:00:00. > :00:36.Hello and welcome to the Sundance Film Festival, here in Park city
:00:37. > :00:40.Utah. I am Tom Brookes. In today's programme we will be looking back at
:00:41. > :00:45.the highlights of this 11 day film extravaganza. We report on the first
:00:46. > :00:50.major depiction of President Obama as a younger man on his first date
:00:51. > :00:55.with the future first Lady. It is not a date until you save his. A
:00:56. > :00:59.documentary which tells a strange story of North Korea's Kim Jong
:01:00. > :01:08.Il's kidnapping of a director and his actress ex-wife. Also the tragic
:01:09. > :01:15.tale of the Florida TV reporter who killed herself on the air. And from
:01:16. > :01:22.Afghanistan, a documentary of sorts in which the country is revealed
:01:23. > :01:25.through the eyes of children. All that and more in this special
:01:26. > :01:38.Sundance Film Festival edition of Talking Movies. Over the past ten
:01:39. > :01:40.days, the Sundance Film Festival, cofounded by Robert Redford more
:01:41. > :01:46.than 30 years ago has been taking place here in Park city. A large
:01:47. > :01:49.contingent of filmmakers made it to Sundance Film Festival this year.
:01:50. > :01:56.All in all, some 120 film features were shown and they encountered a
:01:57. > :02:03.variety of responses. Up in the mountains, a 45 Minute Drive from
:02:04. > :02:06.salt lake city -- Salt Lake City is the festival which is home to a
:02:07. > :02:11.veritable feast of movies, featuring films from 27 different countries.
:02:12. > :02:15.Everything from a documentary portrait of the late musician and
:02:16. > :02:21.composer Frank Zappa to an electrifying slave revolt drama the
:02:22. > :02:26.Birth of a Nation which set a record for sales. The films covered a lot
:02:27. > :02:29.of subjects, Oley Help cover the cult which originated in California.
:02:30. > :02:35.Many members lost faith in their leader. They were so blissed out and
:02:36. > :02:46.hide without drugs. Daniel Radcliffe and fellow actor Paul Dano starting
:02:47. > :02:50.Swiss Army Man which wasn't well-received. Was it a challenge
:02:51. > :02:54.playing a corpse? Physically, obviously there's a lot of things to
:02:55. > :02:57.do in the film that I had to work out ways of doing which felt really
:02:58. > :03:02.natural in keeping with the character. And also, it is still
:03:03. > :03:08.weirdly emotional even though he is dead. I was trying to work out how
:03:09. > :03:17.to communicate that all being dead. Also from India the team who created
:03:18. > :03:23.one of the first overt Indian sex comedies. I don't really drink.
:03:24. > :03:27.Nonsense. Everybody drinks. We have a billion people back home and no
:03:28. > :03:31.one talks about sex and I think this is a deep-rooted problem in India. I
:03:32. > :03:39.think most Indians are like this. And I really hope that this film
:03:40. > :03:42.helps further, to make it easy for the next filmmaker to come out and
:03:43. > :03:45.do something like this. They put her into the back of the van I didn't
:03:46. > :03:52.know if I was going to see her again. One well-received picture was
:03:53. > :04:01.Jim the James Foley Story which told the story of a journalist but by
:04:02. > :04:04.Islamic State in 2015. It was put together by a childhood friend of
:04:05. > :04:12.James Foley. As a filmmaker, Sundance Film Festival is amazing.
