{"id":5533,"date":"2017-04-27T11:40:59","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T11:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/?p=5533"},"modified":"2017-05-23T11:26:12","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T11:26:12","slug":"spring-into-indie-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/spring-summer-2017\/spring-into-indie-films\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring Into Indie Films<\/h4>\n

By Victoria Ostrander<\/p><\/p>\n

Thanks to Moonlight<\/em> winning Best Picture at the Oscar\u2019s, the spotlight again shines on indie films, the lifeblood of the movie industry. While big budget blockbusters from studios like Disney, MGM, and Universal spend and rake in the dough, it\u2019s the independently made films that more often than not steal the show\u2014like Moonlight<\/em> this year\u2014for creativity and genius.<\/p>\n

Indie films are generally lower budget and created outside of a major film studio. These gems are, by definition, produced and distributed by independent entertainment agencies. The exposure of indie films is fueled by the hundreds of film festivals that have sprung up around the world, many of which offer a wide variety of film categories from animated to zombie.<\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s Sundance Film Festival<\/a> is a world-renowned indie film festival. Taking place over a ten-day period in January each year, the festival is perfect for bleary-eyed movie watchers who like to take a ski break on the mountains in and around Park City, Provo, and Salt Lake. With luck, you may get a glimpse of Robert Redford\u2014Sundance\u2019s chairman since 1978\u2014who acts, directs, and skis out of his local Utah ranch.<\/p>\n

A few of the critically acclaimed films that were first introduced at Sundance include the following: Sex, Lies and Videotape<\/em>, The Blair Witch Project<\/em>, Napoleon Dynamite<\/em>, Little Miss Sunshine<\/em>, Reservoir Dogs<\/em>, Hoop Dreams<\/em>, and Hoosiers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The following are some of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival winners and must-see indies for this upcoming spring season:<\/p>\n

\"\"1. I Don\u2019t Feel at Home in This World Anymore<\/em><\/h4>\n

Winner of U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize<\/strong>\n Written and directed by Macon Blair<\/strong><\/p>\n

A depressed nursing assistant named Ruth returns home from work to find dog poop all over her lawn and that her house has been broken into and burglarized. The thief made off with her laptop and expensive silverware from her kitchen. When she reaches out to the police, they are unhelpful, resulting in Ruth losing faith in not only them but society. Ruth starts her own investigation and joins forces with her unpredictable neighbor, and culprit of the dog poop, Tony. Ruth locates her laptop and traces it back to a consignment store. This leads Ruth and Tony to a gang of degenerates and a threatening, strange underworld. They then realize they are in over their heads.<\/p>\n

I Don\u2019t Feel at Home in This World Anymore<\/em> has an exciting, adventure style that is full of personality and unpredictable characters who will leave viewers on the edges of their seats. Its dark tones and humor in the twisted underworld they face will leave viewers wanting to know more. This movie is an outstanding debut feature for Macon Blair.<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0I Don\u2019t Feel at Home in This World Anymore<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"2. Chasing Coral<\/em><\/h4>\n

Winner of U.S. Documentary Audience Award<\/strong>\n Directed by Jeff Orlowski<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the director of Chasing Ice<\/em> comes a documentary about the nursery for all life in oceans around the world: coral reefs. This ecosystem maintains the oceans\u2019 balance. Now, there is a major increase of carbon emissions, increasing the temperature of the seas referred to as \u201ccoral bleaching.\u201d This is a sign of massive coral death and have been occurring more and more around the world. Society has no clue this is going on or how much of a catastrophe this will become if this continues in our waters.<\/p>\n

Jeff Orlowski, a documentary director and an environmentalist, sets out to show people through Chasing Coral<\/em>\u00a0exactly what is occurring in our oceans. This documentary is powerful, full of courage and wisdom from an ad man, self-proclaimed coral reef enthusiast, professional camera designers, and marine biologists to create the first time-lapse camera to record the events of \u201ccoral bleaching\u201d in our oceans. This film is full of breathtaking shots, suspense, and emotion to keep the audience on the edges of their seats.<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0Chasing Coral<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"3. Crown Heights<\/em><\/h4>\n

Winner of U.S. Dramatic Audience Award<\/strong>\n Written and directed by Matt Ruskin<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the day of April 10, 1980, a gunshot echoed through the streets of Crown Heights, kindling a decade-long quest for the truth of a wrongly convicted man in this true story. A man named Colin Warner, played with full sincerity by Lakeith Stanfield, is arrested and tried in court for a crime he did not commit.<\/p>\n

