2008 Sundance Film Festival Announces Short Films Available Online to Audiences Worldwide

2008 Sundance Film Festival Announces Short Films Available Online to
Audiences Worldwide
Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel Announce the Short Films Available on
Sundance.org/Festival, the iTunes Store, Netflix, and Xbox 360

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Sundance Institute and Sundance
Channel announced today the program of 2008 Sundance Film Festival short films
available far beyond the streets of Park City for free on
www.sundance.org/watch and for sale on the iTunes Store, Netflix and Xbox 360.
This year's short films include sophisticated animation, compelling
nonfiction work, action-packed dramas, outrageous comedies, and everything in
between. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17-27, in Park City,
Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
Premiering January 18 and running all 10 days of the Festival, audiences
worldwide can view one short film each day of the Festival for free for 24
hours at www.sundance.org/watch. At the same time, Sundance Institute helps
build audiences for short films through partnerships with the iTunes Movie
Store, Xbox LIVE, the online entertainment network for Microsoft's Xbox 360,
and through Netflix's instant watching feature on the company's member Web
Site. Presented in collaboration with Sundance Channel, a selection of 45
short films from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival shorts will launch
simultaneously on all three platforms beginning January 18, 2008 and run
through 2011.
The Festival's Shorts Programs showcase the creative, boundary-pushing
work of filmmaking's newest talents. Short films screen in Festival theatres
prior to a feature film or as part of one of the Festival's eight short film
programs. The Short Film Program, both at the Festival and online is presented
by Festival sponsor, Adobe Systems.
Short films have always played an important part in the Sundance Film
Festival and were inaugurated as an official program in 1991. The shorts
program at Sundance has long been established as a discovery for directors,
including Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, David
O. Russell, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Holofcener, and Alexander Payne.
10 OVER 10: SHORT FILMS FREE ON SUNDANCE.ORG/WATCH
Beginning January 18, visit www.sundance.org/watch to view 10 short films
over 10 days from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, each streaming free online
for 24 hours beginning at 12:01 am MST each day. From a sublimely sweet love
story set among zombies and a thriller about an Inuit hunter witnessing a
murder to the tale of a man's affection for his miniature guide horse and the
true story of a man looking for answers to his failed marriage, these shorts
truly celebrate the innovation of the short filmmaking craft.
Day 1: Friday, January 18
I Love Sarah Jane (Director: Spencer Susser)
Jimbo is 13 and can think of only one girl -- Sarah Jane. And no matter
what stands in his way -- bullies, violence, chaos, or zombies -- nothing will
stop him from finding a way into her world.
Day 2: Saturday, January 19
Pariah (Director: Dee Rees)
A Bronx lesbian teenager juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection
from friends and family, but pressures from home, school, and within corrode
the line between her dual personas with an explosive consequence.
Day 3: Sunday, January 20
Yours Truly (Osbert Parker)
Animation and live action collide in the story of Frank and Charlie, a
dark romance of psychological tension that unfolds as the two sacrifice their
morals surrounding the ultimate kiss off letter.
Day 4: Monday, January 21
My Olympic Summer (Director: Daniel Robin)
After his marriage fails, the filmmaker looks at home video footage of his
parents when they were young in hopes to understand how they kept the magic.
This film is set against the historical backdrop of the hostage crisis at the
Munich Olympic games of 1972.
Day 5: Tuesday, January 22
Sick Sex (Director: Justin Nowell)
Amanda has a fever. Ken is horny.

Day 6: Wednesday, January 23
Because Washington is Hollywood For Ugly People (Director: Kenneth Tin-Kin
Hung)
Employing images from popular culture, political figures and Internet
imagery, this piece adopts viral advertising in a reduction of contemporary
events to a cartoon-like mythology while touching on issues such as identity
politics, US Foreign policy, sexuality and power.
Day 7: Thursday, January 24
Force 1 TD (Director: Randy Krallman)
Three friends, one of whom is visually impaired and has a miniature guide
horse named Carmine, set off to find Carmine a very special pair of sneakers
for a very special occasion.
Day 8: Friday, January 25
Wind, Ten Years Old (Director: Marzieh Vafamehr)
A day in the life of a 10-year-old Iranian girl highlights the Iran-Iraq
war and the national/educational propaganda that informs the tumult, fear,
infatuation, and mindset of a generation.
Day 9: Saturday, January 26
Sikumi (On the Ice) (Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean)
An Inuit hunter takes his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean in search of
seals, and inadvertently becomes a witness to a murder.
