Sundance Film Festival

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Democracy Now! has broadcast from the Sundance Film Festival each year since 2010. We have interviewed dozens of independent filmmakers, actors and activists about the films premiering at the festival. The Sundance Film Festival is the largest festival for independent cinema in the United States and is hosted each year in Park City, Utah.

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    West Memphis 3: Freed Death Row Prisoner Makes Film about 18-Year Battle to Prove His Innocence

    February 06, 2012 | Story

    We turn now to the case of the West Memphis Three, the young men in West Memphis, Arkansas, who were imprisoned for the 1993 slayings of three eight-year-old boys after an investigation largely fueled by unsubstantiated rumors of a Satanic ritual. The new documentary, "West of Memphis," was co-produced by none other than one of the convicted youths at the heart of the story, Damien Echols. Echols and his two co-defendants were released last August after spending nearly two decades in prison, all the while proclaiming their innocence. Recent DNA tests did not link the men to the scene and showed the presence of others who have never been identified. The film alleges Terry Hobbs, stepfather of one of the victims, may have been responsible for the murders. And the new documentary suggests the three young boys were never mutilated, but preyed on post-mortem by snapping turtles commonly found in the Arkansas-Tennessee border town. Democracy Now! recently spoke with Echols in a rare extended interview at the Sundance Film Festival. "I didn’t have any faith in the justice system, because I had seen how corrupt it was, all the way to the core, from the inside. And that completely took away any faith I had in the system whatsoever," Echols said. “What I did have faith in was all the people that came to our aid, you know, the supporters and the investigators and everybody that rallied around us. That’s what I had faith in, and that’s why I believed I would eventually get out." We also spoke to Echols’s wife, Lorri Davis, and the film’s director, Amy Berg. [includes rush transcript]

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    "The House I Live In": New Documentary Exposes Economic, Moral Failure of U.S. War on Drugs

    January 31, 2012 | Story

    This weekend the top documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival went to "The House I Live In," which questions why the United States has spent more than $1 trillion on drug arrests in the past 40 years, and yet drugs are cheaper, purer and more available today than ever. The film examines the economic, as well as the moral and practical, failures of the so-called "war on drugs" and calls on the United States to approach drug abuse not as a "war," but as a matter of public health. We need "a very changed dialogue in this country that understands drugs as a public health concern and not a criminal justice concern," says the film’s director, Eugene Jarecki. "That means the system has to say, 'We were wrong.'" We also speak with Nannie Jeter, who helped raise Jarecki as her own son succumbed to drug addiction and is highlighted in the film. We air clips from the film, featuring Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow"; Canadian physician and bestselling author, Gabor Maté; and David Simon, creator of "The Wire." [includes rush transcript]

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    The Invisible War: New Film Exposes Rape, Sexual Assault Epidemic in U.S. Military

    January 30, 2012 | Story

    On the heels of a new military survey that the number of reported violent sex crimes jumped 30 percent in 2011, with active-duty female soldiers ages 18 to 21 accounting for more than half of the of the victims, we speak with Trina McDonald and Kori Cioca, two subjects of "The Invisible War,” a new documentary that examines the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the U.S. military, which won the Audience Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. "Not only was I astounded by the numbers, but when I started talking to the women and men who had experienced this, I was just so devastated by their stories," says the film’s Academy Award-nominated director, Kirby Dick. "These are women and men who are very idealistic. They joined the military because they wanted to serve their country. They were incredible soldiers. And then, when they were assaulted, they had the courage to come forward, even though many people advised them not to," Dick says. [includes rush transcript]

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    Documentarians Take On Power and Corruption: An Interview with the Sundance Institute’s Cara Mertes

    January 27, 2012 | Blog Post

    The Sundance Institute’s Cara Mertes describes how the independent film festival supports documentarians, including one who drew the ire of Dole Food Co. for showing how plantation workers in Nicaragua successfully sued for its continued use of a pesticide that can cause sterility and possibly cancer. [includes rush transcript]

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    As Romney Releases Tax Returns, Fmr Senate Investigator Says: We’ve Got to Start Taxing Corporations

