Enjoyable if you re seeking playfulness and not substance.
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Sam Hobkinson s documentary explores a (literally) unbelievable story of Holocaust survival and why people choose to believe.
Fox Mulder made the slogan I Want To Believe iconic with his UFO poster on
The X-Files, but the reason it has spawned so much memorabilia and so many memes is that it speaks to a very human desire.
We re a credulous species, even if we re aware that con men and fraudsters abound. It s programmed into us to want to believe, no matter how outlandish a bill of goods we re being sold.
Sam Hobkinson s documentary
‘Misha And The Wolves’ Review: Sundance Documentary Recounts A Woman’s Holocaust Tale Too Amazing To Be True Deadline 1/31/2021
The gripping Sundance documentary
Misha and the Wolves, premiering at the festival today, possesses a fairy tale-like quality, beginning with its title. Those four words evoke ancient stories of children deep in the woods, threatened by menacing animals, as in Little Red Riding Hood.
The similarities go further. The documentary tells the story of Misha Defonseca, a woman living inMassachusetts who purported to be a Holocaust survivor. She told neighbors a remarkable tale of growing up a young Jewish girl in Belgium during the war, saying she was secreted with a Catholic family after her parents were deported. She said her foster parents hated her (i.e., like Cinderella with her wicked stepmother).
18 movies you can see at Sidewalk during Sundance Film Festival
Updated Jan 13, 2021;
Posted Jan 11, 2021 Philly D.A., a documentary about Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s district attorney, will be screened in Birmingham on Feb. 2, 2021, at the Sidewalk Cinema and Sidewalk Starlite Pop-Up Drive-In. The screenings are part of the Sidewalk lineup as a satellite venue for the Sundance Film Festival.(PBS)
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The Sidewalk Film Festival has announced the lineup of movies that will screen in Birmingham as part of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Fifteen films will be presented, Jan. 28-Feb. 3, at the Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema, 1821 Second Ave. North, and the Sidewalk Starlite Pop-Up Drive-In, 1801 First Ave. North.
Passing
The indie film showcase s pandemic-era program also has directorial debuts by Jerrod Carmichael, Pascual Sisto and Questlove with his Black Woodstock documentary.
As Sundance director Tabitha Jackson s reign at the indie film festival gets well underway, the marquee indie U.S. film showcase has gone mostly online with a pandemic-era discovery lineup filled with work by women and BIPOC directors and more than half the 2021 program shot by first-time helmers.
For Jackson, the focus on debut feature directors underlines how, despite the COVID-19 crisis pausing film production in Hollywood and upending planning for Sundance s upcoming Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, 2021, edition, the marquee festival isn t playing it safe as it doubles down on revealing new independent voices to the world.
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When the Sundance Film Festival kicks off on January 28, 2021, in Park City, Utah, there won’t be a long line of people standing outside the Eccles Theater, watching their breath catch in the cold winter air and Main Street surely won’t be packed with revelers and sponsor activations, either.
Instead, on account of the coronavirus pandemic, next year’s Sundance will actually expand amid the contraction of live events. Rather than relying solely on in-person experiences, the festival has plans that extend far beyond the theater: a digital platform where patrons around the world can watch this year’s lineup; drive-in screenings at venues around the country; in-person showings at independent art houses nationwide where indoor events can happen safely and in accordance with public health guidelines; and even a virtual reality space that includes live performances and a lobby where people can digitally congregate.