Finding Fela Sundance Film Still - H 2014
LONDON – Filmmakers Ryan Coogler, David Cross, Rose McGowan and Marjane Satrapi are all part of this year’s lineup of the Sundance London film and music festival.
The third edition of the festival, run by the Sundance Institute and AEG Europe, takes place April 25-27 and boasts 21 feature films and 18 short films across five sections. There will also be a program of panel discussions and musical performances.
The Sundance Institute, which annually presents the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, selected the film and panel programming. The 2014 program continues the focus of previous years on bolstering indie filmmaking.
Titles that secured 12 awards at Sundance earlier this year are on the schedule of the British event, which takes place at the Cineworld movie theater in AEG’s sprawling O2 entertainment center here.
Coogler is the writer/director of Fruitvale Station, which won a Sundance prize earlier this year and Cross’ directorial debut Hits, will also unspool in London having debuted in Utah earlier this year.
Movies that will screen in the British capital include Jeremy Saulnier‘s thriller Blue Ruin, The Case Against the 8, directed by Ben Cotner and Ryan White, and Satrapi’s genre-bending tale The Voices.
South London collective Archive is the first headlining music act for the 2014 festival with music movies being a big part of the lineup.
Alongside screenings of Alex Gibney‘s documentary Finding Fela the festival will host a free performance from Dele Sosimi, one of the original members of Fela Kuti’s band, alongside an Afrobeat orchestra.
The “Art of Film Music” panel will discuss the process of composing original music for films, and solo artist and former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will join a documentary panel alongside former Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins to explore how British documentary is pushing the boundaries in challenging the genres of music, biography and archive film.
Also, free live music performances, organized by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), will take place in The Hub at Brooklyn Bowl during the festival.
Said Sundance Institute president & founder Robert Redford: “That audiences in London have responded so positively to the films presented at the first two Sundance London festivals speaks to the power and universality of the stories told by our artists as well as the audience’s openness to exploring new ideas.”
John Cooper, director of the Sundance Film Festival, said the program of films and panels for Sundance London “builds on the success of our 2014 Sundance Film Festival by connecting this work with an international audience for the first time.”
Added Cooper: “We are excited to return this year and present a lineup of films and music with uniquely independent perspectives on our world.”
