Spotlight
Wondering which films to watch? Spotlight presents thematically grouped, must see films, hand-picked by Fandor's curators.
The Forbidden Room
Meek's Cutoff
Slacker
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present
Howl
Hoop Dreams
Computer Chess
Christmas, Again
Blind
The Black Balloon
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
Sundance Favorites
As another speculator year of the Sundance Film Festival begins, we reflect back on some of our favorites, both new (WESTERN) and older (SLACKER, HOOP DREAMS) all picked by the Fandor community.
Selected Films
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Hoop Dreams
Two young men are followed during their entire high-school career, beginning with their participation in playground games and ending with their being recruited by colleges. The obstacles these young men face include parental drug addiction, family poverty, and inner-city violence, as well as the...Watch Movie
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Slacker
Richard Linklater's independent classic SLACKER presents a day in the life in Austin, Texas, among its social outcasts and misfits (predominantly the twenty-something set) using a series of linear vignettes. These characters who, in some manner, just don't fit into the establishment norms move...Watch Movie
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Up the Yangtze
In China, it is simply known as "the River." But the Yangtze (and all of the life that surrounds it) is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Canadian documentary filmmaker Yung Chang returns to the gorgeous,...Watch Movie
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Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present
Seductive, fearless and outrageous, Marina Abramovic has been redefining what art is for nearly forty years. Using her own body as a vehicle, pushing herself beyond her physical and mental limits (and at times risking her life in the process) she creates performances that...Watch Movie
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Alive Inside
ALIVE INSIDE is a joyous cinematic exploration of music's capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity. Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett chronicles the astonishing experiences of individuals around the country who have been revitalized through the simple...Watch Movie
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Blind
Ingrid, a woman contending with the loss of vision, is trying to navigate a world without sight. She spends her days attempting to reconstruct the visual world as she once knew it. As she struggles with her predicament, she begins writing salacious fictional stories that slowly morph into...Watch Movie
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Meek's Cutoff
Three 1840s' pioneer families become dangerously lost amidst the dust of the Oregon desert in Kelly Reichardt's sensory update of the Western genre, focusing not on typical fare like gun battles, card sharks or dramatic rescues but instead on the long, arduous journey westward. Having hired the...Watch Movie
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Monsieur Lazhar
Nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film, MONSIEUR LAZHAR tells the poignant story of a Montreal middle school class shaken by the death of their well-liked teacher. Bachir Lazhar, a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, offers the school his services as a substitute teacher and...Watch Movie
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Howl
James Franco stars as the young Allen Ginsberg, a poet, counter-culture adventurer and chronicler of the Beat Generation. In his famously confessional, leave-nothing-out-style, Ginsberg recounts the road trips, love affairs and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless and...Watch Movie
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The Black Balloon
While trying to move forty kids six blocks in New York City alone, a stressed man accidentally loses a bouquet of a hundred balloons. In that bouquet, a lone black balloon scurries free. It dies and comes back to life, returning to the city cruising for a companion. On the...Watch Movie
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An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
With arresting insight, vulnerability and a delightful sense of humor, AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY utilizes a mix of live action and animation to capture the relationship between Terence (Nance) and a lovely young woman (Namik Minter) as it teeters on the divide...Watch Movie
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5 Broken Cameras
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2013 Academy Awards®, 5 BROKEN CAMERAS is an extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism and a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching...Watch Movie
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Skinningrove
In this intimate and moving film, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Almereyda probes photographer Chris Kilip's memory of a small isolated fishing village, SKINNINGROVE, in Northern England. Killip, a renowned photographer whose work has been exhibited around the world, made several trips to...Watch Movie
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Computer Chess
Set over the course of a weekend tournament for chess software programmers thirty-some years ago, COMPUTER CHESS transports viewers to a nostalgic moment when the contest between technology and the human spirit seemed a little more up for grabs. We get to know the eccentric geniuses possessed of...Watch Movie