:04:13. > :04:16.But this film is bittersweet. It is a film that I never would want to
:04:17. > :04:29.make. Why don't you let me take you? Films like Sex come out Lies
:04:30. > :04:35.and Videotape and Reservoir Dogs have been hits in the past. Last
:04:36. > :04:39.year, Brooklyn, a best picture contender this year in the Oscars
:04:40. > :04:44.race debuted at Sundance Film Festival. This year, there could be
:04:45. > :04:48.future award favourites. The directors who find their films have
:04:49. > :04:56.been selected can be in for a heady experience. This woman made Kiki
:04:57. > :05:02.which explores the culture of LGBT youths who explore dance. I wanted
:05:03. > :05:04.the film to be seen by many people in many different audiences and I
:05:05. > :05:09.think that Sundance Film Festival can be the gateway for that. I don't
:05:10. > :05:15.see it as a commercial film but I know I wanted a big audience. For
:05:16. > :05:20.all the people who consider Sundance Film Festival a wondrous place to
:05:21. > :05:24.be, there are many challenges, mainly the struggles that filmmakers
:05:25. > :05:31.have in trying to make sure their films have an afterlife once they
:05:32. > :05:36.leave. It used to be that Sundance films would wind up in art-house
:05:37. > :05:40.cinemas but now streaming services have changed the length gate. And
:05:41. > :05:45.the first half of the festival, Internet streaming services were the
:05:46. > :05:48.most commonplace bidders. Companies like Netflix and iTunes have
:05:49. > :05:52.dramatically changed the marketplace for independent film and they have
:05:53. > :05:54.been the epicenter of independent film. These companies have had a
:05:55. > :06:00.huge influence in the way that movies get out there in the world.
:06:01. > :06:03.The festival has a big impact locally in Park city where hordes of
:06:04. > :06:09.people descend on this winter ski resort. It increases business and
:06:10. > :06:12.drives business. It is paper restaurants and makes the community
:06:13. > :06:18.vibrant. I think it is a big positive. There were themes that
:06:19. > :06:23.Sundance this year, four pictures on gun violence, and films touching on
:06:24. > :06:27.race. A range of movies which festival-goers anchored in reality.
:06:28. > :06:33.Even among the fictional offerings, many of this year's Sundance stories
:06:34. > :06:37.dealt with real issues and events. I need you to go and prevent the
:06:38. > :06:40.assassination of John F. Kennedy. One of the more intriguing stories
:06:41. > :06:47.that Sundance this year could be found in the documentary the Lovers
:06:48. > :06:52.and the Despots which sheds light on how Kim Jong Il allegedly kidnapped
:06:53. > :06:55.a director and his actress ex-wife. The purpose of this abduction was
:06:56. > :06:59.apparently to enable the North Korean leader to have his own
:07:00. > :07:09.personal filmmaking team. BBC Culture editor Anderson reports. If
:07:10. > :07:15.you made this up it would be too far-fetched. This actress went
:07:16. > :07:20.missing in Hong Kong and shortly after her husband, a director went
:07:21. > :07:23.missing as well. Years later they appeared making movies in North
:07:24. > :07:27.Korea. They claimed they had been kidnapped and brought to North Korea
:07:28. > :07:35.where they were forced by Kim Jong Il to make films for the regime. It
:07:36. > :07:40.is an incredible tale, told by two British documentary makers. The
:07:41. > :07:45.actress who was the protagonist in our story, she was quite protective
:07:46. > :07:49.and there was a little bit of controversy about the story, whether
:07:50. > :07:56.they were willing or not. We had to be careful. The other main problem
:07:57. > :08:02.we encountered was, we have the actress telling her story, but there
:08:03. > :08:06.are two other main characters, the director had died a few years
:08:07. > :08:10.earlier and Kim Jong Il was still alive when we first started making
:08:11. > :08:16.the film but he has since died. Kim Jong Il was mad about movies. His
:08:17. > :08:21.personal film collection was said to be comprised of more than 15,000
:08:22. > :08:24.tapes. He had people in Embassies picking up prints of films from
:08:25. > :08:29.around the world to deliver and translate to him. He had this huge
:08:30. > :08:34.scope of knowing what movies were like and he loved them. But he also
:08:35. > :08:39.saw what was being produced in North Korea and he wasn't satisfied with
:08:40. > :08:44.it. The whole crazy story was presented as true in the Sundance
:08:45. > :08:50.documentary but many in South Korea don't believe the actress. They
:08:51. > :08:54.claimed A2 went over willingly to the north where Kim Jong Il lavish
:08:55. > :08:58.them with budgets and resources to make movies that would be
