Sundance 2014

Film Festival as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. Welcome to

Sundance Film Festival 2014. In today's programme we look at some of

the highlights of this year's Sundance film Festival which comes

to a close this weekend. All kinds of pictures were being shown. Steve

Coogan and bailed the sequel to the road movie, the trip. Once again,

they impersonate Michael Kane. I will not put you in the ground and a

little box. A chilling documentary in which two documentaries makers

get inside a Chinese rehabilitation centre. And the New York filmmaker

provides a video diary of her experiences at Sundance. You have

yourself a safe trip? An estimated 45,000 festival-goers made it to

this winter ski resort over the last ten days to what should a wealth of

ostensibly independently made pictures. Movies different from

those offered by commercial cinema. It marked its 30th anniversary and

it attracted wards of not just film-goers but filmmakers, movie

publicist the people, stars and members of the press and a host of

assorted others. It was a circus. They've broad range of films from

around the world was unveiled at Sundance. Movie stars like Krysten

Stuart could be seen playing a Guantanamo guard in the movie, camp

x-ray. Michael Fassbender in this are real comedy, friends sporting a

fake it. And a cinematic first, an Iranian Western. There were

documentaries as well. The Green Prince told the story of a

Palestinian man who became a spy. She told the Israeli forces came to

our house. All told, 120 full-length films shown at Sundance. An antidote

to Hollywood, independently made, not mainstream. Our role is to

create the space and platform to bring new voices and new ways of

seeing the world using independent film. That is it. For Robert

Redford, day one of the festival got off to a disappointing start. Had

been expected to get an Oscar nomination was widely praised

performance in all is lost through plays a man fighting for survival at

sea. He was snubbed but it is optical. Would it have been

wonderful to be nominated, of course. I am not disturbed by it or

upset. I am happy about it. I will stay happy about it. It is a film I

am very proud of. It is independent. It conforms to why we

are here. That gave me great pleasure. The rest is not my

business. I am fine. One consolation is that three of five full-length

documentary securing Oscar -- nominations premiered first at

Sundance. Much has changed since Robert Redford founded the festival

30 years ago. For young filmmakers, this is still a very desired

destination. This 23-year-old came to Sundance from New York under

commercial sponsorship where he got short for his short film, weak

world. It is great for any filmmaker with a half decent film to get to

the Sundance film Festival stop I saw it as an impossibility. It is

being rewarded for making your own art or something you believe in in.

It feels pretty good. After three decades at Sundance legacy is

impressive, celebrated directions such as Quentin Tarantino and David

Russell got their first big rake at the festival. But on its 30th

anniversary, the charge is being made that the Sundance business

model in relation to business distribution is broken. Few films

will make it to cinemas. You could take three or four macro films a

year that will show at Sundance and that do relatively successfully at

the box office. At the theatrical box office. That is a very

discouraging model. But filmmakers see Sundance as a place for personal

fulfilment. Digital distribution is opening up new possibilities.

Sundance reigned -- retains its possibility as a platform for just

full-length features. Short films of big part of the lineup. Among them

was Yearbook, a man hired to compile a definitive history of human

existence before the planet blows up. It is hard to start making

feature films, shorts are a good stepping stone. But that is a

reductive way of seeing short films. Sometimes they are more impactful

than feature films. More of an ideal character that would not work as a

feature film. Some it benefits from being five-minute. An audience can

not disdain for an hour and a half. -- sustain it. Sundance also has

several music themed films this year. There was a coming-of-age film

directed by the front man of balance of bastion. He made the success of

this group helped get the independent film made. Our success

absolutely helped. Who will shake hands on some food from Scotland who

says, I have written a musical. I never considered being a filmmaker.

Just like I never considered being a musician. What happened as the idea

for the film came along, quite, had to go with it. I have been at this

point for some time. I have gone back to my day job, Gombak to Belle

Sebastian. Happy to have the guys around. It is a solitary thing to

write a film. Get that to get with the band it is much quicker. -- good

to get back with the band. What Sundance is still providing 30 years

after its launch as a platform for a big array of personal films from a

diverse group of filmmakers for whom passion and artistry as opposed to

just making money are defining characteristics. That too many is

what makes Sundance Film Festival stand apart. 2014 has been a very

good year for the hugely talented British comedian, actor writer and

director Steve Coogan. Earlier this month, a film he co-produced and

stars in with Dame Judi Dench got four macro Oscar nominations. He

arrived with great expected -- expectations for the follow-up to

his much loved to road movie, the trip. He came with his collaborator

Michael Winterbottom. The film is a sequel to the film four years ago.

