Dakota Johnson, Keke Palmer, Aubrey Plaza, Tig Notaro, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Abigail Disney Participate in Sundance Film Festival’s 5th Day of Programming

Sundance Film Festival welcomed audiences to a fifth day of premiere screenings and conversations featuring some of the most notable visionaries in independent film, new media, and culture at-large, including: Dakota Johnson, Keke Palmer, Aubrey Plaza, Abigail Disney, Tig Notaro, Gina Gershon, Theo Rossi, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Nikyatu Jusu, and more.

Having kept the final film in the US Documentary Competition under wraps, the Festival announced that Navalny, a fly-on-the-wall documentary thriller about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, joins the program and will debut on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. MT. Across the board, conversations at the festival dug deep today: delving into the power of story and American narrative (THE STORY OF US: RECLAIMING THE NARRATIVE), analyzing the legacy of the foremost Black American filmmaker, Oscar Michaux (Oscar’s Comeback), and uncovering the economic inequities at the heart of American institutions like Disney. Additional film premieres and Q&As (Am I Ok?, Emily the Criminal, and Cinema Café) shone a spotlight on the process and the methods to the madness of selecting independent projects in service of telling one’s story.

Each year, Sundance serves as a cultural launchpad, helping to expand audience horizons through film and the conversations that occur the minute that credits roll. Continuing to foster this spirit of discussion into 2022, Sundance Film Festival programs a series of panels across discipline and topic to keep the conversation going.

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DAY FIVE HIGHLIGHTS

FILM PREMIERES Q&As

ABIGAIL DISNEY (Director) on who she wants to see this movie: “I have a wish for this film to find a way into the hearts of people who don’t normally talk about politics or the economics of income inequality.”

ABIGAIL on being tempted to confront the Disney higher-ups: “There was that Roger and Me kind of moment I wanted. But, because of Roger and Me, no CEO would open themselves up to that. I hate that this feels like a personal attack. I didn’t ever want it to be an attack. I wanted it to open up the door to a lot of questions.”

KATHLEEN HUGHES (Director) on the biggest discovery while making the film: “That the economy we are in was man made. The economy is not like the weather, people make these choices. That sort of individualistic, money rising to the top, that we are living in right now is something that was constructed by people.”

ABIGAIL on what consumers can do to make real change: “I really believe that this is a problem across all industries. This is an Amazon problem, a Wal-Mart problem and McDonalds problem. You do have the power as a consumer to withhold your money from companies who are doing it wrong, and spending it where companies are doing it right.”

Am I Ok? Panel

DAKOTA JOHNSON (Lead Actor) on how she prepared for her role: “I went around and made out with a lot of women during Covid before we started filming to practice.”

TIG NOTARO (Director): “Nailed it!”

DAKOTA JOHNSON (Lead Actor): “Thank you!”

SONOYA MIZUNO (Lead Actor) on connecting to her character: “I connected to being a woman in my thirties and not feeling like I have everything figured out. Trying to juggle a career, relationships and wanting to have a family and sexuality. All of the things women have to contend with.”

Emily The Criminal Panel

AUBREY PLAZA (Actor) on shape-shifting her way through her career:“I think the things that are most exciting to me are the scariest. That’s why I love to do movies, because I like to escape. I think that’s why a lot of actors do what they do, they like to be somebody else. It’s always a huge factor in everything that I do. It's just trying to find something that scares the sh*t out of me.”

JOHN PATTON FORD (Director) on why he chose to set this story in a different version of LA: “There was nothing that felt like a cross section of LA. everything seemed to be treated as a visual monolith. I wanted to create something that felt like the LA I was seeing when I just drove around. It’s an awesomely diverse place. It’s something like 65% non-Anglo. Over half the people here are first generation. There’s just a level of diversity that’s hard to show, but I wanted to try.”

THEO ROSSI (Actor) on the inspiration for his character, whose ties to the underbelly of LA come in handy for Aubrey Plaza’s Emily: With the character of Youcef, I walked that life a little and I remember that life a little. So, it was fun. No criminal ever wants to be a criminal, it’s always a means to an end.”

CINEMA CAFÉ

DAKOTA JOHNSON & KEKE PALMER

KEKE PALMER (Actor, Alice) on why she’s been drawn to horror as a genre: “My love for horror started very young - I’m a big fan of horror, as far as a viewer…The thing about horror is that if it’s done “right,’ it’s going to have the elements of every kind of movie: you’re gonna have comedy, drama, romance, you’re going to have suspense and action in there. It really has the potential to be a limitless genre.”