Day 10, Sunday, January 27
Spider (Director: Nash Edgerton)
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

Films Available on the iTunes Store, Netflix, and Xbox 360:
Sundance Institute is helping to build audiences for short films through
partnerships with Apple's iTunes Movie Store, Xbox LIVE, the online
entertainment network for Microsoft's Xbox 360, and the Netflix member Web
site. Starting January 18, 2008 through 2011, audiences can own and watch 45
of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival short films at the iTunes Store, Netflix or
Xbox 360.
Sundance Film Festival Short Films will be priced at $1.99 each with
www.iTunes.com/sundance being the primary download-to-own platform for viewing
on an iPhone, iPod, Mac, PC or widescreen TV with Apple TV. Also available on
the iTunes Store are free podcasts that go behind the scenes of the Sundance
Film Festival, including panels with filmmakers, journalists and industry
leaders and live music performances straight from Park City.
Netflix is making the Sundance shorts available to its subscribers at no
additional fee through its instant watching feature, which offers thousands of
films and TV episodes to be viewed instantly on PCs.
Xbox 360 will offer yet another $1.99 download-to-own platform through
Xbox LIVE. Xbox LIVE is the leading provider of high definition on demand
content, offering movies for video on demand and TV shows and music videos for
download-to-own. More information about content being offered on Xbox LIVE is
available at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/?WT.svl=nav.
Maintaining its core mission of supporting filmmakers, Sundance Institute
has partnered with industry leader and digital distribution company
Mediastile, Inc. to provide ongoing digital distribution and encoding services
to the 2008 Filmmakers. As the Official Digital Clearinghouse of the Sundance
Film Festival, Mediastile provides a digital on-ramp to content retailers for
filmmakers around the world.
Films Available:
THE APOLOGY LINE/ United Kingdom (Director: James Lees) -- Based on the
creation of a real-life 'apology line' where members of the public anonymously
confess to absolutely anything over the telephone.
AUGUST 15/ China (Director: Xuan Jiang) -- Based on a real life event, a
young Chinese woman boards a bus with her boyfriend to head home to meet his
parents. What was supposed to be a joyful holiday turns unpredictable when a
pair of countryside crooks hijack their bus. Traveling through China's
dangerous mountain passes, the passengers must decide how much they are
willing to sacrifice for their own safety.
BECAUSE WASHINGTON IS HOLLYWOOD FOR UGLY PEOPLE (Director: Kenneth Tin-Kin
Hung) -- Employing images from popular culture, political figures and Internet
imagery, this piece adopts viral advertising in a reduction of contemporary
events to a cartoon-like mythology while touching on issues such as identity
politics, US Foreign policy, sexuality and power.
BUYO/ Italy (Director: Andrea Fasciani) -- In this post-modern tale, Ralph
is a guy whose voice only generates weird sounds, and Anna is deaf. One day
they meet in the elevator. Ralph's unusual voice makes Anna's body vibrate,
prompting Anna's affections and her desire to follow him everywhere.
BY MODERN MEASURE (Director: Matthew Lessner) -- As part of an ongoing,
unaired TV series, an amateur French sociologist presents his observations on
a day in the life of two young Americans who meet by chance outside a Taco
Bell on October 8, 2006.
CHERRIES/ United Kingdom (Director: Tom Harper; Screenwriter: Fiona
Kissane) -- A class of teenage schoolboys are oblivious to their teacher's
attempts to question them about the wider world. They are about to get a
lesson they will never forget...one that will change their lives forever.
CHONTO (Director: Carson Mell) -- Wilted rock idol Bobby Bird literally
tries to buy a friend when he adopts a monkey from a zoo in South America.
CROSSBOW/ Australia (Director: David Michod) -- A kid. His Mum and Dad.
The sex and drugs. And the boy next door who watched the whole thing unravel.
THE DEEP (Director: Alex Haworth) -- A journey unravels through the
thoughts of a solitary character in the heart of a future dystopia. As he
journeys deep underground, he tends to the machines that fuel the surface
city. His jobs are precise, almost compulsive, and he is unable to stop.
DOG LOVERS (Director: Danny Roew, Screenwriters: Tonya Cornelisse, Graham
Sibley) -- Two potential lovers meet to talk about their affection for dogs.
DUGONG/ Australia (Director: Erin White) -- In an effort to repair the
past, a loner returns home with his dog on the day of his brother's wedding,
but learns that in order to make amends he must leave a piece of himself
behind.
THE EXECUTION OF SOLOMON HARRIS (Directors: Wyatt Garfield, Ed Yonaitis;
Screenwriter: Ed Yonaitis) -- An electric chair execution fails, delivering a
non-lethal jolt of electricity that leaves the prisoner screaming in pain.
Protocol and routine fail to provide a resolution, and the warden has to cope
with the human dilemma that falls into his hands.
