Press Release

Colorful, Mixed-Format Project Reflects Artistry of Numerous Top Commercial Industry Players

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu, who has been nominated for the Sundance Film Festival’s prestigious Grand Jury Prize three times (for her feature documentaries Protagonist, In the Realms of the Unreal and Living Museum) returns to Park City for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival with a humorous documentary short entitled The Kinda Sutra. A comical take-off on “The Kama Sutra,” Yu’s latest film combines interviews and animation to offer a tantalizing view of people’s youthful misconceptions about conception. In competition within the festival’s Documentary Shorts section, where it was one of over 5,600 submissions, the 8-minute film debuted on Sat., Jan. 17, and will continue to air in various venues throughout the festival. The official website for The Kinda Sutra is www.thekindasutra.com . more

Press Release

Visit Films has acquired worldwide sales rights to David Russo’s Sundance comedy The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. The film will have its world premiere on January 19th. Visit Films will commence international sales of the film at the upcoming European Film Market.

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle focuses on Dory who loses his job at a data-management company and can only find work as a janitor. It looks like his life is going down the drain. To make matters worse, he and his toilet-cleaning colleagues become unwitting guinea pigs in a misguided corporate experiment. But as a strange new life takes shape inside him, Dory learns that sometimes you don’t find meaning, meaning finds you. more

Yesterday I touched upon some of the reasons the air has been let out of Sundance’s balloon this year. And ballooned it has, for a decade. Today walking Main Street’s uncrowded sidewalks, devoid of the usual hypesters and scenesters, I’m thinking that this year’s soft attendance is a gift. And a sign that the Festival might want to recalibrate.

When the Sundance Institute took over the Festival 25 years ago, American independent films were 16mm, low-budget, and all but locked out of the box office. While chances of theatrical success remain as remote today as ever—admittedly there have been giant strides for documentary, Michael Moore’s body of work for example, or those penguins—digital technology with its protean reach, low entry cost and endlessly rising quality has at least leveled the playing field as far as production goes. more

Press Release

Nation’s Largest Pet Insurer Engages Sundance Audience To Raise Awareness On Pet Health Issues and Animal Adoption

Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) took its walk down the red carpet at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival with the debut of the “Pet Pad,� a first-time-ever animal awareness experience for celebrity guests attending the annual event.

Hoping to engage a high-profile audience of pet advocates and owners, VPI partnered with the Best Friends Animal Society to deliver a message of pet health and shelter animal adoption during the opening days of the 10-day celebrity-filled festival. Located within the exclusive “House of Hype� hospitality lounge, the “Pet Pad� offered invited guests an opportunity to visit with adoptable animals and ask for expert pet advice from Dr. Karen Halligan, best-selling author of What Every Pet Owner Should Know and judge on Animal Planet’s Groomer Has It. more