KEKE PALMER (Actor, Alice) on how she chooses upcoming projects: “I really want to make sure that my roles are purposeful and impactful. And the way that I see art is a version of my activism. So most definitely, when I choose roles, knowing how people view me, and knowing as a voice of my community I’m very conscious of how that role will be perceived. What is it saying and how does it make me feel?”

DAKOTA JOHNSON (Actor, Cha Cha Real Smooth & Am I Ok?) on why she feels the need to channel her creativity into acting: “There’s so much discovery that happens when you do a role. That’s mainly the reason I try things because this is really going to teach me something or I’m drawn to it for a reason that I can’t explain, but it’s like stretching into the depths of myself, in a way. Like, reaching into the far corners of my heart or my mind. And there's a whole different woman in there.”

DAKOTA JOHNSON (Actor, Cha Cha Real Smooth & Am I Ok?) on the films that have most recently hit her the hardest: “I think when I’m watching films and it hurts, usually it’s because I love it. You know? I think the most recent one - I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie - The Worst Person in the World? Oh My god, it’s so brilliant. And it wrecked me! I was crying in a way that was weird. I was trying to cry less than how my body wanted to cry.”

THE BIG CONVERSATION

THE STORY OF US: RECLAIMING THE NARRATIVE

NIKYATU JUSU (Director/Writer, Nanny) on the hurdles of the American Hollywood production process: “Horror came to me because As i started to glean more about the entertainment industry, I realized that no one is prepared to tell the truth in the American cinematic industry. This is a very business oriented industry, there's a reason why I find most of my inspiration from non-American cinema. Because there’s more of a bent toward being an artist and craft. Whereas in America, there’s a higher emphasis on capitalism, patriotism, white supremacist, patriarchy, etc, etc.”

NIKYATU JUSU (Director/Writer, Nanny) on the dilution of truth in “historical” films: “I’m very well aware of the business that I’m maneuvering in. I'm not interested in making a historical piece in this system, in this paradigm because of the people who are in charge of financing films - which are overwhelmingly white people. Because of the people who mostly maneuver this industry and are in positions of power., no one is prepared to tell the truth. And so rather than dilute very important figures in history, I would rather maneuver fantasy. Because I think through the fantastical genres, whether it’s horror, or action or thriller, or even straightforward fantasy, you’re able to hide very important messages in your storytelling.”

DAVID BLIGHT (Sterling professor of American History, Yale University) on the crisis we face as a nation constantly editing its story: “ Part of the problem is that our stories are not penetrating these shields dividing us through our separate mediums, our separate kind of everything. We have a new kind of apartheid in Ameica - an apartheid of information. It’s an apartheid of narratives, and we truly living in different stories.”

CJ HUNT (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah) on the imagery conveniently used to cover up America’s white supremacist reality in both national news and history book storytelling: “Reminds me of how white children have been used as props throughout history to silence the voices of people of color. Right, that in the same way that lynching Black men is on one side of the coin, then displays of images with children dressed up in the confederate flag paraphenalia is the other side of the coin… White supremacy always finds a way of masking itself as legitimate. It’s ugly and offensive to our sensibilities as white Americans to see white supremacists harming people in the street, so then white supremacy finds a way around it.”

BEYOND FILM PRESENTS

Oscar’s Comeback

Director LISA COLLINS and Co-Director MARK SCHWARTZBURT on creating a 5-hour documentary, Oscar’s Comeback, about a small-town film festival dedicated to black film pioneer Oscar Micheaux, over the course of seventeen years: “As we dove into the films more and more, we would see these connections across race, class and time, that Oscar’s characters in his movies had with us, and with the character subjects that we were filming - our film crew, our experiences all coming together as a higher force.”

JACQUELINE STEWART, Chief Artistic and Programming Officer, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Micheaux’s impact: “We consider him to be the godfather of independent cinema as an African American filmmaker who made more than 40 films over the course of a 30 year career during the most difficult times of racial segregation in America.”

Director LISA COLLINS on Micheaux’s portrayal of women, and in particular African American women: “Realizing the extreme importance and agency he gives to female characters in his work [...] they drive so many aspects of this protector spirit.”

