Film aficionados in Michigan won’t have to venture too far to get a taste of the Sundance Film Festival. On Thursday, January 28, Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor will be one (and the largest official venue) of eight theaters around the country to host SUNDANCE U.S.A., one of the latest groundbreaking initiatives of one of the world’s most widely-known discovery film festivals. Directors of eight specially-chosen films will disembark from Park City and jet off to cities across the country to premiere their films along with special topical events coinciding with the festival in Utah.
The film selected to showcase at Michigan Theater is Cyrus, directed by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, and stars Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Catherine Keener. There is also a chance that one of the actors may be present for the film’s debut.
Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer David Courier notes there has been a strong relationship between Sundance and Michigan Theater and says he is excited that people in Ann Arbor are going to get a chance to experience the festival. “It’s been part of our Sundance Art House Project for a long time, so we already knew that we were definitely going to Michigan,” says Courier. “In fact, it was the first place that was an absolute for us when we came up with this idea (for Sundance Film Festival U.S.A.). Michigan is a place where the arts are so much loved, and it seems the people there have so much respect for it, and we’ve had such a great relationship with (Michigan Theater CEO) Russ Collins, so it seemed like a perfect match.”
Courier says that dispatching the directors across the country to share the experience with movie lovers is just one more way that Sundance is staying ahead of the curve when it comes to film festivals. “In some ways, we are like different festivals such as Berlin, Toronto, and any festival out there that equates itself with the city it’s in,” says Courier. “But we’d like to think that we’re more of a festival for the United States and for the world than just a local festival (in Utah), so we thought that this would be a perfect way to spread our tentacles (across the U.S.A.) in order to give audiences a taste of the actual Sundance Film Festival experience in their own home town for that one day only, which makes it so special.”
Sundance Film Festival U.S.A. Across America:
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Ann Arbor, MI -- Michigan Theater -
Brookline, MA -- Coolidge Corner Theatre -
Brooklyn, NY --- BAM -
Chicago, IL -- Music Box Theatre -
Los Angeles, CA -- Downtown Independent -
Madison, WI -- Sundance Cinemas Madison -
Nashville, TN -- The Belcourt Theatre -
San Francisco, CA -- Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
For more information on the Sundance Film Festival, go to http://www.sundance.org/festival
Comments
This is awesome - I've always thought of Sundance as being out of reach for local audiences, glad to see the festival is reaching out to introduce people around the country to the best of the best!
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