Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2014 >> US Documentary Competition

Sundance Film Festival 2014

Sixteen world-premiere American documentaries that illuminate the ideas, people, and events that shape the present day.

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Dinosaur 13 Dinosaur 13
Dinosaur 13 and Fed Up
Alive Inside: A Story of Music (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Michael Rossato-Bennett)
Five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease and dementia - many of them alone in nursing homes. A man with a simple idea discovers that songs embedded deep in memory can ease pain and awaken these fading minds. Joy and life are resuscitated, and our cultural fears over aging are confronted.
World premiere
All The Beautiful Things (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: John Harkrider)
John and Barron are lifelong friends whose friendship is tested when Barron's girlfriend says Barron put a knife to her throat and raped her. Not knowing she has lied, John tells her to go to the police. Years later, John and Barron meet in a bar to resolve the betrayal.
World premiere
CAPTIVATED The Trials of Pamela Smart (Country: US, UK; Year: 2014; Director: Jeremiah Zagar)
In an extraordinary and tragic American story, a small town murder becomes one of the highest profile cases of all time. From its historic role as the first televised trial to the many books and movies made about it, the film looks at the media’s enduring impact on the case.
World premiere
The Case Against 8 (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Ben Cotner, Ryan White; Stars: Ted Olson, Christopher D. Dusseault, Jeffrey J. Zarrillo, Paul T. Katami, Kristin M. Perry, Sandra B. Stier)
Documentary about the legal case against Proposition 8, which sought to prevent same sex couples from marrying in California.
Full Review
World premiere
Cesar's Last Fast (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Richard Ray Perez, Lorena Parlee)
Inspired by Catholic social teaching, Cesar Chavez risked his life fighting for America’s poorest workers. The film illuminates the intensity of one man’s devotion and personal sacrifice, the birth of an economic justice movement, and tells an untold chapter in the story of civil rights in America.
World premiere
The Case Against 8 The Case Against 8
The Case Against 8 and Watchers Of The Sky
Dinosaur 13 (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Todd Douglas Miller), Official Site
A documentary about the legal disputes surrounding the discovery of the world's most famous tyrannosaurus rex fossil.
Full Review
World premiere. Day One film
E-TEAM (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Katy Chevigny, Ross Kauffman)
E-TEAM is driven by the high-stakes investigative work of four intrepid human rights workers, offering a rare look at their lives at home and their dramatic work in the field.
World premiere
Fed Up (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Stephanie Soechtig)
A documentary about food industry advertising in America.
Full Review See: Fed Up premiere at MoMA
World premiere
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story Of Aaron Swartz (Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Brian Knappenberger; Writer: Brian Knappenberger)
Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organising. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.
World premiere
Ivory Tower (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Andrew Rossi)
As tuition spirals upward and student debt passes a trillion dollars, students and parents ask, "Is college worth it?" From the halls of Harvard to public and private colleges in financial crisis to education startups in Silicon Valley, an urgent portrait emerges of a great American institution at the breaking point.
World premiere
Private Violence Private Violence
Private Violence and E-TEAM
Marmato (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Mark Grieco)
Colombia is the centre of a new global gold rush, and Marmato, a historic mining town, is the new frontier. Filmed over the course of nearly six years, Marmato chronicles how townspeople confront a Canadian mining company that wants the $20 billion in gold beneath their homes.
World premiere
No No: A Dockumentary (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Jeffrey Radice)
Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD, then worked for decades counseling drug abusers. Dock's soulful style defined 1970s baseball as he kept hitters honest and embarrassed the establishment. An ensemble cast of teammates, friends, and family investigate his life on the field, in the media, and out of the spotlight.
World premiere
The Overnighters (Country: US; Year: 2014; Writer: Jesse Moss)
Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.
World premiere
Private Violence (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Cynthia Hill)
One in four women experience violence in their homes. Have you ever asked, “Why doesn't she just leave?” Private Violence shatters the brutality of our logic and intimately reveals the stories of two women: Deanna Walters, who transforms from victim to survivor, and Kit Gruelle, who advocates for justice.
World premiere
Rich Hill (Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Andrew Droz Palermo, Tracy Droz Tragos; Writer: Andrew Droz Palermo, Tracy Droz Tragos)
In a rural, American town, kids face heartbreaking choices, find comfort in the most fragile of family bonds, and dream of a future of possibility.
World premiere
CAPTIVATED The Trials of Pamela Smart CAPTIVATED The Trials of Pamela Smart
CAPTIVATED The Trials of Pamela Smart and No No: A Dockumentary
Watchers Of The Sky (Country: US, Netherlands, France, Chad, Rwanda; Year: 2013; Director: Edet Belzberg)
An exploration of genocide and attempts to criminalise it internationally.
Full Review See: First Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in conversation
World premiere
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