By Lucy Spicer

One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. While we can learn a lot about the filmmakers from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival through the art that these storytellers share with us, there’s always more we can learn about them as people. This year, we decided to get to the bottom of those artistic wells with our ongoing series: Give Me the Backstory!

For writer-director Sean Wang, the premiere of Dìdi (弟弟) at the Sundance Film Festival represents a real full-circle moment. “My first experience with Sundance was in 2019 when Carlos López Estrada invited me to work on his second feature film, Summertime, as a second unit director. Summertime premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and getting to be there for the premiere was truly magical and wildly inspirational,” says Wang. Four years later, Wang’s own feature directorial debut — for which López Estrada served as producer — is screening in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. 

Supported by the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship, Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation Fellowship, and the Institute’s Directors and Screenwriters Labs, Dìdi (弟弟) is a coming-of-age portrait of a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy in the summer before high school. Set in the late 2000s, the film is sure to resonate with anyone whose formative years included the advent of social media, but many struggles that come with adolescence are universal. When asked how he wants people to feel after they see his film, Wang responds, “I hope it brings back fond memories of their own childhoods and how cringe we all were at 13.”

Below, discover how Wang got into filmmaking, his favorite part of making Dìdi (弟弟), and why this story needs to be told now.

Why does this story need to be told now?

I think for many people, the feelings that we explore in this film surrounding identity, belonging, and shame, both cultural and societal, are shared. However, we often don’t have the perspective necessar

Jeff Zimbalist, Ivan Beerkus, Angela Nikolau, and Maria Bukhonina at the premiere of “Skywalkers: A Love Story” at The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah, on January 18, 2024. (Photo by Donyale West/ Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)

By Stephanie Ornelas

“Our full potential is on the other side of fear.”  – Angela Nikolau, skywalker 

Fire of Love, The Deepest Breath — you can now add Skywalkers: A Love Story to the list of thrilling docs that have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, giving us a glimpse into another boundary-pushing duo: rooftoppers Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus from Moscow. 

Audience members were gasping on the edge of their seats as Nikolau and Beerkus took them on a fairytale journey of their rise to the top. Centering on this remarkable partnership where trust is key — a matter of life or death, even — director Jeff Zimbalist puts an up-close lens on Nikolau and Beerkus as they build their professional careers traveling across the globe to climb some of the world’s highest skyscrapers and sharing intimate photos with their millions of followers on social media.  

“It took seven years of production, over 300 hours of archival cinema verite footage, so many unexpected twists and turns, and a shocking climax that I still can’t believe,” Zimbalist says during the post-premiere Q&A on January 19 at The Ray in Park City, Utah.     

The documentary is a beautiful yet complicated love story, and shows the highs and lows of a relationship between two daredevils. Through breathtaking drone shots and intimate GoPro footage from the climbers themselves, audiences start to witness Beerkus’ concern for his own safety shift to that of Nikolau, but her desire to make the ultimate climb only continues to grow. Constant gasps fill the air as Festgoers witness the couple climb insane heights, escaping law enforcement and death as they dangle off some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. By the end, audiences delivered a standing ovation. 

“I didn’t know my heart could race faster than being on the roofs with these guys but that standing ovation, you got me,” Zimbalist tells the audience. 

“Everybody that got on board this project took a major gamble. There was nothing rational about it. It was a harebrained passion project that had so many unknowns, so many variables. I’m so grateful to all of you for choosing to believe in the film and choosing to believe in me.” 

When COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine led to a Russian shutdown of social media, ultimately causing them to lose their sponsors, which was a huge source of income, audiences start to see a dramatic shift in the couple’s relationship. But when Beerkus gets the idea of how to revive it all by scaling the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — and performing a bold acrobatic stunt at the very top of the spire — before a security-camera system is put in place, their journey to the top begins, thus continuing the hair-raising vertigo-inducing adventure. But there was one condition Beerkus had: This would be their last climb.    

Zimbalist shared with audiences how the team worked tirelessly to bring Nikolau and Beerkus to the Festival, but it just wasn’t possible due to logistical constraints. However, he did bring up the couple on livestream. Audience members were thrilled to see them on screen… before being given one last surprise. 

By Lucy Spicer

Alice Englert is no stranger to Sundance, having appeared in three films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (In Fear, Them That Follow, You Won’t Be Alone) in the last five years. But the 2023 Festival is extra special — it’s where she made her feature debut as a writer-director with Bad Behaviour, an explosive black comedy that premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. 

Bad Behaviour stars Jennifer Connelly as Lucy, a former child actor with toxic tendencies who attends a semi-silent retreat led by the enigmatic Elon (Ben Whishaw) in her quest for enlightenment. But Lucy doesn’t seem terribly committed to the process, and the presence of a  young social media influencer triggers something truly ugly within her. “I always think it’s worthwhile to make stories that bypass the binary of good and evil and stick to being complicated,” says Englert. “I also think a lot of people like Lucy are in tandem with something more and don’t know what to do about it.”

Despite some of the heavier elements in the film, Englert — who also plays Lucy’s daughter, Dylan, a stuntperson in training — had a blast on set. “I felt deeply overexcited about having such an epic stunt coordinator, Dayna Grant, who taught me how to roll around all over the place, get strangled, and twirl a stick. I love that part of filmmaking, the tactile part, even the touch of inevitable bruising. Rehearsal was a joy.”

