Courtesy of Sundance Institute
The crop of documentaries that premiere at the Sundance Film Festival is always wide-ranging, both in style and in content. And this year’s selections were no exception, even if the 2021 festival was an unusual one, having largely migrated to digital platforms.
They ran the gamut from dramatic explorations of refugees’ experiences to funny and heartbreaking looks at American high schools to experimental films about technology’s effects on our lives. The world is a wide, wide place, and documentary filmmakers are committed to exploring it, celebrating it, and warning us not to take it for granted.
Homeroom Review: Doc Embeds Itself in Bay Area High School During Exceptional Year Homeroom Review: Doc Embeds Itself in Bay Area High School During Exceptional Year
Peter Nicks doc schools audiences on the vision and vitality of its young protagonists, seniors at Oakland High School during a turbulent year.
Lisa Kennedy, provided by
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“Homeroom” begins with a somewhat inchoate energy. In this regard, Peter Nicks’ engaging documentary about Oakland High School’s senior class of 2020 aptly mimics the start of a school year. Students haven’t yet found their rhythms. Everything feels a little amped. The kids seem to rush around reestablishing old bonds, forging new ones and, for the seniors on whom the film turns its gaze, facing more fully what’s to come.
Sweetheart candy hearts are seen on the shelf at the To The Moon Marketplace on January 29, 2019, in Wilton Manors, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Listen to tales of love and heartbreak. Learn to cook vegan coconut flan. Watch stories of love and friendship at the Reel Love Film Fest. Listen to a panel discussion about the Black women of rock and roll. Kick back at a screening of
Minari, the story of a Korean American family that moves to an Arkansas farm. Bite into a half-off pizza deal on National Pizza Day (Tuesday, Feb. 9).
Monday, Feb. 8; 7:30
February StorySLAM: Love Hurts
Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute
This year, the Sundance Film Festival adapted to ~these times~ and delivered a fully virtual experience for all those involved.
There was skepticism. Is a film festival really a film festival if there are no after-parties with logo-bearing napkins stacked on every surface? Sundance issued an implicit response on opening night with the premiere of
CODA (Children of Deaf Adults): Hell yes.
Writer-director Sian Heder s latest project follows teenage Ruby (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of her Gloucester-based family. Her mother, father, and brother (all played by deaf actors: Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, and Daniel Durant, respectively) rely on her to help run the family fishing business, serving as both translator and deckhand. She expects to continue working with her family after she graduates, but joining the school choir alters her perspective on the fut