At Sundance Film Festival with Claire Aguilar, ITVS vice president of Programming

Producer Paco de Onis and Director Pamela Yates, The Reckoning

Lisa Heller, vice president of Original Programming, HBO

Catherine Olsen from the CBC and Iikka Vehkelahti, commissioning editor of Finland’s YLE, art critic and documentary producer

This is both a remarkable and strange year to be at Sundance, during the inauguration of President-Elect Obama and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. People say that the crowds are thinner this year, but it still seems crowded and screenings are full. It’s unseasonably warm––in the high 30’s during the day––and that makes people kind of happy not having to deal with the cold and snow. Yet there is something surreal about it.

We had a great ITVS party on Friday evening honoring two films at the festival: EL GENERAL, by Natalia Almada, and WILLIAM KUNSTLER: Disturbing the Universe, by Emily and Sarah Kunstler, which are scheduled for broadcast on PBS’s P.O.V. Also featured at Sundance was the film Wounded Knee by Stanley Nelson as one of the episodes of American Experience’s Native American series And We Shall Remain, which is scheduled for April 2009 on PBS.

Yesterday was my fourth day at Sundance and it was marked by a screening of the world premiere of The Reckoning, a film directed by Pamela Yates, produced by Paco de Onis and Peter Kinoy, about the International Criminal Court (ICC)––a powerful account of the establishment of the ICC and its pursuit of justice against crimes of genocide and war crimes. Pam and Paco have been working on The Reckoning for three years, and have told many stories chronicling the ICC and its head prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. I spoke with Paco and Pam at the Filmmakers Lodge about their work on this film and others about international justice and human rights in Guatemala, Peru and many other countries. They are so intelligent, dedicated and terrific filmmakers. The screening was packed, and full of enthusiastic response from the audience, including Chris Rock. The Reckoning is in competition for the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition.

Over the weekend, I went to a screening of When You’re Strange about Jim Morrison and the Doors––an amazing archival film that chronicles the history of the Doors with mesmerizing footage of sexy Jim and the late ‘60s music scene. I could sit for hours watching footage of Jim Morrison reciting, singing, prancing and leaping on stage. It was a real treat.

Before the screening, I attended the HBO-hosted dinner at the Canyons Resort, which turned out to be an oasis of calm amid the Sundance hustle and bustle and a cool watering-hole for the world documentary community. HBO has lots of documentaries at this festival, many shepherded by Lisa Heller, vice president of Original Programming. This was a great opportunity to meet with not only filmmakers, producers, distributors and sales agents, but international commissioning editors who are looking for development and acquisition. I dined with Catherine Olsen from the CBC who was thrilled to connect with Marina Zenovich, producer of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired to get on CBC in Canada. Iikka Vehkelahti, commissioning editor of Finland’s YLE, art critic and documentary producer, had a full day of screenings and was already writing about them on his own blog for YLE.

More to come!

Tags: film festival, independent film, Sundance