    January 24, 2012 | Story

    During the GOP primary, Mitt Romney has come under fierce attack for parking millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven. We speak with Tax Justice Network USA chair Jack Blum, a former top congressional investigator of financial crimes, who says tax evasion could seriously cripple the already struggling economy. Blum appears in "We’re Not Broke," a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film examines widespread corporate tax evasion in the United States and the increasing role of offshore tax havens. "Has [Romney] cheated? No," Blum says. "What he’s done is take full advantage of a system that has been structured the way it is because of political influence and a tremendous amount of lobbying money on Capitol Hill... We must not only rewrite the Internal Revenue Code, but we must get a fair contribution from the very wealthy and from corporations, and that is the only way to balance the budget." [includes rush transcript]

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    "The Atomic States of America": Exploring a Nation’s Struggle with Nuclear Power

    January 24, 2012 | Story

    Nuclear power has drawn wide support from both sides of the aisle, with both Republicans and Democrats advancing a pro-nuclear agenda even in the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima disaster in Japan. We speak with Sheena Joyce, co-director of the new documentary "The Atomic States of America," which is featured at 2012 Sundance Film Festival. We’re also joined by Kelly McMasters, whose book "Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town" inspired the film. Joyce says, "We used Kelly’s book and the town of Shirley as kind of a springboard into the issue, to just talk to people really on both sides, but mainly to speak to the people in reactor communities... We wanted to seek an intelligent dialogue." [includes rush transcript]

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    Robert Redford on How Truth Telling, Challenging Power Fuels His Passion for Independent Film

    January 24, 2012 | Story

    Robert Redford is well known as an actor, a director, a producer and an activist. Since 1980, through the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Institute, Robert Redford has helped independent voices develop their craft—in film, in theater and in music—to reach larger and newer audiences. We speak with Redford about how independent cinema became his passion. "To me, stories that were worth telling were stories about what’s the truth beneath the truth that you’re given, or think you know... I wanted to focus on independent films to keep alive the independent spirit through storytelling and movie making." [includes rush transcript]

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    Medical Whistleblower Dr. Steven Nissen on "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare"

    January 23, 2012 | Story

    As the Republican presidential candidates propose to dismantle President Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform package, we speak to Dr. Steven Nissen, one of the nation’s leading cardiologists. His research into Vioxx and Avandia led to severe restrictions by the Food and Drug Administration, reducing the use of both drugs. Nissen is profiled in the documentary, "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare," which is being featured this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film tackles the powerful forces behind the battle over heathcare costs and access. "Healthcare has become such a huge business that the forces that don’t want change—the insurance industry, the hospital industry, even physician professional societies—have so aligned to keep the system as it is that it’s very hard to overcome that," said Dr. Nissen, who chairs the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. "My fear in this election, because of the Citizens United ruling, is massive amounts of money from people with a huge stake in making a profit from healthcare are going to influence the electorate with just an amazing amount of money." [includes rush transcript]

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    Robert Redford Praises Rejection of Keystone Pipeline: We Can’t Afford to Be at the Mercy of Big Oil

    January 23, 2012 | Story

    We’re broadcasting from Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival, the nation’s largest festival for independent cinema. Over the weekend, we spoke with Robert Redford, the founder of Sundance. He’s well known as an actor, a director, a producer, but part and parcel of who he is is an activist. We asked him about President Obama’s decision last week to reject the proposal for the Keystone XL tars sands oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. "Oil, coal and gas still dominate, in terms of control, because of their relationship with members of Congress they give a lot of money to," Redford said. "But because times have changed so drastically, and I don’t think we can be at the mercy of what Big Oil wants to do anymore." [includes rush transcript]

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    "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator": New Film Tracks Struggle for Justice After Guatemalan Genocide

    September 15, 2011 | Story

    A new documentary links Guatemala’s turbulent past with those who are active players in its present. The film, "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator," which is part political thriller and part memoir, spans four decades, following several people as they search for the details that can be used to hold accountable those responsible for the genocide in which Guatemalan military and paramilitary soldiers killed more than 200,000 people. The film documents the movement by Mayans to seek justice, featuring Nobel Prize winner and indigenous Guatemalan activist, Rigoberta Menchú, who is challenging Pérez in the presidential election. We’re joined by the film’s director, Pamela Yates, and by Fredy Peccerelli, director of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation. The film documents his team’s work to unearth mass graves in a search for those killed by the military, even as he faces threats from clandestine groups that want the truth to stay buried. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]