It’s time for the 29th Slamdance Film Festival, which is all about discovering new filmmakers and unveiling their work. It’s a hybrid festival with events in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah from January 20th to 26th and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 23rd to 29th. All Slamdance feature films selected in the competition categories are directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, with budgets of less than $1 million. The 35 features in this year’s program were selected from 1,522 submissions.
Slamdance was founded in 1995 by filmmakers reacting to the gatekeeper role and growing marketplace focus of a nearby film festival with a similar name. Whenever I cover a film festival, I’m on the lookout for first films and world premieres – and here’s a festival essentially entirely made up of first films and world premieres.
My favorite film from last year’s Nashville Film Festival, Hannah Ha Ha, was a Slamdance film. Slamdance alumni include: Christopher Nolan (Memento, Dunkirk), Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room), Lynn Shelton (Outside In, Sword of Truth), Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Brick), Benny & Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) and the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War).
MUST SEE
Here are four films from the 2023 Slamdance program that you shouldn’t miss. Each features at least one original and fresh element:
- Starring Jerry as Himself: A Florida senior sees himself recruited as an operative by Chinese police. The story is told in a re-enactment with the subject playing himself. We later learn why the filmmakers chose re-enactment, and what could have been a conventional true crime exposé or a weeper is illuminated by the subject family’s humanity. First Feature for director Law Chen. World premiere on January 21. Slamdance documentary competition.
- Motel Drive: This searing cinéma vérité documentary chronicles years in a clump of downtrodden motels inhabited by prostitutes, sex offenders and the otherwise homeless, including over 150 children, with their mostly meth-addicted parents. One family’s compelling journey is a roller coaster ride of poverty, recovery, unexpected good fortune, relapse and redemption. First Feature for director Brendan Geraghty. World premiere on January 22. Slamdance documentary competition. Documentary subject Justin Shaw is slated to appear on the Slamdance red carpet for Motel Drive’s world premiere, and I couldn’t be happier that this young man will get the red carpet experience.
- Where the Road Leads: This drama opens with a very long single shot of the protagonist running, in and out and all around a remote Serbian village. Is she running away from something or toward something? The film’s construction makes it more powerful, with the pivotal beginning of the story revealed at the end of the film. First Feature for director Nina Ognjanović. World premiere on January 22. Slamdance narrative feature competition.
- Sexual Healing: This Dutch documentary is in Slamdance’s Unstoppable category, a “showcase of films made by filmmakers with visible and non-visible disabilities”. A 53-year-old woman, afflicted from birth with spasticity needs assistance to live independently and has ever enjoyed sexual fulfillment. Now’s she’s curious, and Sexual Healing follows her quest with sensitivity, gentle naughty humor and taste. Second feature for director Elsbeth Fraanje. US premiere on January 23.
I’ve already screened a bunch of 2023 Slamdance films, and I’ll be publishing reviews as the films enjoy their in-person premieres in Utah and as I catch up with more of the program.
Remember, even if you don’t travel to Utah, you can sample these films on the Slamdance Channel from January 23rd to 29th. All Slamdance titles will available on the Slamdance Channel, which can be accessed on Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, and Apple TV for $7.99 per month.
