Acme PR’s Sundance FF 2015 film slate
We have three U.S. Documentary Competition films at the festival. Those films are Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon’s BEST OF ENEMIES, Matthew Heineman’s CARTEL LAND, and Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s MERU.
We also are handling the opening night film for World Cinema Documentary Competition, Jerry Rothwell’s HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
Details are below. Please let us know if we can help you with interviews, press materials or tickets. We look forward to seeing you in Park City!
All the best,
Nancy, Emily, Kara and Maggie (contact info below)
***********************************
“BEST OF ENEMIES” – U.S. DOC COMPETITION In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions. William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other’s political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight battle, they pummeled out policy and personal insult—cementing their opposing political positions. Their explosive exchanges devolved into vitriolic name-calling. It was unlike anything TV had ever broadcast, and all the more shocking because it was live and unscripted. Viewers were riveted. ABC News ratings skyrocketed. And a new era in public discourse was born.
Directed with consummate skill by filmmakers Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alum Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet From Stardom), Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today.
Directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon – 87 mins The filmmakers will be attending.
Friday January 23rd at 11:45am - Library Theater, PC Friday January 23rd at 6:00pm - Holiday Village Cinema 2, PC (P&I) Saturday January 24th at 12:00pm -The Grand Theater, SLC Sunday January 25th at 7:00pm - Redstone Cinema 2, PC Wednesday January 28th at 8:30pm – Prospector Square Theater, PC Saturday January 31st at 2:30pm - The Marc Theater, PC
***********************************
“CARTEL LAND” – U.S. DOC COMPETITION
When your government cannot provide basic safety from murderous organized criminals, is it acceptable to take the law into your own hands to protect your family, your land, and your country? That is the question at the heart of Cartel Land, a powerfully visceral journey of two modern-day vigilante movements.
In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," shepherds a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar, the violent drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley—a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley—Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to halt Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.
Intrepid filmmaker Matthew Heineman (Escape Fire) embeds himself in the heart of darkness as Nailer, El Doctor, and the cartel each vie to bring their own brand of justice to a society where institutions have failed. Brilliant, dangerous, and provocative, Cartel Land is a chilling meditation on the breakdown of order and the borderline where life trumps law.
Directed by Matthew Heineman – 98 mins
The filmmaker will be attending.
Friday January 23rd at 8:30am - Prospector Square Theater, PC Saturday January 24th at 3:00pm - Sundance Resort Screening Room, Sundance Resort Monday January 26th at 11:30am - Library Theater, PC Tuesday January 27th at 12:30pm – Holiday Village Cinema 3, PC (P&I) Wednesday January 28th at 4:00pm - Redstone Cinema 2, PC Thursday January 29th at 6:00pm - Salt Lake City Library Theater, SLC Friday January 30th at 6:00pm - Yarrow Hotel Theater, PC
***********************************
“MERU” – U.S. DOC COMPETITION
Rising above the headwaters of the sacred Ganges River in Northern India, the magnificent Shark’s Fin of Mount Meru is a 21,000-foot peak stacked with so many obstacles that it’s both a nightmare and an irresistible siren call for the world’s toughest climbers—many of whom have attempted and failed to summit the elusive mountain. Meru is the electrifying story of three elite American climbers—Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk—bent on achieving the impossible.
On their first attempt in 2008, the trio battles 19 days of violent storms and sub-zero temperatures, teetering on a portaledge night after night, only to be beaten back 100 meters from the top. Returning home, a series of disasters, losses, and doubts seriously test their dream of one last try. Finally in 2011, they confront the breathtaking, treacherous Meru once again. But at what cost?
Shot with dazzling beauty in death-defying conditions by Chin, this immersive chronicle of friendship and an obsessive relationship with a mountain explores the mysterious magnetism of the ultimate challenge—where physical and spiritual realms converge.
Directed and Written by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi – 89 mins The filmmakers and TBA subjects will be attending.
Friday January 23rd at 9:00pm - Temple Theater, PC Saturday January 24th at 8:30am – Holiday Village Cinema 1, PC (P&I) Saturday January 24th at 6:30pm - Redstone Cinema 1, PC Sunday January 25th at 12:00pm - Sundance Resort Screening Room, Sundance Resort Tuesday January 27th at 6:00pm - Broadway Center Cinema 6, SLC Thursday January 29th at 8:30am - Library Theater, PC Saturday January 31st at 12:00pm - Yarrow Hotel Theater, PC
***********************************
“HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD” – WORLD CINEMA DOC COMPETITION (DAY ONE PREMIERE SCREENING) Before it was the world’s largest activist organization, Greenpeace was the love child of an eclectic group of Vancouver neighbors (journalists, scientists, and hippies). United in their opposition to a U.S. atomic test on an Alaskan island, they sailed an aging fishing boat straight for the test site. Armed only with cameras and faith in the power of images, the rainbow warriors were born.
The byproduct of their media savvy is an archival treasure trove from which Jerry Rothwell has constructed a gripping chronicle of Greenpeace’s early history. Remarkable footage, audio recordings and photographs capture its most dramatic, iconic and poignant moments, from the remnants of mass slaughter at an abandoned whaling station to the maneuvering of Zodiacs between the whales and Russian harpoons.
How To Change The World unfolds as a hippie heist movie-turned-high sea adventure but remains an intimate portrait of the group’s original members and of activism itself—idealism vs. pragmatism, principle vs. compromise. They agreed that a handful of people could change the world; they just couldn’t agree how to do it.
Directed by Jerry Rothwell – 115 mins
The filmmaker and TBA subjects will be attending.
Thursday January 22nd at 8:30pm - The Marc Theater, PC Thursday January 22nd at 9:00pm - Holiday Village Theater 1, PC (P&I) Friday January 23rd at 6:00pm - Sundance Resort Screening Room, Sundance Resort Saturday January 24th at 3:00pm - Redstone Cinema 7, PC Monday January 26th at 6:00pm - Tower Theater, SLC Thursday January 29th at 8:30pm - Library Theater, PC Friday January 30th at 3:00pm - Temple Theater, PC
