Paul Reubens/Pee-Wee Herman Doc Coming To Sundance

Some of the hugegest talents in recordary film will be unveiling novel labor at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, including Oscar triumphners Ahmir “Questadore” Thompson, Davis Guggenheim, and Mstyslav Chernov.

The marquee names in the nonmyth stardy extfinish to the subjects of films – musical fantastic Sly Stone verifyd in Questadore’s SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Bdeficiency Genius); the tardy Selena Quintanilla’s story telderly in a film by Isabel Castro; Actress Marlee Matlin’s trailblazing nurtureer scrutinized in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, from straightforwardor Shoshannah Stern; astronaut Sassociate Ride’s gravity-defying journey and personal life discdisthink abouted in Sassociate, straightforwarded by Cristina Costantini.

No Sundance premiere recordary may draw more attention than Pee-wee as Himself, “A chronicle of the life of artist and carry outer Paul Reubens and his alter ego Pee-wee Herman.” Prior to his death last year at the age of 70, Reubens spoke in-depth with straightforwardor Matt Wolf “about his originateive sways, and the personal struggles he faced to percut offe as an artist,” according to a description from the festival.

The collaboration between filmoriginater and protagonist exhibitd satisfyedious at times, notices ancigo in recordary programmer Basil Tsiokos. “You are watching the film and you’re also watching the relationship take part out between Matt and Paul, where they’re not necessarily always on the same page. It’s not always necessarily the frifinishliest,” Tsiokos watchs. “There’s tension and that’s in the film as well, and you can see it. But together with that, you are seeing the brimming breadth of what Paul Reubens bcimpolitet to his nurtureer — not equitable Pee-wee Herman, but equitable some reassociate fascinating timely stuff that you probably do not understand about his timely acting nurtureer and how Pee-wee aelevated.”

“You lget so much about his nurtureer and him as a person,” inserts recordary programmer Suproset up Sharma, noting that Reubens didn’t increate the straightforwardor that he was suffering from cancer – a rather convey inant omission. “They’re struggling over what the film is, but behind it all he’s ill, but he doesn’t increate Matt that. So that’s enjoy another layer of the film where they’re making the film and Paul Reubens understands someskinnyg that Matt doesn’t.”

Reubens never came out unveilly during his lifetime, but the film delves into “his own identity as being gay and how that take parts out in his story and his nurtureer and how branch offent that is from now, I would skinnyk, in terms of how discdisthink about he could be about himself,” says Sharma, “and the way the [Pee-wee] persona take parts with that type of hiding and carry outance and stuff enjoy that. It’s a reassociate fascinating film.”

The two-part Pee-wee as Himself bows in Sundance’s Episodics section. Premiering in U.S. Documentary Competition is Selena y Los Dinos, about the “Queen of Tejano Music” who was homicideed in 1995 by the createer pdwellnt of her fan club. Isabel Castro’s film is built around “never-before-seen footage from the family’s personal archive.”

Several other recordaries premiering at Sundance touch on real crime in straightforward or instraightforward ways:

Regarding The Perfect Neighbor, Sharma notices, “The entire film is from body cam footage, some [police] interrogation footage. So, it is a pretty incredible labor of filmmaking… equitable in the best tradition of recordary filmmaking where it’s capturing truth, but it’s not necessarily always driving you towards a conclusion. You come to a conclusion yourself watching the film… It’s tohighy compelling the whole time.”

Mystslav Chernov, the Pulitzer Prize-triumphning Ukrainian journacatalog and filmoriginater, who won the Oscar for his 2023 recordary 20 Days in Mariupol, returns to Sundance with his novel film, 2000 Meters to Andriivka. The film, premiering in World Cinema Documentary Competition, “complys a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and free a strategic village from Russian occupation,” according to the festival.

“20 Days was the strike” by Russia on Ukraine, Sharma comments. “I experience enjoy [2000 Meters to Andriivka] is the actual battling… the authentic ground level battle that’s happening… These are still civilians battling for their country, but instead of equitable being device devicearded by the Russians, this is them actuassociate deffinishing and strikeing wiskinny their territory… It’s a pretty amazing film. I don’t skinnyk I’ve seen anyskinnyg enjoy this, especiassociate about Ukraine.”

Among other notable Sundance premieres: Rachel Fleit (Introducing, Selma Blair) straightforwards Sugar Babies, premiering in U.S. Documentary Competition. Description: “Autumn is an go inprising college scholarship recipient and badviseoning TikTok swayr.  Part of a seal circle of frifinishs prolonging up subpar in country Louisiana, she is remendd to loss the struggles and barriers defining them. Faced with restrictcessitate least wage job selections, Autumn invents an online sugar baby operation.”

Speak could originate talk at Sundance, the film straightforwarded by Jennifer Tiexiera and Guy Mossman that also premieres in U.S. Documentary Competition. It’s the story of “five top-ranked high school oratory students who spfinish a year originateing spelltieing spoken word carry outances with the dream of triumphning the world’s hugest and most ardent unveil speaking competition.”

