“Who She Is” tells the story of four individual women caught in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic. Audiences will learn each woman’s loves and losses and will come to know their story. The screening will include a post-film Q&A with directors Jordan Dresser (Northern Arapahoe) and Sophie Barksdale and film participant Lucie Washakie (Eastern Shoshone), followed by small group community conversations facilitated by Mountain Mediation. Refreshments will be served for the small group discussion participants after the film.
Local filmmaker, Jill Orschel, is moving into the final stretch with her documentary Snowland. The film explores the fantasy world created by Cora Lee Witt as she looks back at her arranged, plural marriage at the age of 14 in the Short Creek polygamous group. Her journey to find the courage to speak out and believe in herself is a vital story of women's empowerment.
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival is making its return to Park City after two years of hosting the festival virtually. Taking place from January 19th through the 29th, screenings will be held all around Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance Resort. Featuring over 100 films this year, the Festival’s return seemingly has something in store for everyone. Here are some of this year’s most anticipated Sundance films:
For local emerging filmmaker Danni Deluca performing arts had a strong influence on her from a young age. Still to this day, the arts are deeply ingrained in her identity as a creative practitioner. “If you would’ve asked me when I was a kid what I'd want to do it was either sing in a nightclub or, be a movie star or a director. I just wanted to be a part of the action somehow.”
Now accepting artist applications for the annual Latino Arts Festival! The sixth annual Latino Arts Festival, taking place on June 20-26, 2022 at various locations throughout Park City, will showcase and celebrate Latin American traditions and heritage. The six-day event brings our community together to highlight the beauty and creativity of Hispanic and Latino culture through creative art forms including food, film, fine art, craft, live music and folkloric dance, offering opportunities for all people to connect and interact with one another through arts and culture.
Although Sundance has come and gone, film remains prominent in our community year round. From virtual screenings to in person panels, Park City Film looks to entertain and engage patrons with meaningful films that aim to expand their world view.
As the start of the new year marks returning to routine, our growing ski town gears up for one of the biggest events of the year, Sundance. The Sundance Film Festival usually attracts crowds of tourists and Utah locals alike, however, COVID continues to push out in person events.
With the crisp and colorful fall leaves that are reappearing to Park City, old throwback films like ‘Aspen Extreme’ and ‘Beetle Juice” return as well. Some films are old, but most are new this year. If you are antsy to put your ski boots on, we’ve got some new Ski Premieres that you are not going to want to miss.
Encore! Encore! Park City Film’s Twilight Drive In Theatre returns this summer! During summer 2020, Park City Film, like so many nonprofits, invented ways to make up for lost income and engage their film-loving fans. The Twilight Drive-In was launched without a clue for how well it would do. They felt confident it would be possible to pull off a few weekends and provide a space to engage and entertain our community in a COVID safe way during an unprecedented time with our partners Dragonfli Media Technologies.
Like all local organizations, Park City Film, got creative to continue providing cinematic experiences for eager fans even with theatres closed. They launched ‘Virtual Cinema’ in April 2020, with screenings of the top independent films being released, complete with post-film panels and free screenings. According to Katy Wang, Executive Director, “It was a great way to stay connected to our community and help to support the Independent film ecosystem when movies theaters around the world were closed.”
Our little town of Park City is a 'hot spot' in a good way with the number of authors and artists who live and work among us. One of those artists is local filmmaker Jill Orschel. Her current project is a documentary called Snowland.
Back by popular demand: Twilight Drive-In Movies at Utah Olympic Park! This weekend there are six new showings including Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Goonies, Once Upon a Time….In Hollywood, The Princess Bride, Whirlybird (presented by Sundance Institute) and Wet Hot American Summer (presented by Sundance Institute). A list of upcoming showtimes are found here: https://parkcityfilm.org/showtimes/upcoming/
There’s still time to enjoy and participate in the Utah Filmmaker Spotlight! Park City Film is hosting the 2020 Made in Utah Filmmaker Spotlight from May 28th through June 8th. You don’t want to miss the live virtual Q&A event with film directors on June 4th at 6pm.
Nan Chalt-Noaker's combined talents of creativity, knitting and photography have aided her in producing several stop-motion animation films with up lifting messages in this time of Covid Crisis.
Pandemania and Pandemania 2 have a run time of less than a minute but the time invested is incalculable. “It is impossible to add up the time spent building a set, creating the characters, knitting outfits for them and then shooting a scene. Even more time is spent in post production — touching up each frame, adding sound etc. It is time-consuming but I seem to be kind of obsessed with it. And I am completely self taught!”
We are loving the creativity that are local non-profits are using to keep people engaged and interested during this time. Park City Film has responded to this new time of social distancing by providing virtual screenings for the community! They wish to continue to bring our local community together through the love of movies.
‘The Upstanders’, an IndieFlix original documentary, is challenging bullying across several channels. Join CONNECT Summit County in watching this free screening of the documentary, “About resilience and the power of connection to end bullying.” Monday, March 2, 6:30 p.m. at The Jim Santy Auditorium.
With its vast variety of panels, exhibits, live music, and of course screenings, Sundance has proven to be a massive attraction to not only locals but people from all parts of the world. Put simply, for people who love movies, Sundance is one of the most exciting events of the year.
Cheryl Soshnik, had a unique first Sundance Film Festival experience. “One of those early years, a guy by the Holiday Village Cinemas stops me and says 'Hey, want to see a film for free? They're just getting ready to begin.' Those were the early days of Sundance!”
For most people, movies are viewed as simple form of entertainment. By design, they are meant to provide entertainment to the masses, but is it that all? It can be very easy to be dismissive of films. So-called popular films can seem especially inconsequential. However, can you honestly say you’ve never been influenced or affected by a film in a meaningful and lasting way?
