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

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Source: Sundance Institute; Sundance Channel; Sundance Film Festival

CONTACT: Emily Brunt, +1-435-658-3456, Emily_Brunt@sundance.org, or Amy
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Web site:

http://www.sundancechannel.com/
http://sundance.org/Festival
http://www.sundance.org/watch
http://www.mediastile.net/

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