man push cart, sundance Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hey, not everyone can afford to go to Sundance just for fun. If you don't live in or near Park City, it's pretty darn spendy to travel to the fest. Or maybe you've gone to Sundance in the past, and you'd just like to relive the memories. Sundance Channel is bringing you 31 days of Sundance, starting right ... about ... well, two days ago. But there's still plenty of good watching left. Every night at 9PM, the Sundance Channel will screen a film from past fests, and the lineup is pretty darn impressive, including some of my own fave films such as Adam's Apples by Anders Thomas Jensen (that one's tonight, so set your TIVO or DVR if you'll be out), and ... oh! Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy is on Sunday! Next Wednesday is So Yong Kim's In Between Days, and Ramin Bahrani's Man Push Cart airs January 16.

Thursday, January 17 you'll have a chance to catch the Duplass brothers' hilarious-yet-poignant Puffy Chair (their new film, Baghead, will be reviewed as part of our Sundance coverage this year), and Saturday, January 20 has Half Nelson (directed by Ryan Fleck, starring Ryan Gosling in a breakout role as a crackhead middle school teacher). There are some really good films showing all month long. Seriously, especially if you live in a city without a lot of access to indie film, this is your chance to catch up on a TON of great indie fare, for free.

The films above are just a smattering of the awesome lineup. You'll find the full schedule over at the Sundance Channel website, so make sure to mark your calendar for the ones you don't want to miss.

Man Push Cart, a film about a former Pakistani pop star selling coffee and doughnuts from a New York City pushcart, played to very receptive audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and sold before the end of the festival. Cinematical sat down at Sundance with cinematographer Michael Simmonds, star Ahmad Razvi, and director Ramin Bahrani (pictured above, from left to right), to talk about their film.

Cinematical: Ramin, I read an interview with New York Magazine where you talked about being inspired by Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus in making this film. Can you talk about that?

Ramin: Camus is one of my favorite writers, and in the myth of Sisyphus, the story is about this guy who is condemned to endlessly push this boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down. And I had this image of this pushcart guy, hauling this cart over and over again.

Cinematical: You really had Ahmad pulling this heavy cart through New York City traffic. Were you nervous about that?

Ahmad: I was, yeah. (laughs)

Michael: We all were.

Ramin: There was one scene where Ahmad drifted to the middle and these semis were driving by. That was a little scary then. And the time when he fell, too. But here’s the interesting thing – no one ever mentions that at the end there are two people pushing the cart instead of one – and that is a major change.

It wasn't all just snow and screenings at Sundance for the Cinematical; every chance we had, we were snapping pics as well. Here's a round-up of the best of our Sundance pics (more photos past the jump).

Man Push Cart director Ramin Bahrani sent out a press release last night that his film has closed a deal for North American rights with Films Philos. Films Philos will open the film in late fall/early winter 2006. As we previously reported, Man Push Cart closed deals for distribution in France, Greece and Italy a few days ago. Man Push Cart is about a former Pakistani pop star who is selling coffee and doughnuts from a pushcart in New York City. Cinematical interviewed director Ramin Bahrani, star Ahmad Razvi and cinematographer Michael Simmonds, and will have the interview up soon. Indiewire ran a piece on the deal today and in their pic with the article (above), you can see the Cinematical tshirt peeking out from underneath Bahrani's sweater.

Reps for Man Push Cart, the independent feature film debut of writer/director Ramin Bahrani, reportedly are in negotiations with several distributors for distribution in France, Greece and Italy, and have an offer on the table for North American rights. The film features newcomer Ahmad Razvi as Ahmad, a Pakistani pop star selling coffee from a pushcart in New York. Ahmad is haunted by his wife's death and estranged from his young son. His life is bleak and depressing, especially compared to is pop star past, but Ahmad keeps struggling on, day after day, hauling his cart to is corner to sell coffee and dougnuts. The film is showing at the Sundace Film Festival out of competition in the Spectrum category.