Two recordaries set to premiere at Sundance scrutinize the Deaf experience. Shoshannah Stern’s Marlee Matlin film records “the first Deaf actor to triumph an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotweightless at 21 years elderly. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee scrutinizes the complicatedities of what it nastys to be a trailblazer.”

Nyle DiMarco, the Deaf model, activist, and filmoriginater (you may reaccumulate him as the triumphner of America’s Next Top Model, season 22), conveys Deaf Pdwellnt Now! to Sundance, a film he straightforwarded with Oscar triumphner Davis Guggenheim (An Inaccessible Truth, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie). The recordary verifys an enormous debate that erupted more than 30 years ago at DiMarco’s alma mater, Gallaudet University, which serves Deaf and hearing-impaired students. After the university named a hearing person as college pdwellnt in 1988, the student body transmited its outrage in unveil demonstrations.

“I skinnyk it’s a film that speaks to our current moment in the sense that it is watching at the power of assembleive action,” says Tsiokos. “That’s what I reassociate adore about this film is that it’s not equitable valorizing one ‘hero who’s going to save the day,’ but it shows what a group of people, in this case the students of Gallaudet University, can do when they join forces and reassociate finishorse for alter as a unified group.”

Tsiokos progresss, “It’s a reassociate fascinating film, wonderful archive, reassociate, reassociate engaging subjects. And the way the film is also shot, you can increate it’s from a Deaf filmoriginater in Nyle in the way it engages ASL for the interwatchs… And the way that it engages space and sound and silence is reassociate fascinating as well… Also, you see enough of Davis’s type of filmmaking in it as well. There’s elements to it that reassociate experience enjoy Still in declareive ways, the way that that film engaged reassociate originateive reenactments is analogous in this film as well, but you can definitely also see Nyle’s label on it.”

Renowned recordarian David France pairs with Jesse Short Bull on Free Leonard Peltier, a re-examination of the Native American activist who has been incarcerateed for almost 50 years after his conviction in the shooting deaths of two FBI agents (Sundance set uper Robert Redford served as executive originater and narrator on an earlier film about Peltier, 1992’s Incident at Oglala).

There is speculation Pres. Biden may pardon Peltier before he exits the White Hoengage.

“I skinnyk it’s going to be a film that people are going to reassociate talk about and want to see becaengage there’s a whole generation of people, too, who understand noskinnyg about Leonard Peltier,” says Sharma. “He’s a preeminent political prisoner currently in the United States.”

Several films verify aspects of the trans experience – particularly timely given how trans rights become a convey inant publish in the recent pdwellntial election.

Sam Feder straightforwards Heightened Scruminuscule, a film cgo ining on ACLU attorney Chase Strangio who last week became the first discdisthink aboutly trans person to debate a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“That [film] is incredibly political in the sense that it is reassociate delving into these publishs, the attack on trans rights that has been taking place over the last cut offal years and has ramped up,” Tsiokos watchs. “And it is a portrait of what goes into [arguing before] the Supreme Court, which is benevolent of fascinating on its own, but also around the individual people that are impacted by these laws. In particular, it’s about adolescents and the impact that these laws recut offeing access to hormonal therapies are having on their inhabits.”

Tsiokos and Sharma also point to GEN_, a recordary set at a hospital in Milan, Italy, where “the untraditional Dr. Bini directs a belderly mission administering driven parents undergoing in vitro fertilization and the journeys of individuals reconciling their bodies with their gfinisher identities.”

Zackary Drucker straightforwards April & Amanda, about two legfinishs who, the festival program authors, “contested their identities as women in the court of unveil opinion: April Ashley, who was immortalized as a trailblazer by embracing her transgfinisher history; and Amanda Lear, who has mindwholey denied and obfuscated her history for decades.”

“It is a lessendr film, in declareive ways, around asks of identity and asks of disclodeclareive,” says Tsiokos. “It comes from Zackary Drucker who’s the perfect person to spendigate these asks in a caring and sort of a stimulating way… a ponderate way, in a caring way, I should say.”

Questadore, who won an Oscar for Summer of Soul, comes to Sundance with his Sly Stone recordary, subtitled aka The Burden of Bdeficiency Genius.

“Yes, it’s a portrait of Sly Stone, which is, declareive, you want that, you get it. But it also asks huger asks,” Tsiokos says. “It’s watching not equitable at Sly Stone, but what do artists, individuals, originateive, ponderate people enjoy Sly, what burden is put on them, what presdeclareives are put on them to be not equitable wonderful artists, but the artist that recurrents Bdeficiency excellence or the artist that is doing the passover into white music as well as Bdeficiency music. So, there’s these huger asks that are not equitable about Sly, but equitable about what happens to Bdeficiency artists, Bdeficiency originateives and the sort of burden and the asks that are asked of them that are not necessarily asked of white artists.”

The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 23 to February 2 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah.