Sundance at MoMA: Sundance Film Festival Shorts
April 22–29, 2005

The second presentation in this annual collaboration with the Sundance Institute highlights the art and craft of the short film format. The four programs reflect the innovation and energy showcased in the fertile field of shorts—ranging from narrative to documentary to animation, and with running times from under one minute to just over thirty, some of the most creative and challenging works from around the world are found in this format. Because shorts are how many feature filmmakers of the next generation traditionally cut their teeth, the Sundance Film Festival programmers are ever on the lookout for the next big discovery. Several filmmakers will present and discuss their work. The first night's program will be introduced by Sundance founder Robert Redford.

Co-organized by John Cooper, Director of Programming, and Trevor Groth, Senior Programmer, Sundance Film Festival; and Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Media, The Museum of Modern Art.

Sundance Film Festival Shorts 1: Short Films, Big Winners
Each year, a Sundance jury of film professionals bestows prizes on the best American and international shorts. This program presents a selection of winning short films from the 2005 Festival and past years.

Wasp. 2003. Great Britain. Andrea Arnold. A young working-class woman tries to escape the harsh realities of single motherhood for an evening, with tragic results. 25 min.

Five Feet High and Rising. USA. 1999. Peter Sollett. A look at adolescence on the streets of New York City's Lower East Side. 29 min.

Man About Town. USA. 1996. Kris Isacsson. A reformed swinger has one last drinking binge as he realizes the high life has lost its appeal. 22 min.

Family Portrait. USA. 2004. Patricia Riggen. Richard and Diana render their own family portrait as they recount their childhood memories and the challenges they have faced since Gordon Parks photographed their family in 1968 for Life magazine. 28 min.

Program approx. 110 min.
Friday, April 22, 6:00 (introduced by the filmmakers and Robert Redford); Wednesday, April 27, 7:45. T1

Sundance Film Festival Shorts 2: Discovery in Motion
The debut of talent at Sundance is one of the Festival’s greatest attributes. This lineup showcases standouts from the 2005 Festival alongside early work from some of today’s hottest directors.

Victoria Para Chino. 2004. USA/Mexico. Directed by Cary Fukunaga. In May 2003, a refrigerated truck carrying more than eighty undocumented immigrants from the Mexican border drove into the heartland of Texas with horrifying results. 13 min.

Tama Tu. 2004. New Zealand. Directed by Taika Waititi. A Maori battalion of World War II soldiers impatiently waits for gunfire to cease while entertaining themselves in silence in a bombed-out building. 18 min.

Tater Tomater. 1989. USA. Directed by Phil Morrison. Over the course of a hectic day, a cafeteria worker begins to lose control. Forced to say the same thing over and over again, she begins rhyming words to the surprise and disbelief of her coworkers. 20 min.   

Architecture of Reassurance. 1999. USA. Directed by Mike Mills. Convinced that her neighbors have happier lives than she, a young girl goes looking for family and friends in all the wrong places. 23 min.

How They Get There. 1996. USA. Directed by Spike Jonze. A guy and a girl play copycat with each other from opposite sides of the street, until an abrupt and inimitable event occurs. 5 min.

Kitchen Sink. 1989. New Zealand. Directed by Alison Maclean. A hair in the sink’s drain brings forth a seemingly horrific surprise for a bored housewife. 12 min.

Program approx. 120 min.
Friday, April 22, 8:30. T1; Sunday, April 24, 5:00. T2

Sundance Film Festival Shorts 3: Flexing the Form
By expanding aesthetic boundaries and exploring new dimensions in storytelling, the short form has spurred many innovations in filmmaking. This selection from the 2005 Festival showcases Sundance shorts that break new cinematic ground.

Fast Film. Austria/Luxembourg. 2003. Directed by Virgil Widrich. A wild celebration of the hero, the villain, and the damsel in distress. 14 min.

Ryan. Canada. 2004. Directed by Chris Landreth. Ryan Larkin, the renowned Canadian animator, produced some of the most influential animated films of his time, yet now he lives on welfare and panhandles for spare change in downtown Montreal. 14 min.

The Meaning of Life. USA. 2005. Directed by Don Hertzfeldt. The inimitable Don Hertzfeldt returns with an animated opus magnificently exploring time, space, life, death, and interplanetary evolution. 13 min.

Solo un Cargador (Porter). 2003. Peru. Juan Alejandro Ramírez. An anonymous cargador meditates, observes, and qualifies justice and redemption before an ever-adverse reality. 20 min.

The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal. USA. 2001. Matt McCormick. A wry satire of contemporary art criticism and theory, the film suggests the notion that the governmental "war on graffiti" is actually a subliminal conspiracy to fund minimalist artistic impulses of the ruling classes. 16 min.

The Raftman’s Razor. 2004. USA. Directed by Keith Bearden.   The misadventures of a do-nothing superhero and a pair of geeky teenagers. 7 min.

Program approx. 120 min.
Saturday, April 23, 2:00. T1; Friday, April 29, 8:30. T2

Sundance Film Festival Shorts 4: The Nonfiction Faction
This yearly program of U.S. and international short documentaries has yielded powerful and exhilarating nonfiction films that probe timely—yet timeless—issues. The Nonfiction Faction reveals how, even in short form, film can change the way we look at the world around us.

The Children of Leningradsky. Poland. 2004. Directed by Hanna Polak & Andrzej Celinski. The gritty and heartbreaking story of AIDS, glue sniffing, and police brutality in post-Soviet Russia, where millions of children are homeless. 35 min.

Natchiliagniaqtuguk Aapagalu (Seal Hunting with Dad). USA. 2004. Directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean. An Inuit father teaches his son to hunt seals. 11 min.

Recycle. USA. 2004. Directed by Vasco Nunes, Ondi Timoner.  A day in the life of homeless Miguel Diaz, who, while recovering from substance abuse, creates a community garden. 6 min.

It’s Like That. Australia. 2003. Directed by Southern Ladies Animation Group. Three children held under the Australian Migration Act that mandates detention of

asylum seekers reflect on their environment, the food, and what they think Australia

is like “outside.” 7 min.

Small Town Secrets. 2004. USA. Directed by Katherine Leggett. Growing up with closeted gay parents in a small, midwestern town, Katherine Leggett weaves together a collection of home movies and conversations with her parents, recorded via webcam. 8 min.

Our Story (La Historia de Todos). 2003. Mexico. Directed by Blanca Aguerra. Indigenous, migrant Mexican children share their life stories through wonderful claymation. 10 min.

Program approx. 150 min.
Sunday, April 24, 2:00. T2; Monday, April 25, 5:00. T1

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