The Sundance Institute has announced the first two films in the lineup for the Sundance Film Festival 2023: the 25th anniversary and digital restoration screening of SLAM and the uncensored director’s cut and restoration of The Doom Generation. Both films will be screened as part of the festival’s From the Collection screenings.
Directed by Marc Levin and written by Levin, Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn and Richard Stratton, SLAM is about a young black performance poet imprisoned for a minor marijuana crime, showing structural inequality in the criminal justice system and the ability of art to transcend serious communication barriers. The film was first introduced to the public at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered in the US Dramatic Competition section and won the Grand Jury Prize. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the film, the Institute’s Archives & Collection program has been digitally restored SLAM of the 35 mm interpositive.
Also announced as part of the From the Collection screenings is Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generationwhich debuted in the Premieres section of the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and represented the second film in Araki’s “Teenage Apocalypse” trilogy. While 1995 festival-goers were able to see the entire film, it was later released to the public in a shortened version. So for this year’s festival Strand Releasing has been remastered The Doom Generation in 4K and the film has been reworked to include the scenes edited nearly 30 years ago. It is the first time since 1995 that the uncensored director’s cut is shown in cinemas.
“The two restorations certainly celebrate how groundbreaking so many ’90s independent works were, but they also remind us how collaborative, fierce and transformative independent storytelling could be — how long-lasting their impact and influence can be,” said John Nein. , Senior Programmer & Director of Strategic Initiatives at Sundance Institute. “SLAM not only the work of pioneering artists and poets such as Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, Beau Sia, Liza Jesse Peterson and others, but it also inspired untold numbers of younger poets and contributed to criminal justice reform in the 1990s. And with the restoration and re-recording of several original scenes in The Doom GenerationWe are reminded of the challenges independent storytellers have faced, and continue to face, in releasing their films in line with their vision.”
SLAM and The Doom Generation Debut in Sundance’s From the Collection Section
SLAM and The Doom Generation‘s uncensored director’s cut will debut in the upcoming Festival’s From the Collection section. “From the Collection section is relaunching archival screenings as part of the Sundance Film Festival so audiences can explore and rediscover the films that have shaped the heritage of both Sundance Institute and independent storytelling,” the press release said. “To address the specific conservation risks of independent film, the Sundance Institute partnered with the UCLA Film & Television Archive in 1997 to form the Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA and preserve independent films supported by the Institute.
Past screenings from the collection at the festival have included: The Blair Witch Project, Paris is on fire, Reality Bites, sex, lies and videotapes, hope dreams, High art, Just another girl on the IRTand Paris, Texas.
According to the Feast, SLAM and The Doom Generation From the Collection screenings will each be followed by talks with the filmmakers and special guests to be announced later. The 2023 Festival will take place from January 19-29, 2023 in Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance Resort, and online to audiences nationwide from January 24-29, 2023. Passes and packages for the Festival will go on sale to the public on Monday, October 17, 2022.