Shining a light on community at Sundance
This January marked the 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It is one of North America’s top independent film festivals that creates opportunities that could change an independent filmmaker’s career trajectory. Sundance is known to be challenging for films to be accepted into the premier festival. After Sundance, many films go to distribution, to box office success, to winning awards.
AANHPI films that have premiered at Sundance include seminal films that have influenced and inspired generations of creatives and audiences alike. Some of these films include:
- Peter Wang’s The Great Wall is a Great Wall (1986)
- Tony Bui’s Three Seasons (1999)
- Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
- Alice Wu’s Saving Face (2005)
- Justin Chon’s Gook (2017)
- Lulu Wang’s The Farewell (2019)
- Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded by the Light (2019)
- Lee Issac Chung’s Minari (2020)
- Alika Tengan’s Every Day in Kaimukī (2022)
- Sean Wang’s Didi (2024)
More than that, having a film screen and premiere at Sundance is an opportunity for narrative change and community building.
Cold Tea Collective attended its first Sundance Film Festival this year and experienced first-hand the power of being in community with those who are relentless in sharing stories for us, by us.
See also: Randall Park on his directorial debutShortcomings: An unusually everyday story
Climbing a steep mountain toward more AAPI representation at the Sundance Film Festival
Aside from getting a film you worked on into the festival, attending the festival to find your community of creatives drives the longevity of the community.
2024 marks the 40th year of the festival and the 20th year of the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience’s (APFE) community-building efforts. APFE started in 2002 to support the premiere of films such as director Justin Lin’s Better…
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