As Sundance heats up, here is some news and links as to how the women and women’s films are faring:
Variety’s review of Push
Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch and Parker Posey come to Sundance to launch the long awaited Spring Breakdown. Film is supposed to come out on DVD and VOD in April but now that Amy has become so popular it just might be a theatrical release (LA Times).
A look at Helen starring Ashley Judd- about female friendship and depression directed by Sandra Nettelbeck who directed Mostly Martha (LA Times)
IFC’s interview with Lynn Shelton director of the bromance Humpday.
Indiewire’s review of Emily Abt’s Toe to Toe: “Abt moves us with her storytelling, and as a welcome bonus, makes us think; quite an achievement for someone making their feature drama debut.” Here’s also an interview with Abt from Indiewire.
Kenneth Turan writes about Cherien Dabis’ Amreeka about a Palestinian woman who immigrates to the US. (LA Times) The Hollywood Reporter review.
“Amreeka” — the Arabic word for America — is a festival director’s dream, but it will face an uphill struggle in theatrical distribution. Critical acclaim and fest honors could pave the way for it to become a modest indie hit. If nothing else, Dabis, in her first feature, immediately gets added to the impressive list of Sundance discoveries.
Karina Longworth writing for the Daily Beast:
Female filmmakers are still a rarity in indie film as a whole, and those who have launched careers at Sundance (Allison Anders, Miranda July, Rose Troche) have hardly become household names. Plus, the stereotypical Sundance Movie of the past decade (think Garden State) has tended to flatten its female lead into the Manic Pixie Dream Girls mold. So many quirky waifs who live to turn a sad-sack young man’s life around with her love, so many troubled beauties desperate for romantic salvation.
So imagine my delight to see that two of the standout titles of the first weekend of the 2009 festival were not only directed by women, but feature female leads who transcend the usual indie film clichés. One of those films, Lynn Shelton’s Humpday, is as of this writing reportedly the target of a four-way bidding war. The other film, Ry Russo-Young’s much smaller, more experimental You Won’t Miss Me, features Stella Schnabel (daughter of Julian) in a tour de force first leading role.
What if Judd Apatow Were A Woman? (The Daily Beast)
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