:08:59. > :09:01.unfavorable in the South. But the documentary features tapes, the
:09:02. > :09:07.first ever recording of Kim Jong Il's voice. The filmmakers save A2
:09:08. > :09:13.were kidnapped. She recorded him secretly in the meeting to try to
:09:14. > :09:15.get him to confess to prove their story was true. She knew that South
:09:16. > :09:22.Koreans wouldn't believe it because it is a crazy story. It's kind of
:09:23. > :09:25.makes you tune into the words that are being said and it does leave a
:09:26. > :09:38.bit more to the imagination in terms of what is going on in the room. In
:09:39. > :09:41.South Korea, the director's films had run massively over budget but
:09:42. > :09:48.once he was in the North, money was no object. When Kim Jong Il is your
:09:49. > :09:53.patron, you can do pretty much anything on a movie set. Budgets
:09:54. > :09:57.were not a factor and there is an anecdote about him saying that he
:09:58. > :10:01.had an idea for a film with the crescendo of the steam train blowing
:10:02. > :10:10.up and he asked Kim Jong Il if you would be able to do that and he said
:10:11. > :10:15.yes -- if he would. The movie went down well with audiences at its
:10:16. > :10:18.Sundance premiere but the critical reaction has been mixed. Many felt
:10:19. > :10:23.that the relatively straightforward style of filmmaking which mixes
:10:24. > :10:24.archival footage and talking head interviews was disappointingly
:10:25. > :10:29.mismatched with such a jaw-dropping story. We are used to the story but
:10:30. > :10:34.hopefully there are people out there who have not seen or heard about it.
:10:35. > :10:37.Maybe somewhere. And that is the exciting thing. To imagine myself
:10:38. > :10:52.watching this for the first time, I think it is a really crazy story.
:10:53. > :10:57.Conflict on Afghanistan has been represented in several different
:10:58. > :10:58.documentaries but nothing is quite like the Land of
:10:59. > :11:02.which showed here at Sundance. It looks at the country through the
:11:03. > :11:08.children and was shot over a period of seven years. It is a mixture of
:11:09. > :11:33.dream and reality. to marry to add favour to the union.
:11:34. > :11:57.First of all, we wanted to Afghanistan today. I wanted to tell
:11:58. > :12:03.the imagination of the kids and that is how we ended up in a more
:12:04. > :12:05.fictional storyline embedded in a story about reality today in
:12:06. > :12:09.Afghanistan. Who was pro- train the children? Were they real children or
:12:10. > :12:17.actors? The kids in the minefield who were digging up the mines were
:12:18. > :12:20.real people, they do this day in and day out. Their parents ask them to
:12:21. > :12:26.do it to make money. They sell it for scrap metal. They sell the
:12:27. > :12:27.explosives. The board's dream was based on many
:12:28. > :12:33.with different groups of children that I met and I wanted to
:12:34. > :12:50.wanted to go one step beyond and really go into the world
:12:51. > :13:05.children. The film is striking to look at. You shot it your self.
:13:06. > :13:07.texture of the film -- we shot it in. We wanted to have these really
:13:08. > :13:24.timeless shots use different techniques to try to
:13:25. > :13:30.explain and to visualise the dramatic landscapes. How would you
:13:31. > :13:35.describe the genre of the film? Is it a documentary or a fictional
:13:36. > :13:43.film? I think it is still a documentary because what we are
:13:44. > :13:47.showing, for me, is not invented. Everything that we show is related
:13:48. > :13:56.to the country itself. But we characters to interpret things. What
:13:57. > :14:00.does your film tell us about Afghanistan that we don't already
:14:01. > :14:06.know from news media? Because it is not as if we are short of images
:14:07. > :14:12.about Afghanistan? No, that is true. I showed the film a while ago to a
:14:13. > :14:15.UN conference about the future in Afghanistan, so they were all
:14:16. > :14:19.experts on Afghanistan and they said this was the first film that they
:14:20. > :14:23.saw which was so focused on local people and not only focused on the
:14:24. > :14:27.war and Nato and the Americans fighting. But really going deeper
:14:28. > :14:41.into daily life. In 1974, a Florida television
:14:42. > :14:45.reporter created shockwaves which it picked up a gun and killed herself
:14:46. > :14:50.on the air. That harrowing incident has inspired two films that were
:14:51. > :14:58.shown at Sundance this year. On a fiction film and the other a
:14:59. > :15:03.documentary. It is a documentary called Cate Plays Christine that we
:15:04. > :15:12.focus on in this report. I am hoping to find the tape. In this film the
:15:13. > :15:17.focus is on a TV journalist who killed herself on the air in 1974.
