We're excited announce that several films by TEC alums and teachers made it into Sundance Film Festival's 2017 lineup!
City of Ghosts | Edited by TEC Alum Matthew Hamachek
Directed, produced, and filmed by Academy Award–nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land, 2015 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award), City of Ghosts is a singularly powerful cinematic experience that is sure to shake audiences to their core as it elevates the canon of one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today.
Deidra & Laney Rob a Train | Edited by TEC Alum Michael Taylor
Returning director, Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest, 2014 Sundance Film Festival) creates comedic alchemy with rising stars Ashleigh Murray (Deidra) and Rachel Crow (Laney) in this zany lemons-to-lemonade romp through kids facing tough times. Fiercely spirited, Deidra & Laney Rob a Train buoyantly flips the script on a world that keeps kids living across the tracks down on their luck.
Give me Future | Edited by TEC Alums Sheila Shiraz and Eugene Yi
In what began as a concert film intended to document this groundbreaking event, director Austin Peters turns the camera on a burgeoning youth movement, fusing exhilarating performance footage with authentic stories of cultural and political shifts in a country on the precipice of change.
The Incredible Jessica James | Edited by TEC alum Mollie Goldstein
Writer/director Jim Strouse’s three previous films all played at the Sundance Film Festival. The most recent of these, People Places Things (2015), featured Jessica Williams in a supporting role, and it proved to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Williams broke onto the scene as a correspondent on The Daily Show and followed that up with her hilarious podcast, 2 Dope Queens. With The Incredible Jessica James, she proves what has always been self-evident—that she is destined to be a star. With charisma, charm, and humor to burn, Williams crushes it as a leading lady in this vivacious romantic comedy with teeth.
Long Strange Trip | Edited by TEC Teacher Keith Fraase
The tale of the Grateful Dead is inspiring, complicated, and downright messy. A tribe of contrarians, they made art out of open-ended chaos and inadvertently achieved success on their own terms. Never-before-seen footage and interviews offer this unprecedented and unvarnished look at the life of the Dead.
Marjorie Prime | Edited by TEC Alum Kathryn J. Schubert
Built around exceptional performances from a veteran cast and shot with the intimate rhythm of mortality, Marjorie Prime shines a light on an often-obscured corner in the world of artificial intelligence and its interactions with death. Bringing us robustly into the future, Michael Almereyda’s poetic film forces us to face the question—If we had the opportunity, how would we choose to rebuild the past, and what would we decide to forget?
Thoroughbred | Edited by TEC Alum Louise Ford
First-time director Cory Finley’s impressively stylish and assured filmmaking evokes a high-class world that is simultaneously familiar and strange, dripping with acidic dark wit and a disquietingly eerie score. Finley nurtures and coaxes astounding chemistry out of his talented cast, from the capricious friendship that binds Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, 2015) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, 2015), to the unruly vulnerability of Anton Yelchin as their unlikely co-conspirator. Firmly staking his claim as a filmmaker to watch, Finley comfortably basks in the quiet chaos of his characters and leaves behind a beautiful and orderly trail of destruction.
Walking Out | Edited by TEC Alum Michael Taylor
Big Sky–born co-writers and directors Alex and Andrew Smith (returning to the Festival for the first time since 2002’s The Slaughter Rule) exquisitely capture not only the awe-inspiring beauty of Montana’s landscape, but also the emotional realities of life isolated within it. Matt Bomer, as a steely father aching to be known by his son, delivers a searing performance, matched by teen actor Josh Wiggins’s impressive work as the stubborn boy striving to earn his father’s respect—and to save his life.