Looking (unsuccessfully) for a ‘Citizenfour’ on Sundance

Can you remember the last time a documentary film took your breath away?

I can. It happened Tuesday night, October 14, 2014, in a theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. citizen fourwhich documented the meetings between National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden and filmmakers/journalists Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill.

My agenda for the day simply said “Poitras” – she was there to introduce the photo, of which I had no particular expectations. Documentaries eventually come and documentaries go by the hundreds. This one, I thought, was just another in a busy season.

But within minutes I knew I was wrong, amazingly enough. In a shocking act of cinematic transgression, Poitras and her colleagues risked the wrath of several governments to collect evidence of widespread surveillance by virtually unlimited intelligence agencies. They filmed Snowden in real time as he prepared to flee to Russia. The most notable film raised deep questions about the administration of a popular president, Barack Obama, but was endorsed by some of Obama’s strongest Hollywood supporters, including Harvey Weinstein, Jeff Skoll and Richard Plepler.

It was an incredible performance that was worthy of the Oscar for Best Picture the following year.

Since then, other documentaries have had an impact. i like this Linda Ronstadt: The sound of my voicehit by Three identical strangersand endlessly excited Getting Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.

But I’m still waiting for another film that takes so many risks to pursue such a consistent truth citizen four. And judging by the following lineup at the Sundance Film Festival – a January birthplace for documentaries that will populate indie/mainstream screens for the rest of the year (except for a growing, mostly online, right-wing/libertarian film circuit). – The wait will be a while.

Not that the Sundance schedule is uninteresting. Who wouldn’t care Go to college in Mariachiabout south texas high school mariachi contests, or Nam June Palk: Moon is the oldest TVabout an artist who, according to Sundance, “predicted both the fascist tendencies and the cross-cultural understanding that would emerge from the interconnected metaverses of today’s world”?

It’s hard to argue with the Metaverse or a hot hand on it, after all guitar roll.

But the many documentaries mentioned in last month’s announcement of 99 movies from Sundance Films are almost entirely absent from any attempt to counter the growing realization that government — even in ostensibly free countries like the United States of America – still, and again, overstepping his bounds. Boundaries shift while relinquishing basic responsibilities. Nothing here about the FBI and its social media raid, nor the suppression of inconvenient truths (be it Covid vaccines or Hunter Biden’s laptop), or federal interference at the interface between school boards and angry parents. Homeless camps, street crime, lenient prosecutors, porous borders, food prices and election security or voting rights (depending on how you look at it), all discussed in the national debate, are either absent or hidden from the casual reader. of festival reviews

Granted, abortion is having its moment. PLAN C, a documentary, follows a grassroots campaign to increase access to abortion pills after the Roe v. expanding calf. Censorship is being fought, but on a small scale bad press: This is about a suppression of freedom of speech by the Muskogee Nation. New York transgender sex workers make an appearance The step. Tyranny leaks when far away, as in 20 days in Mariupolabout Ukrainian journalists being besieged by Russia, or 5 seasons of revolutionrooted in Syria.

All in all, Sundance’s documentarians seem to be locked into festival orthodoxy as the outside world turns. A primary concern in Park City is identity. The festival’s announcement notes that 27 percent of the films submitted that year were made by people who identify as women, but that 53 percent of the feature films selected were made by women, with an additional 5 percent by non- binary people.

For the record, the recent Laura Poitras film, All the beauty and the bloodshed, about the opioid crisis, has already been released and is on the current Oscar documentary shortlist. Other shortlisted films explore a range of characters and themes, including David Bowie Moon time daydreamabortion the janesand the Asian-American struggle in “Trump’s Rural America.” Bad axe. But they don’t seem to care about those Big Brother issues that currently make Elon Musk and George Orwell iconic.

Looking ahead, there’s certainly nothing at Sundance that will draw a call from the FBI’s content agents watching Twitter. There is none citizen four– at least nothing that I can see, and I really hope I’m wrong.