SundanceInstituteAtBam Tagged Articles at Cinematical

On Sunday, I got really, really excited about going to see the documentary Trouble the Water, which was playing in Brooklyn as part of the Sundance @ BAM series. But when I went to buy my tickets on Moviefone, the single showtime was sold out. "Oh well," I thought. "I'll just see it when it's officially released to theaters." Then I discovered that, despite winning the non-fiction Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival and despite garnering tons of great reviews, including one from New York Times critic Manohla Dargis calling it "one of the best documentaries in recent memory," the film had no domestic distributor.

Two days later, I'm finally relieved. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Hurricane Katrina doc has been picked up by Zeitgeist Films for a platform release beginning August 22. Fans of the film (including our own Kim Voynar, who picked it as her favorite at Sundance -- read her review here) should be happy that it will at least receive Oscar-qualifying runs in NYC and LA, because everyone who's seen it seems to agree that it will definitely get a nomination. Those of us who haven't seen it should also be happy that it's likely to be given a proper expansion, at least to the major U.S. cities.

Trouble the Water was directed by longtime doc producers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Fahrenheit 9/11) and depicts the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina mostly through the eyes and camcorder of Kimberly Roberts and Scott Roberts, who shot footage before, during and after the storm and its subsequent effects.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening night premiere of American Teen (in theaters July 25) as part of the third annual Sundance Institute at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). The Sundance fav launched an eleven-day festival of sorts, showcasing the best of the best from this year's Sundance Film Festival; 22 features and 36 shorts in total, plus filmmaker Q&As, parties, art installations and tons of Brooklyn hipster-watching.

The screening itself was completely sold out and held inside the gorgeous BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, where, conveniently, free popcorn and bottles of water were handed out at the door. And as my wife pointed out after we sat down: "They're smart -- free things always put a person in a good mood before a film." Indeed! Before the curtain rose on American Teen, a number of folks approached the mic for some words, while the crowd cheered every time 'Brooklyn' was used in a sentence. The speakers included BAM President Karen Hopkins, Sundance executive director Ken Brecher, Brooklyn Borough President (and an awesome guy) Marty Markowitz, Katherine Oliver, Commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting, BAM Cinema Club Chairs Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, and, finally, American Teen director Nanette Burstein (sporting a very pregnant belly) and one of the film's teenage stars, Hannah Bailey (pictured above).

Check out a gallery from the premiere, the film and the prom-themed after party below -- then head after the jump for my thoughts on American Teen. (All pictures courtesy of the fine folks at the Sundance Institute and Paramount Vantage.)