The Sundance summer film screenings are expanding to include Coalville with a show on July 19th. The first in the series is Wednesday at Redd Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City and three shows will play in Park City later this month.
Here is a run-down on the free outdoor films showing in Summit County this summer.
July 12th is the first screening in Park City. LaraLee Ownby is Assistant Director of Programs with the Sundance Institute and she says the first show on the 12th was a premier this year at Sundance and has not yet been released.
And so that’s the film Top End Wedding. And that one, we’re going to do at the Ray Theater. So that’s one of the ones that I mentioned will start at 7 o’clock. That one, we’re doing a collaboration with Tourism Northern Territories. So, that’s a film that was actually from the most recent festival. So, we’re really excited to show people a film they haven’t seen before if they didn’t catch it at the festival.”
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind will show in Coalville at the Ledges Event Center. It debuted at Sundance this year and is a true account of a 13-yearl-old Malawi boy who invents a way to save his family and his village from famine.
“So, it’s Chiwetel Ejiofor is the writer and director of the film. It’s his directorial debut. So, it got really great feedback at the festival. We’re really excited to share it. So, for that one, like I mentioned, we’re working with Summit Community Power Works. They’ll actually be on sight doing some activities but one of the things they’ll have is people can bring their incandescent light bulbs and switch them out for LED light bulbs.”
They’ll be back in Park City on July 26th showing RBG, the documentary from Sundance 2018 spotlighting Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s story.
“For that one, we’re actually working with partners in the community, so we’ll have local women’s rights organizations and voting organizations on site. So, they’ll be there to kind of tell people what they do and kind of encourage people to register to vote.”
On August 2nd in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Kimball Arts Festival, the film Life Animated will screen in City Park at dusk.
The final screening of the summer is the Community Choice at the Red Butte Garden Ampetheater on August 21st where an emphasis is on films directed by women.
“We have a program we call Women at Sundance where we try to champion gender equality for film makers. So, we’re trying to highlight some really great films from the festival that have female directors. So people can vote for one of five films and we’ll show that one on the 21st. And yeah, just a good balance of family friendly films and things that are a little edgier. Newer films. Older films. We just have a lot of exciting stuff going on.”
That’s Sundance Institute’s Assistant Director of Community Programs, LaraLee Ownby.
The indoor show at The Ray starts at 7. All the outdoor screenings will begin at dusk. This year, Sundance is bringing food and dessert vendors to the outdoor screenings.
Go to KPCW.org for the link showing the details of the Sundance Summer Film Series.
