The Sundance documentaries making a splash with viewers — and buyers
PARK CITY, Utah — Welcome to a special Sundance Daily edition of the Wide Shot, a newsletter about the business of entertainment. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
What to expect for Monday, Jan. 22
When it comes to scripted titles, independent producer Cassian Elwes may be right that this year’s Sundance market has crossed the line from cautious to “sluggish,” with Searchlight’s purchase of “A Real Pain” for a reported $10 million the high-water mark thus far. But as a place to pick up and/or showcase documentaries, especially those with commercial and awards potential, the festival remains at the head of the class — and Monday seems likely to strengthen the case.
At least one acquisitions title has an eager partner, or several: According to a source with knowledge of the talks who was not authorized to speaking publicly, HBO Documentary Films is competing hard to scoop up “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” which weaves together the tales of the actor’s most indelible role and his 1995 paralysis in a horse-riding accident. Wherever it lands, it would join Netflix purchase “Ibelin,” about beloved “World of Warcraft” gamer Mats Steen, as well as those that came in with distribution already attached, like “The Greatest Night in Pop” (Netflix) and “Girls State” (Apple), as documentaries to keep an eye on in the coming year.
In our final Sundance Daily edition of the 2024 festival, we add two more nonfiction features to that for-your-consideration pile, catch up with Funny or Die’s Henry R. Muñoz III and take one more tour of Park City. Thanks for coming along! Ryan and the Wide Shot will be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.
READ MORE: ‘Why are you silent?’ Pro-Palestinian protesters confront Hollywood at the Sundance Film Festival
The movies worth standing in line for
“Daughters” (12:15 p.m., The Ray Theatre)
Premiering Monday in the U.S. documentary competition, “Daughters,” directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae and executive produced by Kerry Washington, culminates with an emotional father-daughter dance inside a Washington, D.C., jail — but its real potency, as both a portrait of families riven by incarceration and a call to action on prisoners’ rights, lies in what comes before and after. Inside the facility, inmates meet for a 10-week course on fatherhood to participate in the event, which for many will be their only in-person time with family in months or years; outside, their daughters, ranging from kindergarten to high school, dote on their dads, or fear forgetting them, or lash out in frustration at their absence. Then, after the father/daughter duos’ all-too-fleeting time together at the dance, the filmmakers stick around for a year, two years, three, witnessing relationships haltingly rebuilt and others tested by tough sentences, reminding viewers that the consequences of our penal system — including recidivism itself — reverberate outward into our communities and across time. As it arrives at Sundance, “Daughters’ ” six-year journey now embraces its young subjects aging from kindergartners to preteens, its parental ones paroled or still imprisoned, and in so doing underscores its understanding that no coda, however distant, can close the circle completely on their stories. I want to follow these fathers and daughters deep into the future, an “Up” series of the wounds, and the healing, of America’s carceral age. —Matt Brennan
WATCH: Kerry Washington on fathers and daughters fostering good relationships
“Will & Harper” (7:30 p.m., Eccles Theatre)
“Will Ferrell drives across the country with a buddy who has recently transitioned on a heartwarming journey of friendship and discovery” is a certified indie darling premise that plenty of industry types around Park City might greenlight in a heartbeat. But “Will & Harper” is not a work of fiction. Born of Ferrell’s longtime friendship with “Saturday Night Live” writer Harper Steele, the documentary follows along as the duo reconnect and reconfirm their bond over honest, hilarious and emotionally raw conversations while traversing the highways, strip malls and roadside bars of America. How Harper navigates these spaces as her authentic self, and how Will navigates his allyship by her side through ups and downs, gives a tender heart to director Josh Greenbaum’s (“Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar”) stripped-down crowd-pleaser. —Jen Yamato
Movers and shakers from around the fest
Unless you’ve been living off the grid somewhere in the mountains that surround Park City, you know that the entertainment industry has long promised to increase representation on screen and off — to largely no avail.
Enter Henry R. Muñoz III, owner and chairman of Funny or Die. The gay Latino studio owner purchased the comedy website and production company founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme and Chris Henchy in 2021. He’s made his presence felt quickly, having shifted Funny or Die’s focus away from the viral comedy videos that first made its reputation and toward a new deployment of the old acronym, producing film and TV projects that are “Funny, Original and Diverse.”
He’s nailing the entertainment thing across the board, in fact — he just won an Emmy for the Weird Al Yankovic biopic, was nominated for Tony Awards as a producer for “Some Like It Hot” and “New York, New York,” and is at Sundance as the executive producer on the feature film “In the Summers,” starring René Pérez Joglar (a.k.a. the Puerto Rican rapper Residente).
I chatted with Muñoz in the L.A. Times Studio on Sunday to learn how Funny or Die fits into his larger mission, why this fight is personal and his hopes for America. —Nicholas Ducassi
You’re active on numerous boards, own multiple businesses, you’re politically active — from healthcare and architecture to most recently, media. What has been your North Star? How would you articulate your life’s mission?
I think that I’m a very good designer of transformation and change. I learned it very early in my life because I was raised by two labor leaders who cared more about what was happening with other people than having a swimming pool or a car or a big house.