Warner becomes a victim to the broken justice system that refuses to hear his truth. The court is quick to convict him of this crime, but his best friend, Carl King, steps in and devotes his life to the case to prove his best friend is innocent and wrongly accused. He embarks on a scavenger hunt for years to find the clues to free his friend.<\/p>\n

Director and writer of Crown Heights<\/em>, Matt Ruskin, worked closely to gain the trust of real-life tried man, Colin Warner. This gives his film a real edge, because he gained the inside truth of what happened throughout the case and Warner\u2019s time spent in jail. This film will touch audiences\u2019 hearts by shedding light on this painful true story of a man caught in a horrific series of events.<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0Crown Heights<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"4. The Nile Hilton Incident<\/em><\/h4>\n

Winner of World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic<\/strong>\n Written and directed by Tarik Saleh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Noredin Mustafa, a Cairo police detective, is your average corrupt police officer. He has handled the case of a singer being murdered in a Nile Hilton hotel room and quickly discovers the dead woman\u2019s secret relationship with the owner of the hotel. The owner is a wealthy developer and a member of parliament. He searches for the only witness to the murder and soon uncovers an undocumented Sudanese maid who is being threatened in order to close the case. But Noredin refuses and continues his quest to solve the case, leading him to an elite who runs the country and is considered \u201cuntouchable\u201d by justice.<\/p>\n

Director Tarik Saleh\u2019s third feature film, The Nile Hilton Incident,<\/em>\u00a0is intriguing and Egypt-centric, involving the corruption of government. The city is a place full of cynicism and corruption where everyone only looks out for themselves. The setting of this film is Egypt\u2019s 2011 uprising but is twisted to examine political powers and life in this area. Can this divorced, hard drinking, corrupt man find justice for the city? Will his morals be changed, or will he continue to live among corruption?<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0The Nile Hilton Incident<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"5. Unrest<\/em><\/h4>\n

Winner of U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing<\/strong>\n Written by Jennifer Brea and Kim Roberts, directed by Jennifer Brea<\/strong><\/p>\n

Active, hard-working Harvard Ph.D. student Jennifer Brea is about to marry the love of her life when suddenly, her body starts to quit on her. She is unsure why it\u2019s happening and hopes to shed light on her unique symptoms. She grabs a camera and begins to record her darkest moments unraveling before her as she is thrown off by M.E.\u2014also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This illness is mysterious, strange, and some still believe the illness is all in the person\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

The story consists of love and loss as Jennifer and her now-husband Omar search for answers while bravely coming across unexpected situations. Jennifer is continuously ostracized by her illness, sequestered to the privacy of her own bed. She is moved around the world to connect with others just like her to discover the truth behind her illness and prove that it\u2019s real. She comes across four families just like her.<\/p>\n

Brea\u2019s brutally honest view asks audiences to consider the stigma around illnesses that affect millions of people. Unrest<\/em>\u00a0is personal, full of emotions, and vulnerable, hitting closer to home than audiences would think.<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0Unrest<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"6. ICARUS<\/em><\/h4>\n

Winner of U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award, The Orwell Award<\/strong>\n Written by Bryan Fogel, Mark Monroe, and Timothy Rode; directed by Bryan Fogel<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world of international sports and politics can be ruthless. Sports and politics do not often collide on screen as well as they do in this film by Bryan Fogel. This movie is a thriller that will send people into the throes of a controversy.<\/p>\n

Fogel investigates the world of illegal doping in professional sports. He works with Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov\u2014a well-known scientist in his country of Russia\u2014because of his involvement with the \u201canti-doping\u201d program.<\/p>\n

Over the course of several Skype calls, samples of urine, and horrific hormone injections in test subjects, the two grow close in spite of Dr. Rodchenkov being accused of being a part of the \u201cdoping program\u201d in the Russian Olympics team. When more and more allegations surface, the two realize just how much power they have with the information they have discovered.<\/p>\n

ICARUS<\/em> portrays the sacrifices people will make in order to stand up for what is right and show the truth rather than hiding. The film puts its viewers in the center of a back-and-forth battle where a miscalculation can cost you your life.<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0ICARUS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Interested in seeing these award-winning Sundance <\/a><\/span>films? They are all available to stream on Netflix<\/a><\/span>. All photos courtesy of Sundance Film Festival<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring into Indie Films…6 to watch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-summer-2017","category-spring-summer-2017-columns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5533"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6153,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533\/revisions\/6153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}