Study leaders Stacy Smith and Marc Choueiti  Here’s a bit of good news for those among you who are continually frustrated with the boys club that is the American movie machine. A new study commissioned by the Sundance Institute and Women In Film Los Angeles shows that female filmmakers are far better represented in independent film than in Hollywood. The results of this research reveal that female filmmakers are finding success ... Read More

The First Time, written and directed by Jonathan Kasdan (In the Land of Women, Californication), stars Dylan O’Brien (MTV’s Teen Wolf), Britt Robertson, and Victoria Justice (Nickelodeon’s Victorious). The Sundance Film Festival hit is meant to be a more realistic take on a teenage love story, and it does a good job of capturing the awkwardness and stress that a lot of us often experienced as teenagers.  The sweet and ... Read More

Let’s be real here. Reality TV, though lucrative for TV networks, usually doesn’t have a lot to offer the general public, other than something to mindlessly run in front of our eyeballs while we try to forget that today happened. But hark! A beam of intelligent, inspiring reality TV is shining through the mass of "People With Lots of Babies" shows! Sundance Channel’s Push Girls documents the life of best friends Tiphani, ... Read More

Picked as the opening night film for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Hello I Must Be Going stars Melanie Lynskey as Amy, a 35-year-old who moves back into her parents’ suburban home seeking refuge following her divorce and begins an affair with 19-year-old actor, Jeremy (Christopher Abbott). Writer Sarah Koskoff says the film is a story she’s wanted to tell for a long time, a story “about somebody who’s ... Read More

“I think most people haven’t seen sexy in a wheelchair” –Mia  The Sundance Channel’s new series, Push Girls, documents the lives of four friends living in Hollywood--Angela, Auti, Tiphany, and Mia. No, they aren’t rich housewives, celebrities with a sex tape, or former B-list actors trying to make a comeback: they are paraplegic and quadriplegic women, and they are out to dispel any of your ... Read More

The Sundance Channel must have a degree in making educational yet totally captivating shows, unlike most enriching television which lulls me to premature slumber. Instead Sundance pumps out series like Big Ideas for a Small Planet and Green Porno with Isabella Rosellini, which are hysterical and make me feel a little bit smarter. It's almost like I forgot I was learning about insect mating rituals and environmental engineering!  In its ... Read More

The snow is falling here again, and the Sundance Film Festival is still plowing through the town of Park City. I’ve been to 21 films so far and the main theme that I’ve noticed is the overwhelming presence of strong female leads and women directors.  One of the hottest films here is Beasts of the Southern Wild, a truly original film that takes place in the swamps of Louisiana, and stars a six year old girl named Quvanzhand ... Read More

We sent our favorite photographer (and Laurie’s main squeeze) Michael Lavine to The Sundance Film Festival to check out the festival and report back to us on what’s good this year. _____________________________________________ While deeply entrenched in the insanity known as Sundance, I spend most of my time shuttling from theater to theater, waiting in line, watching movies and then talking to strangers about said movies while ... Read More

Director, performance artist, writer, and actress Miranda July is the indie film world’s favorite female face. Best known for her 2005 debut feature, Me and You and Everyone We Know, and her follow-up collection of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, she has been near and dear to us here at BUST since before she graced our cover in 2007. So when I found out she was debuting her second feature film, The Future, at ... Read More

  The Woods, which premiered this week at Sundance, is a film about a band of revolutionaries living off the grid and Wi-ing away their time on a big screen TV plugged into a tree.  They stuff their faces with products you would find in a Super Wal-Mart snack isle, like hot pockets, cheez-its and boxed juice concentrate.  Its a little like a contemporary Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, with all the technicolor flag defacing ... Read More