The Sundance Film Festival – is the largest annual independent film festival in the USA, it is held in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and in the ski resort Sundance in Utah since 1978 . The upcoming edition is held from January 18 to 28, 2018, and there are three Polish productions in the short film section.
The first of them is "Volte," directed by Monika Kotecka and Karolina Poryzała. It is a story about Zuzia -12, who has been training vaulting for two years and has extraordinary role topping the acrobatic pyramid. She is “flyer” lifted by the stronger and more experienced vaulters-“base”. Another intensive season begins. During training sessions it becomes apparent that the girl has lost some of her grace and lightnes. At first the coach blames the “base” but they admit that Zuzia is too big to lift her. It became clear that she is “just growing” and her role is given over to a younger girl.
The documentary film has already been screened at some international festivals, among others IDFA, Hot Springs and GZDOC in China. It won also Special Mention at Hot Docs Film Festival.
The second film, which appears at the Sundance festival, is "Black" by Tomasz Popakul. ‘Black’ (‘黒’) tells about a pair of astronauts trapped on an orbital space station because of a nuclear war that erupted unexpectedly on Earth. They lost contact with Earth and all attempts to communicate with their base or anybody else have failed. All they can do now is watch nuclear explosions taking place on the surface of the Earth and try to survive together somehow…
The documentary film has already been screened at almost 40 international festivals.
Another film invited to the programme of the Sundance Film Festival is "Deer Boy" by Katarzyna Gondek. The short story about an odd combination of love and hatred begins with the birth of a son of a hunter (Janusz Chabior). The boy is born with little bumps which are later transformed into wide-spreading antlers, due to which the child resembles a deer. A surreal and perverse vision of the world told without any words in which “everyone kills what they love”, the film is also an evocative statement on hunting and on the relationship between man and nature.
"Deer Boy" had its international premiere at the Krakow Film Festival.
You can read more about the festival here.