Sundance

‘Sabaya’: Film Review | Sundance 2021

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago


Sabaya

Sabaya

The last major stronghold of the Islamic State — also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh — fell in March 2019, when the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the town of Baghouz, on the border between Syria and Iraq. At the peak of its power, ISIS controlled a swath of land the size of Britain between those two Middle Eastern countries, with some 8 million people under the rule of its so-called caliphate. Among the militant group’s highest-profile victims were the Yazidi, a religious minority in northern Iraq that was targeted by ISIS for genocide and the mass kidnapping, rape and forced marriage of its young girls.

Violence needs only an instant to transpire; recovery and restoration can take a lifetime or more. That’s the heart-wrenching reality that Iraqi-born, Sweden-based director Hogir Hirori (The Deminer, The Girl Who Saved My Life) captures in Sabaya, which

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Sundance Awards: ‘CODA’ Wins Grand Jury Prize

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago


6:29 PM PST 2/2/2021

by


Mia Galuppo

Top doc honors went to ‘Summer of Soul’ from director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who accepted his award from inside a car on his “way to work” in New York City at ‘The Tonight Show.’

CODA has won the top award at the Sundance Film Festival, taking this year’s U.S. Grand Jury prize. The title, which made headlines earlier in the fest for its record-breaking $25 million sale to Apple, also took the dramatic audience award, while director Sian Heder was honored with the directing award for U.S. dramatic competition.

“I hope that this opened the door to people getting that audiences want to see these kinds of stories,” said Heder of the movie, which centers on a hearing teenage girl that is a child of deaf adults. “I hope that this means that more stories that center on deaf characters and characters with

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Questlove’s ‘Summer of Soul’ Takes Top Documentary Prizes at Sundance

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago

“Summer of Soul” took both the audience prize & grand jury prize in the U.S. documentary section.

CODA has won the top award at the Sundance Film Festival, taking this year’s U.S. Grand Jury prize, while Questlove’s Summer of Soul won both the audience and grand jury prize in the U.S. documentary section.

CODA, which made headlines earlier in the fest for its record-breaking $25 million sale to Apple, took the dramatic audience award with Sian Heder taking the directing award for U.S. dramatic competition. “I hope that this opened the door to people getting that audiences want to see these kinds of stories,” said Heder of the title, which centers on a hearing teenage girl that is a child of deaf adults. “I hope that this means that more stories that center on deaf characters and characters with disability get put front and center.”

“I really wish there

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‘CODA,’ ‘Summer of Soul’ Win Top Jury and Audience Awards at Sundance Film Festival

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago


a person standing in front of a crowd: CODA Summer of Soul

© TheWrap
CODA Summer of Soul

The narrative feature “CODA” and the documentary “Summer of Soul” swept the top categories at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Prizes and also taking the audience awards in the U.S. dramatic and documentary competitions.

“CODA,” director Sian Heder’s coming-of-age story in which Emilia Jones plays the only hearing member of a deaf family, also won an award for its ensemble, many of them deaf actors who performed in ASL. Its wins come three days after the film set a record for the largest sale in Sundance history, a $25 million deal with Apple.

“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” which like “CODA” screened on the festival’s opening night, is a documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson built around long-unseen concert footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-weekend event that first-time director Questlove uses

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