Bad Behaviour hit theaters in the U.S. back in June of this year and is now available to buy or rent. Read on to learn more about Englert and the making of her feature debut, including what inspired the story and what challenges came with the filming process.

Tell us an anecdote about casting or working with your actors.

Jennifer gave me the idea of Lucy and Dylan’s shared language in the movie. It was the way she embraced and riffed on Lucy’s past as a child actor in a fantasy TV series! The weird warrior (worrier) princess moves evolved between mother and daughter because Jennifer made it infectious.

Daredevils Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus ascend to dizzying heights in Jeff Zimbalist’s documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story.”

By Lucy Spicer

It’s that time of year again: As summer temperatures hit their peak, we’re ready to balance fun in the sun with some distinctly indoor entertainment. This July, Sundance has you covered with four documentaries you can watch without even having to leave the house, as well as one award-winning new release you can enjoy inside a dark, air-conditioned theater.

Nonfiction offerings include an Institute-supported debut by two young filmmakers documenting a summer in their border town, a 2024 Sundance Film Festival doc about two thrill-seekers reaching jaw-dropping heights, and two 2023 Festival films — one from a woman with a rare disability seeking community, and another following two fishermen in Bombay balancing friendship amid a difficult industry. This month’s in-theater fiction film evokes the recent nostalgia of 2008 with an appropriately summer-set coming-of-age story.

Hummingbirds — In their directorial debut, filmmakers Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras chronicle the last sunset-soaked summer of their youth in a Texas-Mexico border town, holding tight to their friendship and blossoming activism even as immigration complications hang over their heads. Supported by Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, Hummingbirds was awarded the Grand Prix in the Generation 14plus competition at Berlinale in 2023. Making its broadcast premiere on PBS’ “POV” July 1.

Is There Anybody Out There? — Before she put out a call in a disability support group on Facebook, director Ella Glendining had never seen a body that looked like hers before. Born with very short thigh bones and no hip joints, Glendining has a disability so rare that she has been unable to find any statistics about it. In her feature-length documentary debut, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Glendining shares the realities of her everyday life — including the ableism she experiences regularly — as she searches for other individuals living with a disability like hers. Making its broadcast premiere on PBS’ “POV” July 8.

Skywalkers: A Love Story — Some thrill-seekers climb mountains; Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus climb buildings. Known as rooftoppers, the daredevil couple post photos of their dizzying — and not strictly legal — escapades dangling off the sides of some of the world’s tallest buildings. Director Jeff Zimbalist’s documentary, which screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, follows Nikolau and Beerkus as they seek to strengthen their relationship and tackle their most difficult climb yet: the 2,227-foot Merdeka 118 skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur. Streaming on Netflix July 19.

Dìdi (弟弟) — It’s the summer of 2008, and 13-year-old Taiwanese American Chris (Izaac Wang) is a typical teenager trying to enjoy the last months

PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 20: (L–R) Erica Tremblay, Crystle Lightning, Isabel Deroy-Olson, and Lily Gladstone attend the 2023 Sundance Film Festival “Fancy Dance” Premiere at Eccles Center Theatre on January 20, 2023 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

By Aliese Muhonen

Another Native woman is missing in the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation in Oklahoma. The woman is Tawi, and neither her sister, Jax, nor her daughter, Roki, have seen her in nearly two weeks. 

Though the characters are fictional, they are faces of a very real nightmare: the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. According to a data snapshot from the Urban Indian Health Institute, the murder rate is up to 10 times the national average for women living on reservations, cases are backlogged into the thousands, and incidents are severely underreported.

Fancy Dance, which premiered January 20 in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, offers a nuanced portrait of the crisis and its effects on Native women and their families. 

Like the widely acclaimed thriller Wind River (which premiered at Sundance in 2017), Fancy Dance offers commentary on the crisis by pairing a compelling mystery with unflinching, sincere portrayals. But this time the story is told from Native women’s perspectives.

Director Erica Tremblay returns to the Festival (her short film Little Chief screened in 2020) with a feature debut that comes straight from her history and heart. A member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation herself, Tremblay drew from her own experiences and those of her relatives: witnessing law enforcement’s half-hearted attempts to search for missing women, cases getting caught in jurisdictional quagmire between U.S. and tribal police, and Indigenous people resorting to substance abuse and crime as they struggle to survive.

Despite the heaviness of these issues, the film has a lightness and warmth in the relationships between its characters — especially in Jax and Roki’s aunt-niece bond. That’s thanks to Tremblay and her co-writer Miciana Alise (who is also Native), who were determined to genuinely represent tribal women’s lives and attitudes. 

At the live Q&A following the premiere, Tremblay relates how she learned of, and was fascinated by, the Cayuga tribe’s matriarchal emphasis and structure while studying the Cayuga language in a 3-year immersion program in Canada. The feminine relationships were “a beautiful cornerstone of the community” she hadn’t been aware of, and wanted to make a film about.

“Everyone that you know [in tribal communities], in some way, has been touched by [the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis],” she says. “For me [Fancy Dance] was about showing how this matrilineal relationship, and how this love and this bond could traverse that. And how through [Jax and Roki’s] care for each other, they could rise above all of those challenges.”

“When [Alise and I] were writing the script, we wanted it to feel very authentic to the communities we grew up in, which were filled with lots of just like, cheeky laughter, but also this idea of figuring out a way to make it work,” Tremblay continues. “We wanted to have