The Slamdance Film Festival is one of the largest independent film festivals in the world. It has been organised since 1995 in Park City, Utah. The first edition of the festival was organised by a group of subversive film-makers whose films had not qualified for the programme of the Sundance festival. They felt the need to show their films, so they organised their own festival, whose motto is “from film-makers to film-makers.” During twenty years of its history, the festival opened the road to fame for such directors as Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster, Jared Hess, Oren Peli, Benh Zeitlin, Seth Gordon, Lynn Shelton and Lena Dunham.
Last year, in the feature-length documentary film competition, the film “The Beksińkis. A Sound and Picture Album “ by Marcin Borchardt was presented, and during this year’s festival, the film by Michał Bielawski has a chance to win the award.
The protagonist of the documentary film “The Wind. A Documentary Thriller,” is the halny wind – one of the most unpredictable forces in the Polish mountains. It appears cyclically every spring and autumn. You can never know if and when it would turn into a destructive windstorm. The halny wind affects particularly the inhabitants of Zakopane and its surrounding area, changing the picturesque mountain trails into the space of uncontrollable nature.
You can find more information about the festival on its official website.