The Road After Park City

The Road After Park City

by Andrew Thomas

The Sundance Film Festival in Tokyo (SFFT) begins on today with a
3-day program of features, shorts, and documentaries presented earlier this
year in Utah. This Sundance Institute initiative, now in its seventh year,
aims to build relationships between the American and Japanese independent
film communities. Though several of the films already have distribution deals
in Japan that commence in 1997, the festival provides audiences here the
opportunity to view a diversity of films and to participate in Q&A sessions
with filmmakers.

The films presented include Nick Cassavetes' "Unhook the Stars", Al Pacino's
"Looking For Richard", Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott's "Big Night", Mary
Harron's "I Shot Andy Warhol", and the Grand Jury prize-winning "Welcome to the Dollhouse" by Todd Solondz. Two award-winning documentaries are also included:
Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher's "Troublesome Creek" and Iara Lee's "Synthetic Pleasures", as are shorts such as Julie Delpy's "Blah, Blah, Blah", and Francine
McDougall's "PIG!".

A panel discussion entitled "Independent Filmmaking in Japan and the U.S."
will be followed by a screening of the SFFT Grand Prix award-winner from the
competition category.