This July, Sundance Channel (Canada) offers film premieres that stretch across the creative and thought provoking medium, including a black comedy starring Zack Galifianakis, a documentary on the people of Vernon, Florida from acclaimed Gates of Heaven director Errol Morris, to a stage-front view of one of the UK’s top touring and recording bands Arctic Monkeys. Also in July, Sir Ian McKellen stars as the Bard of Avon’s abject monarch in King Lear, premiering on Sundance Stage.
FILM PREMIERES
Visioneers (2008) premieres Saturday, July 10 at 9 p.m.
A quirky black comedy set in the near future, where a curious spike in cases of spontaneous human combustion is taking place. George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zack Galifianakis) lives a comfortable yet completely uneventful life, but when he starts having dreams in which he is the first President of the United States, his doctor informs him that they could be signs of an impending explosion. As the dreams become more frequent and his co-workers continue to detonate, George reassesses his mundane existence.
This So Called Disaster (2003) premieres Saturday, July 17 at 9 p.m.
After appearing as the ghost of Hamlet’s father in Michael Almereyda’s 2000 film version, the American playwright, actor, and television and film director Sam Shepard invited the director to make a behind-the-scenes documentary on the rehearsals for his upcoming play, The Late Henry Moss. The stage work, based on Shepard’s own father, who was a Fulbright scholar whose life and career fell apart in a haze of alcohol, features a noteworthy cast, including Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Cheech Marin, with music by T-Bone Burnett. Almereyda follows the action onstage, in the dressing rooms, in bars, and at Shepard’s ranch, where the usually private playwright spoke openly about his relationship with his father. Almereyda also captures Nolte, Penn and the other cast members in a rare and unusually candid state.
Normal (2007) premieres Saturday, July 24 at 9 p.m. (CANADIAN)
After popular high-school student, Nick is killed in a drunken driving accident; all those touched by the tragedy gradually find their lives beginning to unravel. Nick’s grieving mother Catherine (Carrie-Anne Moss) simply locks herself away in her son’s room and refuses to permit anyone else entry into her chamber of sorrow. Nick’s friends and family aren’t the only ones whose lives have been torn asunder by the accident. The other driver, a failed writer named Walt (Callum Keith Rennie), gradually falls into an alcoholic haze. His already troubled marriage continues to disintegrate as he becomes unable to provide his autistic brother with the attention he so desperately needs.
SUNDANCE STAGE
King Lear (2008) premieres Sunday, July 4 at 2 p.m.
Part of PBS’ Great Performance performing arts anthology series, King Lear tells the story of the old and tired King (Sir. Ian McKellen), who decides to divide his kingdom amongst his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favour, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. However, Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear’s loyal courtier Gloucester favours his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
CRITIC’S CHOICE – TUESDAYS
The Tuesday night block, Critics Choice, features the ultimate Hollywood insider show In the House with Guber and Bart at 10:30 p.m., after a critically acclaimed film chosen from film festivals around the globe. Films in July include:
Fire (1996) premieres Tuesday, July 6 at 9 p.m. (CANADIAN)
The first of Deepa Metha’s Elements trilogy, Fire follows beautiful young woman Sita who is in a loveless arranged marriage in contemporary New Delhi, India. Pulled together by loneliness, Sita and her sister in law Radha become lovers. After the family servant, Mundu discovers the affair and the two women are forced to make a difficult choice.
My Knees Were Jumping: Remembering the Kindertransports (1996) premieres Tuesday, July 13 at 9 p.m.
In the nine months prior to World War II nearly 10,000 children were sent, without their parents, to Great Britain from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. These children were rescued by the Kindertransport movement. Most of the children never saw their parents again. Those courageous parents who had the strength to send their children off to an unknown fate soon boarded transports taking them to concentration camps. Melissa Hacker, a documentary filmmaker, produced, directed and edited My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports, the first feature-length documentary on this hidden story of the Holocaust.
Vernon, Florida (1981) premieres Tuesday, July 20 at 9 p.m.
Produced and directed by Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven), Vernon, Florida profiles various eccentric residents living within the town of the same name. On the surface, it is a portrait of several somewhat eccentric residents of a slow backwater town but underneath lays a droll, forlorn hopefulness, and a grand comedic sense in the spacious frames and exquisitely deadpan timing.
The Corporation (2003) premieres Tuesday, July 27 at 8:30 p.m. (CANADIAN)
Part film and part movement, The Corporation explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Since the late 18th century American legal decision that recognized the business corporate organizational model as a legal individual with the rights and freedoms of all citizens, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies.
SONIC SCREEN – THURSDAYS
Thursday nights are all about music with Sonic Screen, with musical documentaries and specials at 9 p.m. followed by the series 360 Sessions and London Live with performances and interviews with today’s hottest and up-and-coming musical stars.
Arctic Monkeys: Live at the Apollo (2009) premieres Thursday, July 22 at 9 p.m.
Screened at a selection of UK and European cinemas for one night only on Tuesday, October 14, 2008, Arctic Monkeys at The Apollo captures a 76-minute performance from the band’s acclaimed 2007 world tour. Shot at their Manchester Apollo show, the film invites the audience to immerse themselves in the style and force of one of the most striking modern bands as they deliver one of their most intense performances to date. The special includes performances of 20 live tracks, including I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor and Dancing Shoes.
MIDNIGHT SNACK – SATURDAYS
Midnight Snack highlights films that have earned a loyal cult following over the years. July premieres include:
Last Night at the Alamo (1983) premieres Saturday, July 10 at midnight
A critically acclaimed drama, Last Night at the Alamo offers a revealing glimpse at blue collar America. The Alamo, a seedy Houston bar slated for demolition, hosts the bar’s loyal but ragtag patrons one last time before the final knock down. In the course of an evening, the patrons laugh, cry, ruminate over the past and pontificate on the future. One of the more ambitious barflies stages a last-minute effort to save the bar by touching bases with his old college roommate, who is now an important politician.
All times ET/PT
