Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2011 >> US Documentary Competition
This year’s 16 films were selected from 841 submissions. Each is a world premiere.
View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Documentary Premieres, From The Collection, Native Showcase, New Frontier, NEXT (<=>), Park City At Midnight, Premieres, Spotlight, US Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Sing Your Song and We Were Here
Beats, Rhymes And Life
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Michael Rapaport; Stars: Michael Rapaport, Mos Def, Ludacris, Common, Q-Tip, Pharrell Williams, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Ghostface Killah, Angie Martinez, Ahmir-Khalib Thompson, Phife Dawg, De La Soul, Pete Rock, Jarobi White)
World Premiere
The story of the rise and influence of one of the most innovative and influential hip hop bands of all time, the collective known as A Tribe Called Quest.
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Constance Marks; Stars: Fran Brill, Joan Ganz Cooney, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O'Donnell), Official Site
Documentary about the man behind the Muppet.
World Premiere
Buck
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Cindy Meehl; Stars: Buck Brannaman)
World Premiere
In a story about the power of non-violence, master horse trainer Buck Brannaman uses principles of respect and trust to tame horses and inspire their human counterparts.
Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death And Technology
(Director: Tiffany Shlain; Writer: Tiffany Shlain, Ken Goldberg, Carlton Evans and Sawyer Steele)
World Premiere
A stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century. For centuries we’ve been declaring independence. With insight, curiosity, and humor, the film explores whether it’s time to declare our interdependence.
Crime After Crime
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Yoav Potash; Stars: Joshua Safran, Deborah Peagler, Nadia Costa), Official Site
World Premiere
Debbie Peagler is a survivor of brutal domestic violence incarcerated for her connection to the murder of her abuser. Two decades later a pair of rookie land-use attorneys cut their teeth on her case, attracting global attention to the troubled intersection of domestic violence and criminal justice.
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey and How To Die In Oregon
How To Die In Oregon
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Peter Richardson)
A look at Oregonians who choose physician-assisted suicide - and those battling to bring in similar laws in other states.
World Premiere
Hot Coffee
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Susan Saladoff; Stars: John Grisham, Al Franken, Joanne Doroshow), Official Site
World Premiere
Following subjects whose lives have been devastated by an inability to access the courts, this film shows that many long-held beliefs about the US civil justice system have been paid for by corporate America.
If A Tree Falls: A Story Of The Earth Liberation Front
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Marshall Curry; Writer: Marshall Curry)
World Premiere
The Earth Liberation Front is a radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat'. Daniel McGowan, an ELF member, faces life in prison for two multi-million dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. But who is really to blame?
The Last Mountain
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Bill Haney; Writer: Bill Haney, Peter Rhodes)
World Premiere
A coal mining corporation and a tiny community vie for the last great mountain in Appalachia in a battle for the future of energy.
Miss Representation
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Jennifer Siebel Newsom; Writer: Jennifer Siebel Newsom; Stars: Margaret Cho, Lisa Ling, Gavin Newsom)
World Premiere
Uncovers how American mainstream media’s limited and disparaging portrayals of women contribute to the under-representation of women in power positions – creating another generation of women defined by youth, beauty and sexuality, and not by their capacity as leaders.
Troubadours and Page One: Inside The New York Times
Page One: Inside The New York Times
(Country: United States; Year: 2010; Director: Andrew Rossi)
A documentary about the famous US newspaper and the crisis facing modern journalism.
The Redemption Of General Butt Naked
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Daniele Anastasion, Eric Strauss), Official Site
World Premiere
A brutal warlord who murdered thousands during Liberia's horrific 14-year civil war renounces his violent past and reinvents himself as an Evangelist, facing those he once terrorised.
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery Of The Toynbee Tiles
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Jon Foy)
World Premiere
An urban mystery unfurls as one man pieces together the surreal meaning of hundreds of cryptic tiled messages that have been appearing in city streets across the US and South America.
Sing Your Song
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Susanne Rostock; Writer: Susanne Rostock; Stars: Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Marge Champion, Fran Scott Attaway, Julian Bond, George Schlatter, Adrienne Belafonte-Biesmeyer, Diahann Carroll, Mike Merrick, Julie Robinson, Coretta Scott King, Merv Griffin, Odetta, Gloria Lynne, Robert De Cormier)
Documentary charting the career of Harry Belafonte - singer, actor and political activist.
World Premiere
Troubadours
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Morgan Neville; Stars: Carole King, Bonnie Raitt)
A documentary about the singer/songwriter boom in late Sixties Los Angeles.
World Premiere
Buck and Beats, Rhymes And Life
We Were Here
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: David Weissman; Stars: Ed Wolf, Daniel Goldstein, Guy Clark, Eileen Glutzer, Bobbi Campbell, Mervyn Silverman, Jerry Falwell, Cleve Jones, Paul Boneberg, Tom Brokaw)
A documentary charting the experiences of people caught up in the first major outbreak of AIDS in San Francisco.
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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