:15:18. > :15:22.We know she was a serious journalist, Berry tired of how the
:15:23. > :15:25.movement towards blood and cost news and she also did the biggest blood
:15:26. > :15:34.and guts news thing possible. -- Berry tired of the movement towards
:15:35. > :15:39.blood and guts news. Anything that you archived offer.
:15:40. > :15:44.Kate Plays Christine stars a rising actress as herself, as she prepares
:15:45. > :15:49.to play the role of Christine. She travels to Florida, where Christine
:15:50. > :15:55.worked and eventually died to find answers. There are a lot of opinions
:15:56. > :16:00.about her and stories. No one has had any particular insight. I don't
:16:01. > :16:05.know exactly why she did what she did and I will never know. There's a
:16:06. > :16:10.great impulse, human impulse, to explain tragedy and we certainly
:16:11. > :16:15.buttered up against that quite a bit in talking to people. Another
:16:16. > :16:21.Sundance film about Christine this year it is Christine, a drama
:16:22. > :16:25.starring Rebecca Hall. Both films have been breakout hits at the
:16:26. > :16:28.Sundance Film Festival this year, earning rave reviews. Rather than
:16:29. > :16:34.competing against each other the film is actually completely the
:16:35. > :16:37.other, with Christine being a heartfelt dramatisation and Kate
:16:38. > :16:40.Plays Christine a more subversive deconstruction of the story. The
:16:41. > :16:44.challenge of promoting both of these films at Sundance has been about
:16:45. > :16:49.making them. How do you present the story in a way that is empathetic
:16:50. > :16:53.and not exploitative? It is not fetishising some very dark story,
:16:54. > :16:59.that we will all now turn to movie and is about great, it is actually
:17:00. > :17:03.about intimately regarding someone who is struggling to survive. And
:17:04. > :17:07.who doesn't begin by society's standards and who is on a consistent
:17:08. > :17:12.emotional rollercoaster that she can't handle and she hasn't got the
:17:13. > :17:16.tools to deal with life. I think that's actually what this film is
:17:17. > :17:20.about, is looking at someone like that and feeling for them and
:17:21. > :17:24.understanding them. I have decided to kill myself. I will blow my
:17:25. > :17:29.brains out right on this programme a week from today. Christine
:17:30. > :17:36.Chubbuck's suicide is believed to have inspired this film, also
:17:37. > :17:40.featuring a suicidal news anchor. The actions may be even more
:17:41. > :17:45.relevant to today's media landscape. The fact that she has suicide speech
:17:46. > :17:52.was reeling against blood and guts television is something that has
:17:53. > :17:59.become even more prevalent today than it was 40 years ago. And also
:18:00. > :18:05.the fact that she decided to enter a life on television in such a public
:18:06. > :18:14.way, I think our desire as a culture to make parts of our lives public is
:18:15. > :18:17.so much more prominent now. Everyday we are confronted with images and we
:18:18. > :18:22.have to think about whether we look at them or not. If you look on CNN
:18:23. > :18:26.you see the shooting or something and you've always got... People are
:18:27. > :18:32.always questioning whether they should click on that link or not.
:18:33. > :18:38.These people have opinions about what might have driven her to do it.
:18:39. > :18:42.The story raises powerful questions and deserves to be recognised. It is
:18:43. > :18:45.a shame that she is only getting the recognition now in death that she
:18:46. > :18:52.might have preferred to have while living.
:18:53. > :18:56.A film inspired by President Obama and his wife was a big talking point
:18:57. > :19:01.at Sundance this year. It is additional account of the
:19:02. > :19:04.President's Cup is the dates to win the first Lady. All the action takes
:19:05. > :19:11.place on a single day in Chicago in 1989.