[Latinos] don’t have universities. Our stories are not in libraries. They aren’t in the Smithsonian. Less than 2% of the nation’s historic sites and monuments reflect who we are. Who gay people are. Women. People of color. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. The narrative of the United States of America that I was taught in textbooks is not real.
I think I can change that with what I’ve learned and what I’ve been given. ... I think I’m the only person that’s ever taken the president of the United States to a gay bar, and it’s not lost on me that I couldn’t be married to my spouse, who’s nonbinary, a few years ago.
So I think the North Star of my career is as a person who, as a cultural activist, sees things and designs solutions.
How did you come to acquire Funny or Die, and how does it help fulfill that mission?
I had first heard about Funny or Die because I was working with President Obama and everyone was trying to figure out a way to explain a very difficult subject. The rollout for the Affordable Care Act wasn’t the smoothest. And so it was around “how can we use humor to explain difficult subjects to people who aren’t technically knowledgeable?” I mean, healthcare is ridiculously complex for everybody, not to mention the working poor, people of color, people for whom English isn’t their first language. So that’s the first time I ever heard about them.
Early in the pandemic, Muñoz began helping immigrant communities get tested and vaccinated for COVID-19, and teamed up with Eva Longoria to secure a one-hour television special on CBS. Funny or Die made the pitch to bring it to life.
I hadn’t realized they were people that had that blend of activism and funny. We had a very good experience working together about a week before the special aired, and Mike Farah, the CEO of Funny or Die, called me and said, “We think you should buy Funny or Die.”
He explained the change that Funny or Die was going through, and what his vision of the future of Funny or Die was, and that we would work together to evolve that vision. And of course, because he knew me, you know, we agreed on a place that was “Funny, Original and Diverse.” A place that wasn’t just talk. It would really live that diversity. …
I view Funny or Die as an important part of a movement in the country. You can’t really separate what is happening in entertainment from everything else that is happening. This is connected to electing more Latinos and Latinas to important positions of power and policy. It is connected to establishing a national Latino museum on the [National] Mall. It is connected to having more of our people on corporate boards.… We’re an essential part of the American story.
According to numerous studies, including those from Annenberg Inclusion Initiative reports and scholars like Ana-Christina Ramon, Latino representation hasn’t budged in the last decade, despite efforts and promises from the industry. What needs to happen to actually move the needle?
I think the biggest obstacle is access to financial resources to create an infrastructure of support for creators and businesspeople... The industry simply is not set up to recognize it, to embrace it and to benefit from it. You see bright spots, but it’s taking time.
I think as long as our community is a part of “DEI” [diversity, equity and inclusion], then we are a responsibility and not integral to the creative or profit-making process. Clearly, we’re watching things. Clearly, we’re buying tickets for things.
I think we need to ask ourselves how we view ourselves. Are we really interested in the “Latino version” of this? Or are we interested in a really excellent story that just happens to be an American story populated by Latinos, or where Latinos are put into a neighborhood or a work environment or a comedy or a sketch show?
It’s not easy, because I think this is a part of a bigger national movement to explain to this country the importance of cultural understanding and why it’s in everybody’s best interest to embrace the future. We are the future.
We’re about to build a national Latino museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C. How long has that taken? Thirty years. Change doesn’t happen quickly, but it will happen.
Where you’ll find us in Park City today
Monday at Sundance means business. Late nights at Tao give way to early morning calls, catching up on emails and, for those of us on the film beat, preparations for Tuesday’s Oscar nominations. But while this year’s DJ sets may have (mostly) come and gone, there’s still plenty to do — if you’re not buried in work.
Kick the day off at 11 a.m. at the Filmmaker Lodge (550 Main St., second floor) with “The Big Conversation: Screen of Consciousness,” in which scientists and filmmakers will consider cinematic perspectives on AI and machine learning beyond the post-apocalyptic, such as “Her,” “After Yang,” “Moon,” “Marjorie Prime” and 2024 Sundance Film Festival selection “Love Me,” starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun.
Luckily, you’ll be close enough to pop over to Swede Alley for Gold House’s noontime “Investing in Independent Storytelling” panel at the Acura House of Energy, in which the organization dedicated to Asian Pacific creators and companies takes a closer look at how independent filmmakers find financing and distribution for their work.
Speaking of distribution, cap off your day with Adobe’s tutorial on film promotion strategies and make sure your work is reaching its target audience. The event, held at Adobe on Main (558 Main St.) at 4:30 p.m. will teach participants how to create professional-quality social media posts and market their work cost-effectively with Adobe tools.
Photo of the day from L.A. Times Studios
The L.A. Times Studios at Sundance wrap up Monday, and we’re sharing our favorite photos and videos from our space at 580 Main St. with you one last time. But be sure to check out all of our portraits of Hollywood stars at the festival in our updating photo gallery below, and find full coverage of the festival at our Sundance landing page.
PHOTOS: Kieran Culkin, Kristen Stewart, Lionel Richie and more stars of Sundance 2024
WATCH: ‘The American Society for Magical Negroes’ is satire, but it’s not that simple
WATCH: Zach Galifianakis on bringing Reality Winner’s story to life with comedy
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