NEW FRONTIER

Cosmogony Live Performance | 2:00 PM ET // 12:00 PM MT // 11:00 AM PT

Encore performance | 4:00 PM ET // 2:00 PM MT // 1:00 PM PT

NATIVE FORUM CELEBRATION

Interim Director of Sundance Institute’s Indigenous program ADAM PIRON: “Throughout this pandemic that continues into 2022, we have come to value even more the strength of our Indigenous values and traditions, the resiliency and creativity of our Indigenous cultures, all the while continuing to focus on new ways to express ourselves and our art virtually. Here at Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program, there has been opportunity in the midst of the challenges — we were given the chance to reassess, shift our way of working and dramatically re-imagine our programs. We have come to value even more the strength of our Indigenous values and traditions, the resiliency and creativity of our Indigenous cultures, all the while continuing to focus on new ways to express ourselves and our art virtually.”

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR JANUARY 25, 2022

WORLD PREMIERE - JUST ANNOUNCED

Navalny | 8:00PM ET // 6:00PM MT // 5:00PM PT

Please note, if you are out of tickets you can request to receive access to this screening. Email [email protected] for details.

CINEMA CAFE

FRESH FACES | 1:30PM ET // 11:30AM MT // 10:30AM PT

John Early (My Trip to Spain), Lily McInerny (Palm Trees and Power Lines), and Donald Elise Watkins (Emergency); Moderated by Joey Soloway (Transparent)

THE BIG CONVERSATION

MACHINE YEARNING | 4:00 PM ET // 2:00 PM MT//1:00 PM PT

Cynthia Breazeal (MIT Media Lab), Kogonada (Director, After Yang) Lisa Joy ( co-creator, co-showrunner Westworld), and Ashley Llorens (vice president and distinguished scientist at Microsoft Research).

NEW FRONTIER

Shorts Party | 3pm MT - 5pm MT (Film Party)

Indie Episodic Party | 5pm MT - 7pm MT (Film Party)

Cosmogony Live Performance | 2:00 PM ET // 12:00 PM MT // 11:00 AM PT

Encore performance | 4:00 PM ET // 2:00 PM MT // 1:00 PM PT

NF Artist Spotlight: The State of Global Peace | 6pm MT (Cinema House)

Dream in My Bones screening | 8pm MT (Cinema House)

If you don’t have a VR headset, this is your chance to see

Premiere Parties for 20 films: https://www.sundance.org/blogs/heres-your-opportunity-to-meet-the-filmmakers-at-the-sundance-film-festival/

FESTIVAL VILLAGE EVENTS

Variety Sundance Series: A Conversation with Christy Haubegger, EVP Communications & Chief Inclusion Officer at WarnerMedia | 1:00PM ET // 11:00AM MT// 10:00am PT

Presented by Variety & WarnerMedia

Asia Society | 7:00PM ET // 5:00 pmMT// 4:00PM PT

Presented by Asia Society

BUILDING THE METAVERSE WITH NFTS | 4:00PM ET// 2:00PM MT// 1:00PM PT

Presented by Metaplex Studios

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

The Festival takes place digitally via our enhanced online platform at Festival.Sundance.org, on the New Frontier Spaceship, a bespoke immersive platform allowing festival goers to gather virtually, and in-person at seven Satellite Screens venues around the country during the Festival’s second weekend. Additional programming includes a daily talk show (“How to Fest: Daily”), and Satellite Screen conversations as well as partner offerings in the Festival Village.To note, all talks are available online via livestream or posted later on festival.sundance.org to view globally. Sign up for an account at festival.sundance.org to access online. All times are U.S. Mountain Time.

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ABOUT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Flee, CODA, Passing, Summer Of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Clemency, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Zola, On The Record, Boys State, The Farewell, Honeyland, One Child Nation, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Precious, The Cove, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Napoleon Dynamite, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Reservoir Dogs and sex, lies, and videotape.

The Festival is a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute. 2022 Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Acura, AMC+, Chase Sapphire, Adobe; Leadership Sponsors – Amazon Studios, DIRECTV, DoorDash, Dropbox, Netflix, Omnicom Group, WarnerMedia, XRM Media; Sustaining Sponsors – Aflac, Audible, Canada Goose, Canon U.S.A., Inc., Dell Technologies, IMDbPro, Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold, Rabbit Hole Bourbon & Rye, Unity Technologies, University of Utah Health, White Claw Hard Seltzer; Media Sponsors – The Atlantic, IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Shadow and Act, Variety, Vulture. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival’s costs and sustain the Institute’s year-round programs for independent artists. Visit sundance.org/festival for more.