Sundance 2012 (1/19-1/29/2012) U.S. Documentary Films

Sundance has announced the films to be shown in 2012.

U.S. Documentary

• Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry • Director Alison Klayman profiles Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, famous for his ambitious art and for his public disputes with the Chinese government.
• The Atomic States of America • The debate over nuclear power in the United States, where construction of the first new nuclear power plant in 32 years was announced in 2010 — a year before a massive earthquake struck the Fukushima plant in Japan. Directed by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce.
• Chasing Ice • National Geographic photographer James Balog uses time-lapse photography to capture disappearing glaciers — and tangible visual evidence of global climate change. Directed by Jeff Orlowski.
• Detropia • Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (“Jesus Camp,” “12th & Delaware”) capture stories of Detroit residents who stay loyal to an industrial city on the skids.
• Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare • Directors Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke examine America’s broken health-care system, the corporations who profit from the status quo, and a movement to bring new methods of prevention and healing to bear.
• Finding North • A look at the growing hunger crisis in America, and a film that asks if policies from the 1970s could work again. Directed by Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson.
• The House I Live In •Director Eugene Jarecki (“Why We Fight,” Sundance 2005 Grand Jury Prize winner) examines the War on Drugs, and why drugs are cheaper, purer and more available now than before the “war” started.
• How to Survive a Plague • A look at how young men and women, most of them HIV-positive, battled death and indifference to turn AIDS into a manageable condition. Directed by David France.
• The Invisible War • Director Kirby Dick (“This Film Is Not Yet Rated”) returns with an investigative look at the rape of soldiers within the U.S. military.
• Love Free or Die: How the Bishop of New Hampshire is Changing the World • A portrait of Gene Robinson, the first gay partnered bishop in the Episcopal Church, and his refusal to quit either the church or the man he loves. Directed by Macky Alston (“Family Name”).
• Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present • Director Matthew Akers profiles the artist as she prepares a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and aims to dispel critics who ask after four decades “Why is this art?”
• Me at the Zoo • Directors Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch profile YouTube star Chris Crocker, a Tennessee misfit who became a national punching bag after his infamous “Leave Britney alone” video.
• The Other Dream Team • A look at Lithuania’s 1992 Olympic team, representing a country freshly liberated from the Soviet Union and facing both their former oppressors and Michael Jordan (with help from The Grateful Dead). Directed by Marius Markevicius.
• The Queen of Versailles • Jackie and David’s timeshare empire affords them the chance to build one of America’s biggest houses — until the business collapses and the house faces foreclosure. Directed by Lauren Greenfield (“Thin”).
• Slavery by Another Name • Sam Pollard directs this documentary, based on Wall Street Journal writer Douglas Blackmon’s book, about how the end of slavery after the Civil War brought a new form of involuntary servitude.
• We’re Not Broke • Directors Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce examine a seeming contradiction that has sent Americans to protest in the streets: In a time when lawmakers slash budgets and lay off employees, huge corporations conceal profits overseas to avoid U.S. income taxes.

Information provided by the Salt Lake Tribune (12/1).