:19:12. > :19:16.The world premiere of the film. The actor arrives looking remarkably
:19:17. > :19:20.like young President Obama. Also there is the actress who presents
:19:21. > :19:26.some resemblance to the first Lady. He was playing the young President
:19:27. > :19:30.Obama act at 27 and present him as thoughtful. He was just coming to
:19:31. > :19:33.the realisation that he could do something big in politics. Other
:19:34. > :19:40.than that he was not a nerd is a big reader, an avid reader. The film's
:19:41. > :19:45.focus is on his first date with his wife to be, Michelle. They both
:19:46. > :19:49.worked in the same law office. She was a working attorney, his
:19:50. > :19:55.supervisor. The film will open at the Walkabout town chatting. You
:19:56. > :20:01.think I'm cute? I didn't say that. They talk about her father with MS,
:20:02. > :20:05.they talk about why does she love what she is doing? Does she love
:20:06. > :20:09.it? He challenges her and she challenges him about his father. So
:20:10. > :20:16.it is real-life conversations. How difficult was it for you to get this
:20:17. > :20:23.right? I worked from a straight on impersonation first and foremost. I
:20:24. > :20:28.get this sort of the down and make sure I can do that and then I bring
:20:29. > :20:33.it back and by the time I get on set I would try to drop at all. So the
:20:34. > :20:38.register -- residue was still there, so you still have some mannerisms.
:20:39. > :20:42.Many critics at Sundance have been impressed by this film, as have
:20:43. > :20:46.festival-goers. I really enjoyed it. It was a love story and I was
:20:47. > :20:51.expecting more of a pickle pit of some sort and it was really... I
:20:52. > :20:56.thought it was beautifully done. -- political pitch. I loved it. It was
:20:57. > :21:01.so direct and to see where they met, I had no idea. I didn't know the
:21:02. > :21:05.background story. To see Chicago, I loved the meeting they had. But how
:21:06. > :21:11.accurate is it? The film very closely adheres to the real Aya
:21:12. > :21:18.graphical details of their lives. As far as what they talk about, it's
:21:19. > :21:26.all conjecture. But is the timing right? President Obama is near the
:21:27. > :21:31.end of his term. My baby -- might be the more interested on coaxing on
:21:32. > :21:37.Hillary Clinton or politics of the moment? -- focusing on. It is truly
:21:38. > :21:42.a love story and you see two powerful minds walk and talk all
:21:43. > :21:50.day. I love it because it is before cellphones so they have to talk to
:21:51. > :21:55.each other. It is a film that is favourable to the Obamas, it puts
:21:56. > :21:58.them in a flattering light. But the director says there was no
:21:59. > :22:02.interference from the White House. No meddling. I've heard from
:22:03. > :22:06.reliable horses that the couple are aware of the movie and beyond that I
:22:07. > :22:11.don't know anything. It's a picture that will probably play better to
:22:12. > :22:16.Democrats and Republicans. Had it been released earlier in his term it
:22:17. > :22:20.might have been seen as propaganda. But instead most who see it it
:22:21. > :22:23.humanises them. As one leading entertainment trade paper put it,
:22:24. > :22:33.it's a disarmingly dramatic Walkabout. OK, it's not a date.
:22:34. > :22:37.Fine. Until you say it is. Well, that brings this special Sundance
:22:38. > :22:42.addition of Talking Movies to a close. We hope you have enjoyed the
:22:43. > :22:46.programme. Remember, you can always contact us online and you can find
:22:47. > :22:52.us on Facebook. From me and the rest of the production team here in
:22:53. > :22:55.Utah, goodbye, as we leave you with a Michael Jackson video that is
:22:56. > :22:58.partly featured in a new documentary all about him, directed by Spike Lee
:22:59. > :23:31.and shown here at Sundance. On Friday, Shetland recorded the
:23:32. > :23:34.strongest wind here for 16 years. Gusts of 105 mph,
:23:35. > :23:38.particularly damaging winds across the Northern Isles on Friday but
:23:39. > :23:41.very windy for the north of Northern Ireland, north-east England, gusty
:23:42. > :23:46.winds and the Scottish capital.