The movies I would watch if I had an unlimited pass to Sundance Film Festival
- Alexis Shoats
- Jan 26
- 4 min read
By: Alexis Shoats
Sundance Film Festival is the largest independent film festival in the United States, dating back to 1978. Movie stars, directors, cinephiles, fans, and press all flock to Salt Lake City, Utah for the occasion. I'm sure every cinephile’s dream is to attend the “Big Five” film festivals on an unlimited pass. So, if I didn’t have to trim my lists these are all the films I would watch.
Bunnylovr
In a recent article with Variety, Director and writer Katarina Zhu describes the themes she wanted to explore in this film. “Like most 29-year-olds, I grew up on the internet. I was so online,” she said. “I was interested in exploring the connection, validation, and agency that I wasn’t finding in real life and juxtaposing it with the painful, awkward reality of real-life relationships.” In the film, a girl named Rebecca is a Chinese-American online sex worker who finds herself in a toxic relationship with her client while also navigating daily friendships and her strained relationship with her ailing father. I'm interested in seeing the juxtaposition of dealing with the two realities of online, real life, and her personal issues that might be magnified because of this online relationship.
Khartoum
An upcoming documentary that takes us into the lives of a civil servant, a tea stall owner, a resistance committee volunteer, and two street boys amid the war in Sudan. The film blends actual footage of their lives before fleeing Sudan for East Africa, and dreamlike re-enactments of the struggles and process of leaving the country.
GEN_
On the backdrop of political and social conservatism Gen_ seems like the perfect documentary to show any friends or family who still do not understand in vitro fertilization, gender-affirming surgeries, and the overall fight for access to reproductive rights. These procedures are deeply personal decisions that are heavily scientific-backed and are done by doctors who have the skill, compassion, and knowledge.
How to Build a Library
Two women seek to change a former whites-only library into a cultural hub in Kenya. This documentary takes us through the two women’s process of raising funds, facing Kenya’s post-colonial past, and the archives of the former segregated library.
Love, Brooklyn
Three longtime Brooklynites deal with their careers and relationships against the backdrop of gentrification in the city they love. The Manager of the Programming Department at Sundance, Ana Souza describes it as “ A love letter to NYC that breathes fresh air into a modern romance.”
Sally
Sally seems to be a beautiful rich account of astronaut Sally Ride's life and relationship with her partner of twenty-seven years Tam O’Shaughnessy. Sally Ride was the first American woman to fly in space and dealt with a lot of sexism and homophobia - prompting Sally and Tam to keep their relationship a secret until she died in 2012. Through archival footage and direct accounts from Tam O’Shaughnessy, we are finally able to learn Sally’s story and the sacrifice she made for the country.
Brides
A coming of age story that focuses on the effects of youth friendship, xenophobia, the internet, and misguided judgment. The film follows two Muslim girls in London and their quest to flee to Syria and offer themselves for marriage to men waging war. The director Nadia Fall, screenwriter Suhayla El-Bushra, and producer Nicky Bentham are focused on the interior life of the two girls and how the world around us affects the youth judgment. In an interview with Deadline Fall says this about the film, “It’s about the need to belong as well,” she says. “We all need to belong somewhere. And if we don’t feel like we do, we’re going to try and find a place or community that do want us. However misguided that is.”
Deaf Presidents Now!
I'm incredibly excited about this film, Deaf Presidents Now! shares a piece of forgotten history. In 1988 at Gallaudet University, the only university for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, four students rose and fought for their ideals, belief, and representation. The university was in the process of electing its next president, and there were two Deaf candidates, the first in its history. The students finally had a chance to be represented by someone who was like them and they were not going to allow the board of trustees to make this decision for them. The film is told primarily through American Sign Language and archival footage.
Miss You Perdularia (Short film)
A group of girls from a Cuban high school, call themselves Perdularia. In the Meet the Artists: 2025 Sundance Film Festival video, the director Manu Zilveti gives further context to the purpose of the film. “They call each other Perdularia as a manner of recognizing each other in a school full of people who they feel don’t understand them.” Since the Cuban Revolution, there has been a mass exodus of Cubans to mainly the United States. It is recorded that 1 million Cubans left the island between 2022-2023.
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