It forms the form of the original, with the travelling from one

culinary establishment to another, reviewing restaurants. They've bent

and and is -- they banter and impersonate. And then Christiaan

bail says the want to be a madman. The impersonations were a big draw

of the first trip. It has become a motif. We did at last trip, we could

not think of anything else to do. People seem to do it -- like we did

it more this time. In the new trip to Italy more impersonations. And

one impersonation of the man most people found incomprehensible in 's

film the dark Knight rising. Take off your mask, I cannot catch you.

They thrive on doing impersonations. If Michael Kane came to Sundance

what would he make of the place. I see we were going. He would say, I

don't ski quite as much as I did. But if I were to ski, this is the

sort of place I would like to come. The trip to Italy has some great

moments. But there is a tinge of sadness to it which makes it more

than a light division. It reflects Kearns of middle-aged men and the

changes in the lives as they get older. It would not really work as a

film unless it had some. -- subtext. There are some subtle nuanced films

of people struggling with the identity and mortality and those

things that lots of films deal with. It will premiered to a largely

American audience at Sundance, but it is cultural references did not

get in the way people enjoying it. I think of it in the same way as the

symptoms. It is popular around the world. Some references are very

American cultural references, and is when they talk about a particular

baseball sports broadcaster but you understand the rhythm of what they

are saying. Not getting 100% of it, but you sort of know. These are good

times for Steve Coogan, O nominated for the meter in which she co-stars

has changed peoples perceptions of them the deep -- industry but he is

pleased. Before Philomena, I was seen as the go to British guy to put

in a funny scene. But as I produced it and wrote it, people turn your

phone call slightly more quickly. Sundance audiences find the trip to

Italy very entertaining. The director is adamant this is not an

emerging franchise. He says it will be no more sequels. The Sundance

Film Festival takes place amid the great natural beauty of Utah. The

venture cases filmmaking from around the world and provides a platform

for new technology, demonstrating how it can possibly help filmmakers

tell their stories more effectively. This year, two directors have come

to a crow that highlights what many see as the negative effect of new

technology. Negotiating the Sundance crowds are two Israeli filmmakers.

Their achievement managing to get a camera inside the deep programming

Centre for Internet addiction in China. China is the first country in

the world to declare it as a clinical addiction. They say that if

you are on the Internet more than six hours a day, not for work or

study purposes, you are an addict. The film follows the progress of

three teenagers and the appearance of a three-month period as they pass

through the centre. They are brought to beat the centre. They are brought

to BT programmed against their will. Most of these children were forced

to come there. Parents dragged them. Once they figure out where they

are, most of them want to run away and the guard stop them. The centre

is in a military base. The course of treatment is like a boot camp. It is

military training. It is like a re-education centre. There is a

strict protocol. An attempt is made to determine the damage brought

about by too much time online. They are checking their brains and after

this checkup, they decide which medicine. How much medicine he has

to get and how big the damages. Because social life is disappearing

in these children and it's an illusion that they are more collect

into each other but they are very lonely. The filming was done without

official permission. The directors say they only got access because the

man who runs the centre wanted the outside world to see his work. The

reason why they let us film there is the professor sees himself as a

pioneer. This is the first centre that was opened in China and it

opened in 2005 and he sees himself as leading and he feels that the

West should learn from his research. But what is the outcome? Do the

young teenagers who have spent time at the centre leave cure to? He

claimed 70% success. I cannot tell you exactly how he is measuring but

the one thing I can tell you is that one concern is that the internet...

We need to use the internet. It's part of every person's daily life

and you need it, so how do you moderate that? To make sure they use

the internet to actually live and communicate in this world. What

emerges is a disturbing portrayal of troubled young teens held against

their will stop whether their problem is internet addiction or

some other disorder is not clear. The filmmakers hope the documentary

gets people to think, to ponder whether overuse the internet is a

social phenomenon or something more malignant.

Historically, Sundance has helped shine a light on the talents of many

well-known actors very early in their careers. Brad Pitt, Ryan

Gosling and Carey Mulligan are examples. There is one actress for

whom Sundance has played a pivotal role throughout her professional

life. Catherine King no, by her own reckoning, has been here some 15

times. She was back with a picture called war story. Catherine is one

of America's most successful actresses. She has been in

successful commercial films but it is in independent films that she has

flourished. Here, she plays a war photographer, ties by an event in

Libya. It's an incredible profession to choose, war journalism, war

photography. They are in very precarious and dangerous situations

not unlike soldiers or insurgents or whatever. And they are anonymous.

