The exceptional Come Away, the first feature-length live action film directed by Brenda Chapman with first-time screenwriter Marissa Kate Goodhill, has the same extraordinary depth as a masterpiece from nearly 15 years ago, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Come Away is receiving its world premiere on the Sundance Kids slate, curated by the Utah … Read more
Introducing her 1995 anthology, Bridges to Cuba / Puentes a Cuba, Cuban-American anthropologist and author Ruth Behar wrote that her collection is “a meeting place, an open space, a castle in the sand, an imaginary homeland. It is a space for reconciliation, imaginative speculation and renewal.” Receiving its Sundance premiere, the documentary Epicentro, directed by … Read more
Making its U.S. premiere in the Sundance Kids slate this year, Binti, an insightful gem from Belgium, directed and written by Frederike Migom, touches on an immigration issue of sociopolitical urgency that resonates in the U.S. just as powerfully if not more than in the country in which the story is based. Binti, 12, a … Read more
If there was one episode from The Ren & Stimpy Show, the cartoon which aired on Nickelodeon in the first half of the 1990s, which encapsulated its creator’s mindset, it was the Christmas season episode Son of Stimpy. Stimpy breaks wind, convinced that he has given birth to ‘Stinky.’ Ren, of course, does not believe … Read more
Continuing a major trend of earning national recognition for its commitment to contemporary art and innovative programs for the public, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) has received an $80,000 grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, its second award from the foundation since 2014. UMFA will apply the grant toward … Read more
Editor’s Note: This is Part II of The Utah Review curtain raiser feature for Sundance 2020. Part I can be found here. It is a fixture in the annual slate of films for Sundance that the Utah Film Center, its cofounder Geralyn Dreyfous and the group to which she belongs Impact Partners Film will be associated with some of … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Part I covers a broad overview of the state’s film industry and Part II focuses on 16 films with a significant Utah connection that are in the Sundance 2020 slate. On the eve of the most inclusive and diverse Sundance Film Festival in its history (Jan. 23 – Feb. 2 in Park City, … Read more
In the second chapter of his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Carl Sagan wrote about the “human-centered conceit” and the work of Copernicus and Galileo proposing to “displace us from cosmic center stage.” It was the image of the earth as a mere orbiting dot that the … Read more
Salt Lake City this week will be the fifth and final stop for the preliminary rounds of the 2020 Junior and Young Artists International Piano Competition of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation. For local audiences, it will be a chance to see the final group of preliminary round contestants: 39 young pianists, ranging in age … Read more
One of the most important takeaways from Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) artistic culture is the sincere encouragement its dance artists receive not only as performers but also as choreographers. In the fourth annual edition of Emerge, undeniably the strongest so far in this RDT series as a New Year’s opener, the dancers embraced their creative … Read more