FAREWELL PACKETS OF TEN/ Ireland (Director: Ken Wardrop) -- Two ladies
discuss the pros and cons of their mutual addiction to cigarettes.
FCU: FACT CHECKERS UNIT (Director: Dan Beers; Screenwriters: Dan Beers,
Peter Karinen, Brian Sacca) -- After being assigned to check a bizarre fact
about Bill Murray's love for drinking milk, two magazine fact checkers break
into Bill's house to spy on him. Cast: Bill Murray
THE FUNERAL/ Canada (Director: Sara St. Onge) -- A dark comedy about a
young woman in her early thirties becomes aware of her own mortality and
reacts by meticulously planning her own funeral. Possibly due to a lack of
other big days in her life so far, such as a wedding, this becomes her moment
to shine.
GAS ZAPPERS (Director: Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung) -- A short animation about
climate change, where an ironically over-appropriated and fuzzy polar bear,
abruptly finds itself in a position to save its home.
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA (Director: MK12) -- A psychedelic western space
opera.
I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE/ Canada (Director: Cam Christiansen; Screenwriter:
Kris Demeanor) -- A suburban boy competes in a tennis match with his father in
the suburbs of Calgary when three young men approach and start to rudely
accost them.
I LOVE SARAH JANE/ Australia (Director: Spencer Susser) -- Jimbo is 13 and
can think of only one girl-Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way --
bullies, violence, chaos, or zombies-nothing will stop him from finding a way
into her world.
IGNITE (Director: Shawn Bannon) -- The 2007 fires of Griffith Park. Shot
with seven time-lapse cameras. An experimental perspective that is beautiful,
eerie, and captivating.
LLOYD NECK (Director: Benedict Campbell) -- Alex has a crush on her
brother's friend, Jesse. But Jesse likes Alex's brother, Taylor. Alex knows
something is up with her brother. Caught in an awkward position, Taylor takes
Alex and Jesse to his favorite spot.
THE LOSS OF A WRESTLING MATCH (Director: Jed Cowley) -- So far in the
season, Don has a 9-0 record. He is perfect, but in the upcoming duel he has
to wrestle a higher-ranked opponent.
MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI/ Canada (Directors: Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski) -
- Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down with all her earthly
possessions and the ghosts of her past. As day descends into dark, she finds
herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure adrift between real
and imagined worlds.
MAN (Director: Myna Joseph) -- Maggie and her sister form an unusual bond
during an encounter with a young man.
THE MARK (Director: Thomas Barndt) -- A lawyer rents a room to a human
lightning bolt.
MOTION STUDIES: INERTIA (Director: Jake Mahaffy) -- This film documents a
motion study of a man running as hard and as long as he can in a full suit of
smithied High Middle Age armor.
NIKAMOWIN (SONG)/ Canada (Director: Kevin Lee Burton) -- Deconstructing
and reconstructing Cree narrative, this film experiments with language to
create a linguistic soundscape.
NUMBER ONE (Director: Leighton Pierce) -- Water imagery engages the
experience of elasticity between varying states of mind.
OIRAN LYRICS/ Japan (Director: Ryosuke Ogawa) -- A historical musical
about the glamorous yet plaintive life of Kiyomi, a beautiful oiran or high-
class Japanese courtesan.
ON THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT (Director: Adam Keker) -- A top-
secret government file, only to be viewed in the event of the President's
death by assassination, gives specific instructions on what should be done,
and presents dossiers on the three most likely suspects.
PARADISE/ France (Director: Yi Zhou) -- A lyrical look at an imaginary
paradise based on black and white nature and insects -- with no humans, no
souls in the landscape. Based on "The Divine Comedy" by Dante.
PARIAH (Director: Dee Rees) -- A Bronx lesbian teenager juggles multiple
identities to avoid rejection from friends and family, but pressures from
home, school, and within corrode the line between her dual personas with an
explosive consequence.
PLEASE STAND BACK! (zurrueckbleiben bitte)/ Austria (Directors:
stadtmusik) -- The directorial collective, stadtmusik, deals with sounds in
cities by analyzing sound structures that are triggered by urban buildings and
facilities. They focus on the aspect of movement in the city, reinforcing a
dynamic experience of the urban soundscape.
THE RAMBLER (Director: Calvin Reeder) -- A stranger takes to the lonely
highway with his guitar and traveling sack.
A RELATIONSHIP IN FOUR DAYS (Director: Peter Glanz) -- Coming from a
wealthy family, Paul recently turned 30 and has never had, or needed a real
job. Lost in his own imagination, he often preaches his grand ideas, but in
reality never does much...until he meets Sabine.
