Sundance Announces Films in Competition

The Sundance Film Festival announced this morning its lineups in Dramatic, Documentary and World competitions. Among the Bay Area films in Documentary Competition are Tiffany Shlain's Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, Yoav Potash's Crime After Crime, Jennifer Siebel Newsom's Miss Representation and David Weissman's We Were Here.

"These are the stories that will define not only our Festival, but also the cultural year ahead," said John Cooper, director of the Sundance Film Festival, introducing the first set of films. The festival continues to announce its rosters in the six non-competition sections later this week. Cooper offered a live chat with the public about the announcement earlier this afternoon.

Shlain's Connected is described by Sundance as a "stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century." Potash's Crime After Crime looks at the case of Debbie Peagler, a domestic violence survivor who was jailed for her involvement in the brutal murder of her abuser. Siebel Newsom's Miss Representation connects the dots between the media's limited representation of women with their under-representation in positions of power. David Weissman's We Were Here looks back at the the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco.

The complete competition rosters, a total of 46 films, can be found at the Sundance website.

Non-Bay Area-specific projects fiscally sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society in competition include two Dramatic entries: Circumstance (by director/screenwriter Maryam Keshavarz) and HERE (by director Braden King). SFFS/Film Arts Foundation Documentary Grant finalist Göran Olsson's The Blackpower Mixtape 1967-1975 plays in World Competition.

[Update: The festival announced more of its lineup December 2, 2010, and included is Lynn Hershman Leeson's !Women Art Revolution in its New Frontier section.]