Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Filmmaker Julian Doan faced a strange challenge while making his short film “Raspberry.”
“How do you make a film about a banal, boring and unembellished death interesting in seven minutes?” Doan said. “This was something I wanted to capture. I wanted someone to experience the gravity of the situation.”
“Raspberry,” which is available for on-demand screening starting Friday, Jan. 28, during the Sundance Film Festival, is about an Asian family that has to say goodbye to their dead father as the undertakers prepare to take his body to the mortuary.
To overcome the challenge, Doan relied on his cast that includes Raymond Lee, Alexis Rhee, Joseph Lee and Gihee Hong, who play the grieving family members, and Molly Leland and Matt Kelly, who portray the undertakers.
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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.
Here are the 72 feature films in the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which will mostly screen online
The festival will be shorter with limited in-person events, to avoid spreading COVID-19.
(Daniel Power | courtesy of Focus Features / Sundance Institute) Robin Wright directs and stars in the drama Land. It s an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. | Updated: Jan. 5, 2021, 12:33 a.m.
With everything that will be different about the 2021 Sundance Film Festival a shorter event, with fewer films, most of it happening online the quality of movies on the slate has stayed constant, said the festival’s new director, Tabitha Jackson.