The 2018 Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 18 to 28 in Park City, Utah, will premiere several films by people of color that explore criminal justice, police violence, labor practices and other racial equity issues. Here are five to follow that are up for U.S. dramatic or documentary awards:
- "Blindspotting." Screenplay co-writers Daveed Diggs (“Wonder”) and Rafael Casal (“Ricochet in Reverse”) drew on their own upbringing in the Bay Area for this buddy comedy, in which they play movers working and living amidst the gentrification hitting their hometown. Carlos López Estrada (“Identity Theft”) directed.
- "Monsters and Men." The paths of a Black police officer, a high-school athlete and a camera-wielding civilian bystander intertwine in this story about what happens after police kill a Black man. Reinaldo Marcus Green (“Stop”) wrote and directed. John David Washington (“Ballers”) and Chanté Adams (“Roxanne Roxanne”) star.
- "Sorry to Bother You." From writer and director Boots Riley (“The North Pole”) comes the story of a Black telemarketer, Cassius Green, who finds a supernatural path to corporate success just as activists in his community are rising up against labor violations. A dark secret about his job forces Green to choose between standing up and selling out. Tessa Thompson (“Thor: Ragnarock”) and Lakeith Stanfield (“Atlanta”) star.
- "Crime + Punishment." This documentary follows a coalition of Black and Latinx police officers who, in partnership with a private investigator, gamble on their futures by revealing racist quota policies within their department. Stephen Maing (“The Surrender”) directed.
- "The Sentence." Director Rudy Valdez (“Brick City”) turns the camera on his sister, Cindy Shank, while she serves 15 years in prison for minor involvement in a drug operation. "The Sentence" follows a decade in Shank and her family’s lives to expose the personal impact of mandatory minimums for drug crimes.
Read the full lineup of feature and documentary films at sundance.org