Vermont's Independent Voice
Browse News
Browse Arts + Life
Browse Food + Drink
Browse Cannabis
Browse Music
Browse Movies
Browse Events
Browse Classifieds
Browse Personals
Last January, the low-budget flick Frozen River, filmed and set in the depressed environs of Plattsburgh, won big at the Sundance Film Festival. (Star and former Vermonter Melissa Leo is up for an Oscar.) This year, the prestigious fest’s Grand Jury Prize went to Push, a drama about Harlem with a more urban variety of grit. Allan Nicholls, director of the film program at Burlington College, and nine of his students were there. On January 22, they trekked to Park City, Utah, for four days of screenings and celebrity spotting — and to take in an innovative media-and-technology installation called New Frontiers.
Student Joe Evans says his fest favorite was the world premiere of The Informers, a dark drama about life in L.A. starring Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. (Nicholas Jarecki, brother of Waitsfield’s Eugene Jarecki, cowrote the screenplay.) He describes it as a “nonlinear” film, “kind of like Crash, that jumps around from character to character. It was pretty cool.” Aluisio Oliveira was blown away by Mary and Max, an Australian claymation about an odd pair of pen pals, an 8-year-old Melbourne girl and an obese New Yorker (voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman). He calls it “by far my favorite movie at the festival.”
Don’t expect those to hit local theaters soon . . . but Sundance is where the buzz starts building. This Friday, February 13, Nicholls and the students talk about their experiences in a video presentation and discussion at the Burlington College Community Gallery from 6 to 9 p.m. It’s free and open to the public.
More By This Author
About The Author
Margot Harrison
Bio:
Margot Harrison is the Associate Editor at Seven Days; she coordinates literary and film coverage. In 2005, she won the John D. Donoghue award for arts criticism from the Vermont Press Association.
Margot Harrison is the Associate Editor at Seven Days; she coordinates literary and film coverage. In 2005, she won the John D. Donoghue award for arts criticism from the Vermont Press Association.
Speaking of...
-
Vermonters Are Going Back to the Movies — Under the Stars
Aug 26, 2020 -
Bottom Line: Thirty-odd Tries to Keep It Real in the Middle of a Pandemic
Aug 19, 2020 -
Dining on a Dime: Starving Artist Café
Aug 16, 2019 -
Citing Mueller Report Remarks, Vermont GOP Dings Sanders on Burlington College
Apr 1, 2019 -
Southern Vermont College to Close at End of Semester
Mar 4, 2019 - More »
Comments
Comments are closed.
Since 2014, Seven Days has allowed readers to comment on all stories posted on our website. While we’ve appreciated the suggestions and insights, the time has come to shut them down — at least temporarily.
While we champion free speech, facts are a matter of life and death during the coronavirus pandemic, and right now Seven Days is prioritizing the production of responsible journalism over moderating online debates between readers.
To criticize, correct or praise our reporting, please send us a letter to the editor. Or send us a tip. We’ll check it out and report the results.
Online comments may return when we have better tech tools for managing them. Thanks for reading.
