The environmental justice documentary Demon Mineral explores the impact of uranium mining on the Navajo people. In her first feature, director and co-writer Hadley Austin uses indigenous voices to tell the story, including her co-writer, environmental scientist Dr. Tommy Rock. It’s the testimony of Navajo people themselves that traces the history of uranium mining, subsequent health problems and the science connecting the dots. Some of the first-person narratives are heart-breaking.
This real life story takes place in one of the most iconic locations in American cinema – Arizona’s Monument Valley. (The Navajo themselves have complicated feelings about the legacy of John Ford Westerns made in their homeland.) Cinematographer Yoni Goldstein’s black-and-white photography soars, bringing out the majesty of the harsh landscape and imparting a gravitas to the story.
There’s even a cameo by hard right Congressman Paul Gosar, who is so stupid that he doesn’t comprehend just how stupid he is.
Demon Mineral has enjoyed a robust film festival run and won the Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the 2024 Slamdance.
Photo caption: David Allen White in Fabio D’Orta’s THE COMPLEX FORMS. Courtesy of Slamdance.
It’s time for the 30th 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 19th to 25th and online on the Slamdance Channel from January 22nd to 28th. All Slamdance feature films selected in the competition categories are directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, with budgets of less than $1 million. The 125 films in this year’s program were selected from 9,004 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.
Slamdance alumni include: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer, 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 three films from the 2024 Slamdance program that you shouldn’t miss. Each features at least one original and fresh element:
The Complex Forms: This visually striking atmospheric is set in a centuries-old Italian villa, where Christian (David Allen White) and other down-on-their-luck middle-aged men sell their bodies for a period of days to be “possessed”. Possessed how? By who or by what? As the dread builds, Christian resolves to pry the answers from the secretive masters of the villa. Director Fabio D’Orta unspools the story with remarkably crisp black-and-white cinematography, a brooding soundtrack and impeccable editing. In his astonishingly impressive filmmaking debut, D’Orta wrote, directed, shot and edited The Complex Form. US premiere. (Full review goes live on January 22.)
The Accident: Marcella (Giulia Mazzarino) is a meek, good-hearted young woman who, in quick succession, loses her partner, custody of their daughter, her car and her job. Desperate for financial survival , she buys a tow truck, but she is utterly unsuited for the cutthroat Italian towing industry, where no good deed goes unpunished. Marcella is trapped into a downward spiral of increasingly disadvantageous situations, until she happens on a logical, but outrageously amoral, solution. The Accident is the first full-length narrative feature for documentarian Giuseppe Garau, who describes it as an “experimental film” because virtually the entire movie is shot from a camera in the front passenger side of Marcella’s vehicle. That may be an experiment, but it’s not a gimmick, because it drives our attention to Marcella’s incentives and disincentives in this allegory, an acid parable of social criticism. North American Premiere. (Full review goes live on January 22.)
Demon Mineral: This environmental justice documentary explores the impact of uranium mining on the Navajo people. This real life story takes place in one of the most iconic locations in American cinema – Arizona’s Monument Valley, and cinematographer Yoni Goldstein’s black-and-white photography soars. The story is told by indigenous voices, one of whom, environmental scientist Dr. Tommy Rock, co-wrote Demon Mineral with director Hadley Austin. First feature for Austin. (Full review goes live on January 22.)
And here’s a bonus recommendation: Slide is a firehose-in-the-face of anarchic cynicism from the veteran animator Bill Plympton. Set in a 1940s backwater town hoping to become a location for a Hollywood movie, Plympton harnesses all the tropes of movie Westerns to send up human corruption. The music by Maureen McElheron and Hank Bones is pretty cool, too. Here’s a taste of the fun.
Remember, even if you don’t travel to Utah, you can sample these films on the Slamdance Channel from January 22nd to 28th.
