rich in ideas but also charged transgender woman. Unable to accept his photographer, who has recently returned with emotion. child for who she is now, Enrique clings to home. The pair impulsively decide to drive As a child growing up in the 1960s, Corrine’s his masculine ideals while Angela attempts to across the country together. defining feature is her sense of inadequacy. hold the family together by fiercely protecting When she reaches high school, her home life An unlikely love story, HERE is also a Vanessa. Still under the watchful eye of his begins to unravel, driving her into the arms parole officer, Enrique must become the father cerebral, self-reflexive road movie that arrives at a fascinating intersection of forms. The film of Ethan, a guitarist in a local band. An event he needs to be or, once again, risk losing his propels them to join a small fundamentalist family and freedom. was born from a non-narrative multimedia piece (2008 Sundance Film Festival, New community where they find meaning and The heart of Gun Hill Road lies in two Frontier); it was a collaboration among stability. But some of its more conservative places: a father’s inability to escape the director Braden King, a composer, and a video tenets leave Corinne unsettled, driving her vicious cycle of his life, and the richly drawn artist, parts of which migrated into this script into a profound crisis of faith that turns her character of Michael/Vanessa (newcomer (developed through the Sundance Institute world upside down.