Sundance 2025: FOLKTALES’ poetic and musical cinematic portrait of Nordic folk school in the Arctic has charmed audiences

Scandinavian Arctic culture receives some of the most memorable poetic and musical cinematic treatment to be found in this year’s Sundance slate, with the premiere of FOLKTALES, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. It is not surprising that this documentary has become quite the darling at Sundance. The film knits together stunning imagery of … Read more

Sundance 2025: Entertaining, stylish, snappy The Dating Game documentary offers engrossing glimpse into Chinese society

There are far too numerous erroneous and misrepresentative reports in the Western media about China, its people and contemporary cultural underpinnings. But, this week’s Sundance premiere of The Dating Game by Violet Du Feng is refreshing and razor-sharp for how it informs a realistic perspective about today’s Chinese society, from the vantage of courtship in … Read more

Sundance 2025: Outstanding acting, finely understated screenplay, sensitive directing make Omaha, filmed in Utah, a beautiful screening experience

The character of the father in Omaha, a drama set during the Great Recession of 2008, is much like many during that time who struggled against numerous obstacles, swallowed their pride, and made great sacrifices for their children. For those grieving after a family tragedy, when the recession’s devastating economic storm hit with little or … Read more

Sundance 2025: Midnight program’s Touch Me is a gratifying romp of campy, dark comedy, fantasy-horror with plenty of psychological and sexual vibes

From Sundance’s Midnight program this year, Touch Me, written and directed by Addison Heimann, is more than a gratifying romp of a campy dark comedy, fantasy-horror story featuring a quartet of overtly sexualized characters. Leveraging the creative reserves of the genre, Heimann wisely employs cinematic liberties to create characters, each toting their own luggage filled … Read more

Sundance 2025: The Librarians documentary packs a riveting punch on the alarming surge of book banning

A powerful symbolic image in Kim Snyder’s The Librarians documentary, which has received its premiere at Sundance this year, is a librarian who, at the start of the film, stays in the shadows of anonymity but as the stories about the alarming accelerated campaign to ban books from libraries around the country pile up, at … Read more

Sundance 2025: How to Build A Library documentary is rich, compelling, edifying story about post-colonial dynamics in Nairobi

When the McMillan Library, the oldest in Nairobi and the second oldest in Kenya, was opened in 1931, it was never intended to be used by Africans. Not until Kenya established its independence in the 1960s did that change. Named for the American-born millionaire Sir William Northrup McMillan, who came to Kenya in the early … Read more

Sundance 2025: Move Ya Body: The Birth of House is fabulous testament to underground queer dance club music culture

Among its fabulous strengths, Move Ya Body: The Birth of House, directed by Elegance Bratton and produced by Chester Algernal Gordon, presents a compelling portrait of the wistful utopian history tracking the transition in Chicago from a disco culture to the thriving house music scene that queer musicians, DJs, and producers of color propelled into … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Re-Mix to feature restaged versions of three choreographic works, including a company premiere

An encouraging trend in the contemporary performing arts era is that once a new work has its premiere, it nevertheless remains an organic piece, open to revision, restaging, expansion and finetuning. For Re-Mix, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s upcoming production, three previously performed works, including one that will be a company premiere, are restaged in a fresh … Read more

Sundance 2025: Previewing documentaries, narratives, short film programs on The Utah Review’s coverage slate

EDITOR’S NOTE: Part II summarizes the films and programs from Sundance 2025 that are part of The Utah Review coverage. For Part I which is an overview of the state of the film industry in Utah, see here. Among the Sundance feature-length films with a significant Utah connection is Omaha, a drama filmed in Utah … Read more

Sundance 2025: As 41st annual event begins, a look at the current state of the Utah film industry, its growing national and international reputation

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Part I is an overview of the Utah film industry in the current moment. Part II (tomorrow) will offer a summary preview of the Sundance 2025 films, which The Utah Review will cover. For Part II, see here. This year, as Utah has fully begun its second century in the film industry, Sundance … Read more