This year’s edition of the Slamdance Film Festival launches Thursday night, taking place for the first time in Los Angeles. The festival has long had its offices here, but the event itself had taken place in Park City, Utah, concurrent with the Sundance Film Festival.
“On one hand, it’s business as usual with the discovery of new filmmakers, launching careers and new ideas in filmmaking,” said Peter Baxter, Slamdance president and co-founder, of the relocation, announced last April. “But then on the other hand, it’s a chance for our organization to grow in other ways, to fulfill on that potential, the idea here of a rising tide can float all boats in the world of independent filmmaking.”
Originally started in 1995 by a group of filmmakers rejected by Sundance, Slamdance established its own identity as a community of artists pulling together for themselves. The programming for the festival is done by alumni of the event. Among filmmakers who had their early work shown at the festival are Christopher Nolan, Sean Baker, Rian Johnson, Lynn Shelton, Lena Dunham, Joe and Anthony Russo, Bong Joon Ho and Gina Prince-Bythewood.
“There’s that saying that it’s not the place — it’s the people,” said Taylor Miller, festival director, in an interview alongside Baxter earlier this week. Referring to the recent Los Angeles wildfires, Miller added, “There’s a need right now for this in a way that feels much more critical. And I couldn’t think of a better place for people to be together right now.”
The festival’s opening-night selection, screening at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre, is “Out of Plain Sight,” directed by Daniel Straub and Rosanna Xia. Co-produced by L.A. Times Studios, the documentary is based on Xia’s reporting for The Times about the dumping of DDT waste in the waters off the coast of Southern California — reporting for which she was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The film recently won the audience award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. (L.A. Times Studios, an affiliate of the Los Angeles Times, is also a sponsor of Slamdance.)
Other L.A.-themed docs in the program include Sue Carpenter’s “40 Watts From Nowhere,” about a pirate radio station, and Matthew Siretta’s “DeBarge,” about the post-fame life of the family of musicians who rose toward the top of the charts in the ’80s with “Rhythm of the Night.” Ben Hethcoat and Keita Ideno’s “Coroner to the Stars” focuses on famed L.A. County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Noguchi, while David Markey’s “The Secret Lives of Bill Bartell” is a portrait of a notorious, enigmatic star of the local punk scene.
“Premiering this documentary at Slamdance feels fitting, given the festival’s bold, independent spirit — so much like Dr. Noguchi’s,” said Hethcoat via email. “And the situational irony of the ‘Coroner to the Stars’ attending his own Hollywood premiere, complete with a red carpet, is not lost on me.”
Slamdance will run in person through Feb. 26, while a virtual program will be accessible to streaming viewers from Feb. 24 through March 7 at slamdancechannel.com. Aside from the Egyptian, some events will take place at the Directors Guild Theater Complex and Landmark Sunset, while the bulk of the festival’s screenings and events will be at Quixote Studios in West Hollywood.
From the time the festival’s move was announced last year, the idea of bringing the festival to Los Angeles has been met with a welcoming response from the Slamdance community.
“Just every single response was embracing and like, let’s go,” said Miller. “And the amazing other part of this is so many people were like, ‘I’ve never been able to go and now I’m going to go.’”
Regarding every issue of putting on a festival — from the pricing of admission to the programming and venues — Slamdance’s organizers attempt to give intentional consideration on issues of accessibility. Slamdance places particular emphasis on its Unstoppable program, a showcase for films made by filmmakers with visible and nonvisible disabilities.
Among the Unstoppable films in this year’s program are Phil Moniz and Kevin Claydon’s sports comedy “Racewalkers,” Andrew Abrahams’ pediatric healthcare doc “Complicated,” Cameron S. Mitchell’s historical investigative doc “Disposable Humanity” and Alexander Freeman’s “My Own Normal,” a portrait of his own life with cerebral palsy.
Other highlights from the program at large include Rory Mitchell’s “The Tent,” showing as part of the festival’s Digital, Interactive and Gaming Program (known as DIG), Woody Bess’ horror story “Portal to Hell” and Richard Hunter’s dark comedy “Foul Evil Deeds.”
An image from the documentary “DeBarge,” directed by Matthew Siretta, about life for the ’80s pop stars post-fame.
(Slamdance Film Festival)
Madeleine Farley’s doc “Fist Bump” explores disability and social justice initiatives. Elijah Sullivan’s doc “The Hole Story” explores the implications of a 60-foot hole that appears on Mt. Shasta.
Erica Xia-Hou’s fiction feature “Banr” is about an elderly couple facing one partner’s struggles with Alzheimer’s. Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s “Memories of Love Returned,” a documentary on Ugandan photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo, features longtime Slamdance supporter Steven Soderbergh among its producers. Edson Jean’s “Know Me” stars the filmmaker in the story of a man trying to clear his brother’s name.
The festival’s move to a new home also comes at a time when the industry itself seems to be undergoing seismic change.
“There’s all kinds of plate-shifting going on in the entertainment industry right now and in the media industry,” said Baxter, “but if we look at the Slamdance submissions and the interest and feedback that we’re getting, the sense of creativity here from the grassroots of filmmaking, especially here in L.A., it’s palpable.
“We’ll see what happens in the next few days,” he added. “Taylor and I were laughing about it — would we have an audience of one? I think we have worked hard to really bring this L.A. film community together. And not only did we get this huge amount of enthusiasm from filmmakers, but as importantly, we just got this huge amount of interest from when we reached out to community partners and to sponsors who wanted to be a part of what we’re doing, because they saw in us a way to also express what they’re doing.”
“We do not take any of it for granted,” said Miller. “We’ve never had a film festival in this city and we have to bring it on every single level. And our dedication must never be confused. It’s for the community, by the community.”
With their new location and venues, as well as a renewed sense of purpose, the organizers of the Slamdance Film Festival are continuing to look ahead to the future of both their event and independent filmmaking more broadly.
“Usually the direction of a festival, understandably, is that it’s focusing on the films and the filmmakers,” said Baxter. “But for us, it’s also looking at how we can nurture, how we can make stronger the ecosystem for others in the next generation to come. That is our responsibility, not just during the festival here in L.A. but also now year-round in Los Angeles.”
