This week we are celebrating four talented Miami filmmakers who’ll be heading to the snow-capped mountains of Park City, Utah next month to showcase their latest work. Three of the films will be featured at Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 22 to Feb. 1, 2015)—the prestigious Fest founded in 1969 by Robert Redford, and a fourth at Slamdance Film Festival (Jan. 23-29, 2015)—the “alternative to the alternative” (since Redford started Sundance as an alternative to Cannes) founded in 1995 by a group of subversive filmmakers who weren’t accepted into Sundance and started their own event.
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The Strongest Man
World premiering in Sundance’s NEXT <=> section, will be writer/director Kenny Riches’ second feature film The Strongest Man—a satirical portrait of Miami characters revolving around a stolen bike, and how the lives of an anxiety-ridden Cuban man, and his Korean friend, get derailed the moment they agree to attend a spiritual meditation class. Sundance’s Documentary Short Films section will be presenting Jonathan David Kane’s “Papa Machete”—a character-driven short film documenting the noble, mysterious, and slowly vanishing martial art of Haitian machete fencing through the story and practice of one man, master fencer Alfred Avril, who recently passed away. “Papa Machete” is produced by recent Knight Arts Challenge grant winner and Miami-based Third Horizon Media, a production company and artist collective seeking to establish Miami as the capital of the Caribbean avant-garde.
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“Papa Machete”
Sundance’s Animated Short Films section will present the latest work by MiamiFF31 alum director in 2014 Ronnie Rivera (“International Noise Conference 2013”) entitled “The Sun Like a Big Dark Animal” (“El sol como un gran animal oscuro”), co-directed with Christina Felisgrau, where a computer and a woman fall in love, only to be torn apart because of their inappropriate feelings for each other. Lastly, MiamiFF31 alum director, Miami native, and O Cinema co-founder Kareem Tabsch (“Cherry Pop: The Story of the World’s Fanciest Cat”) is set to world premiere his new film “Dolphin Lover”—the true story of a man (Malcolm J. Brenner) with a porpoise—in Slamdance’s Documentary Shorts section. Congrats to all! —Tatyana Chiocchetti[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
