Why Sundance 2020 Was All About Diversity and Promising Young Women
” King’s 2015 tweet storm, from director Janicza Bravo. One of two A24 movies in competition , “Zola” challenges the stereotypes that surround sex workers and the men they manage — boyfriends, pimps and clients — even more than last year’s “Hustlers” did. If “A24” were an adjective, “Zola” would be the most A24 movie ever made.
With shots of characters urinating and a montage of flaccid genitalia, “Zola” divided audiences — but that’s something programmers ought to encourage at film festivals. “” divided audiences too, as did “Possessor,” a horror movie from David Cronenberg’s son Brandon; and Edson Oda’s competition film “Nine Days.” Being sensitive to issues like representation doesn’t mean playing it safe.
If pressed to find a theme that encompasses 100-plus new features at this year’s gathering, the festival seems to have been all about “promising young women,” both on screen and behind the camera. For instance, Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” recognizes that one of the major obstacles to having a fair discussion of abortion is that it’s virtually hidden from public view: Her movie brings to light the lengths a seemingly ordinary teen must go to terminate her pregnancy.
Arguably the fest’s highest-profile film, Julie Taymor’s “The Glorias,” united four actors to play Gloria Steinem, the American feminist movement’s original promising young woman.
Bravo and Hittman were just two of seven female directors featured in U.S. Dramatic Competition — where playwright-cum-rapper Radha Blank was also a breakout, with her semiautobiographical comedy “The 40-Year-Old Version” — but they were well represented across the board. We won’t know until much later in the year which films the Sundance programmers passed over for other festivals to pick up. Judging by the usual suspects who were admitted , diversity was a good idea.
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