It's really an interesting thing. It's a camera. Yes, I'm just

photographing. I'm taking photographs of a field. Other actors

are in war story, including Sir Ben Kingsley, but it's very much

Catherine King's film. She is in virtually every frame and she does

get her performance rightful top does it make you respect the craft

of war journalism more? Frame my kids did. Obviously I had a lot of

respect for it. I spent a month at the LA Times, I followed Rick

Loomis, who is an amazing photographer, he has been on the

front lines, and they were so generous with me and, you know, I

got to thinking that I actually worked their! No, I didn't. But,

yes. When you know somebody, it'll waste more personal and special for

you. They are incredible. Let's just stop seeing each other, all right?

It was the 1991, the Johnny Suede in which Catherine King starred next to

Brad Pitt that brought the actress to Sundance. We became fast friends

during Johnny Suede and we just... It was silly. We were silly. We

thought, look where we are! This is amazing! Maybe we will see Robert

Redford! I did not know anything about this festival, I had never

heard of it. We were just wide-eyed and excited. I owe so much to this

festival and a lot of actors and directors do. That's the great thing

about it. Is there a bias, do you think, in Sundance films? Many of

them seem to enshrine what you might call politically liberal values. You

don't often see Conservative stories being told here, do you? No, you

don't. (LAUGHS). Seriously, I'm all for it. I'm related to conservatives

and they are great. We just argue. At that all right. Why not? That's a

good question for someone else. Not for me. But I think that, you know,

we should have filmmakers... I just don't know a lot of Conservative

independent filmmakers. People admire Catherine for her talent, her

forthrightness and honesty. She has built up an enviable track record,

making some 50 films, many extremely well received. To some extent, she

is an ambassador for Sundance and the kind of independent cinema it

showcases. I can tell you that coming to cover the Sundance Film

Festival as a journalist is an extremely busy but ultimately

rewarding experience. But what is it like for first-time filmmakers who

come here to showcase their films? To find out, we cajoled a New

Yorker, who is here at Sundance to show her experiences of the

festival, where her film, appropriate behaviour, was given its

world premiere. Here is her video journals recorded mostly on a

camcorder. In a ridiculously short amount of time, I am flying to Utah

to premiere my first film at Sundance. What is the name of this

film? Appropriate Behaviour. I'm looking for the grown underwear of a

woman in charge of her sexuality and not afraid of change. It's about a

young woman who has just been dumped and she is trying to rebuild her

life and piece together the details of what went wrong and how to win

back her ex-boyfriend. To finance the film, how to shoot it, it was an

would battle. Every aspect has been like every other filmmaking

experience, which is against all odds, but the Sundance part of it

has made me the most frazzled. Everything else, I thought I was on

my game and it was the unknown of Sundance that has completely thrown

me off. How do you feel? I feel like I have packed everything ever. I'm

still not prepared. There is not enough that could have come with me.

You look good. You look like you are going to Sundance. Is it the coat?

Going to Sundance? All right! Have a safe trip! Say hi to Robert Redford

for me! There is nothing more uncomfortable

than filming yourself at the airport. I'm conspicuous. It feels

like everyone on this plane, 75%, is going to Salt Lake City for

Sundance. We have several screenings

throughout the week, so it feels like a circus. The most exciting

circus there is. I'm really excited. Thank you. Thank you. I just dropped

my earring. I think a lot of women dream about their wedding day being

the ultimate moment. They fantasise about it and prepare for it. But it

was definitely screaming a feature film at Sundance that was the

fantasy, so welcome to my wedding. The film festival has a lot of highs

and lows. It's phenomenal and exciting and full of energy and

exactly how I always hoped and wished it would be. The reviews that

came later were a soul crushing and made me think I would never do this

again. After that, I really questioned my ideas. And then I woke

up today and decided to do interviews all day and felt good

about it. It was a confirmation. I definitely hope to bring any film I

make to this festival. It was an honour to be invited in the first

place. I really hope I'm lucky enough to screen another film at

Sundance. Goodbye! Goodbye! That brings our special look back at some

of the highlights from this year's Sundance from festival to a close.

We hope you have enjoyed the programme. From me and the rest of

the production team in Park city, Utah, it's goodbye as we you leave

with some of the sights and sounds of this year's Sundance films

Festival. After a week of slightly quieter

weather, things have certainly livened up over the weekend. Strong

winds causing problems during Saturday and we could see more

problems for travellers on Sunday, with more strong winds and heavy

rain coming in, so potential disruption to