SCORING/ Ireland (Director: Ken Wardrop) -- A young man explains the true
power of a kiss.
THE SECOND LINE (Director: John Magary) -- After MacArthur's savings are
stolen from his FEMA trailer, he and his cousin Natt take work gutting a
house.
SICK SEX (Director: Justin Nowell) -- Amanda has a fever. Ken is horny.
SMILE/ Canada (Director: Julia Kwan) -- A subtle look at the fractures
that bond a Chinese immigrant family on the day they use their cut-out Sears
coupon for a free family portrait.
SOFT/ United Kingdom (Director: Simon Ellis) -- A father rediscovers his
fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.
THE SOUND OF PEOPLE/ Ireland (Director: Simon Fitzmaurice) -- An 18-year-
old boy stands in a moment on the brink of death.
SPIDER/ Australia (Director: Nash Edgerton) -- It's all fun and games
until someone loses an eye.
TEAT BEAT OF SEX (Director: Signe Baumane) -- A take on sex exclusively
from a woman's point of view.
UNTITLED #1 (from the series EARTH PEOPLE 2507) (Director: Nao Bustamante)
-- An enchanting meditation on an ancient species from the future using found
footage, cell phone video, and crude chroma key effects to create a coherent
and petite spell. The rendition of buffalos made from a "herd" of toy poodles
tweaks at our understanding of the symbolic world.
WIND, TEN YEARS OLD (BAAD, DAH SALEH)/ Iran (Director: M. Mehr) -- A day
in the life of a 10-year-old Iranian girl highlights the Iran-Iraq war and the
national/educational propaganda that informs the tumult, fear, infatuation,
and mindset of a generation.
2008 Sundance Film Festival Sponsors
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival sponsors help sustain Sundance Institute's
year-round programs to support independent artists, inspire risk-taking, and
encourage diversity in the arts. This year's Festival Sponsors include:
Presenting Sponsors -- Entertainment Weekly, Volkswagen of America, Inc., HP,
and Adobe Systems Incorporated; Leadership Sponsors -- American Express, Delta
Air Lines, DIRECTV, and Microsoft Corporation; Sustaining Sponsors -- 360
Vodka, Blockbuster Inc., L'Oreal Paris, The New York Times, Ray-Ban, Sony
Electronics, Inc., Stella Artois(R), Turning Leaf Vineyards, Utah Film
Commission, and ZonePerfect(R) Nutrition Bars. Sundance Channel is the
Official Television Network of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international
independent film. Held each January in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and
Sundance, Utah, the Festival is a core program of Sundance Institute, a
nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981.
Presenting dramatic and documentary feature-length films in nine distinct
categories and approximately 80 short films each year, the Sundance Film
Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative
films of the past two decades. Since 1984, the Festival program has evolved to
include music, art, and dialogue. Beyond the streets of Park City, the
official website of the Sundance Film Festival,
http://www.sundance.org/festival shares the Festival experience with a global
audience with short films, filmmaker interviews, video episodes, podcasts,
photos, news stories, and more.
Sundance Institute
Dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent vision
and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute celebrated its
25th anniversary in 2006. Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Institute has
grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent
artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for
filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights, and theatre artists. The
original values of independence, creative risk-taking, and discovery continue
to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with U.S. artists
and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world.
Sundance Channel
Under the creative direction of Robert Redford, Sundance Channel is the
television destination for independent-minded viewers seeking something
different. Bold, uncompromising and irreverent, Sundance Channel offers
audiences a diverse and engaging selection of films, documentaries, and
original programs, all unedited and commercial free. Launched in 1996,
Sundance Channel is a venture of NBC Universal, CBS, and Robert Redford.
Sundance Channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance
Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, but shares the overall Sundance
mission of encouraging artistic freedom of expression. Sundance Channel's
website address is www.sundancechannel.com.
Mediastile
Mediastile is a new breed of distributor for the digital age. Mediastile
is focused on enabling studios, home video companies, and filmmakers alike to
distribute their movies to digital outlets such as iTunes, Xbox 360, Netflix,
and many more. Mediastile is on the cutting edge of digital distribution, and
with its relationship with the Sundance Film Festival, it continues to help
independent filmmakers realize their vision and reach new audiences around the
world.
Mediastile provides mass digital distribution of media content. Now,
filmmakers can turn their focus towards the creative issues and avoid the
hassles involved with independent distribution in the digital age. For more
information, please go to www.mediastile.net
SOURCE Sundance Institute; Sundance Channel; Sundance Film Festival

Emily Brunt, +1-435-658-3456, Emily_Brunt@sundance.org, or Amy McGee,
+1-310-492-2333, Amy_McGee@sundance.org, both of Sundance