Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2009 >> US Documentary Competition
This year's 16 films were selected from 879 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.
View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Frontier, International Animated Shorts, International Documentary Shorts, International Dramatic Shorts, New Frontier Shorts, Park City at Midnight, Premieres, Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight, Spectrum: Dramatic Films, US Animated Shorts, US Documentary Shorts, US Dramatic Competition, US Short Films, World Cinema Documentary, World Dramatic Competition
Crude and The Cove
Art & Copy (Art And Copy)
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Doug Pray; Writer: Timothy J Sexton), Official Site
World Premiere
Rare interviews with the most influential advertising creative minds of our age illustrate the wide-reaching effect advertising and creativity have on modern culture.
Boy Interrupted
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Dana Heinz Perry), Official Site
World Premiere
An intimate look at the life, mental illness and death of a young man told from the point of view of the filmmaker - his mother.
The Cove
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Louie Psihoyos; Writer: Mark Monroe; Stars: Ric O'Barry), Official Site, Trailer
Documentary exploring dolphin killing in Japan.
World Premiere
Crude
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Joe Berlinger), Official Site
The inside story of the “Amazon Chernobyl” case in the rainforest of Ecuador, the largest oil-related environmental lawsuit in the world.
World Premiere
Dirt! The Movie
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Bill Benenson, Eleonore Dailly, Gene Rosow; Stars: Janine Benyus, Jeremy Narby, Sebastião Salgado, Marisha Farnsworth, Kevin Rowell, Lottie Manuel, Edward Pagan, Pabo Rolan)
World Premiere
The story of the relationship between humans and dirt, humorously detailing how humans are rapidly destroying the last natural resource on earth.
When You're Strange and The September Issue
El General
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Natalia Almada), Official Site
World Premiere
Natalia Almada, the great-granddaughter of Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles - one of Mexico’s most controversial revolutionary figures - paints an intimate portrait of Mexico.
Good Hair
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Jeff Stilson; Stars: Chris Rock)
World Premiere
Comedian Chris Rock sets out to examine the culture of African-American hair and hairstyles.
Over The Hills And Far Away
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Michel Orion Scott), Trailer
World Premiere
The journey of the Isaacson family as they travel through Mongolia in search of a mysterious shaman they believe can heal their autistic son.
The Reckoning: The Battle For The International Criminal Court
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Pamela Yates; Writer: Peter Kinoy, Paco de Onís, Pamela Yates), Official Site
A battle of monumental proportions unfolds as International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo faces down warlords, genocidal dictators and world superpowers in bringing perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice.
World Premiere
Reporter
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Eric Daniel Metzgar; Stars: Nicholas D Kristof)
World Premiere
Set in Africa, this documentary chronicles, in verité fashion, the haunting, physically grueling and shocking voyage of Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Nicholas D Kristof.
The Reckoning: The Battle For The International Criminal Court and Sergio
Sergio
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Greg Barker)
World Premiere
Documentary examining the role of the United Nations and the international community through the life and experiences of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, including interviews with those who knew and worked with him over the course of his extraordinary career.
Shouting Fire: Stories From The Edge Of Free Speech
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Liz Garbus)
World Premiere
An exploration of the history and current state of free speech in America narrated by the filmmaker's father, First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus.
The September Issue
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: RJ Cutler), Official Site, Trailer
Fly-on-the-wall look inside Vogue.
World Premiere
We Live In Public
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Ondi Timoner; Stars: Josh Harris), Official Site
World Premiere
The story of the internet’s revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of maverick web pioneer, Josh Harris and his transgressive art project that shocked New York.
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler), Official Site
With clients including Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and the Chicago 10, the late civil rights attorney William Kunstler was one of the most famous lawyers of the 20th century. Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore their father’s life from movement hero to “the most hated lawyer in America”.
World Premiere
Boy Interrupted and El General
When You're Strange (The Doors: When You're Strange)
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Tom DiCillo; Writer: Tom DiCillo; Stars: Johnny Depp, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Ladd, Adolf Hitler, Janis Joplin, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley)
Documentary tracking the rise of The Doors, featuring rare footage of the band and Jim Morrison.
World Premiere
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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