A Roger Ebert Tie
Sundance Cinemas to highlight more independent films in the Screening Room
Poster for Chico & Rita
Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com
Natural Selection movie posterNatural Selection/Facebook
Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com
Sundance Cinemas at Houston's Bayou Place is into the debut of its Screening Room calendar, a program already successfully instituted at the Sundance theater locations in San Francisco and Madison, Wis.
This screening room calendar will refresh every eight weeks, offering short runs of the best independent films, culled from national and international film festivals and selected for each market by film buyer Jan Klinglehoefer and the Sundance programming team.
"It gives us the opportunity to dedicate a screen to a film that might be a little more difficult to see otherwise," Gribler said.
Sundance Cinemas vice president of marketing Nancy Klasky Gribler tells CultureMap that while the company already focuses on bringing quality, thought-provoking film to viewers, the screening room really highlights the theater's roots in independent film.
"It gives us the opportunity to dedicate a screen to a film that might be a little more difficult to see otherwise," Gribler said.
Award-winning animated film Chico & Rita started off the first rotation, followed by seven other documentary and selections directed by big names (Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey) and first-time filmmakers.
The inaugural calendar list also includes a centerpiece film that hits close to home: Natural Selection, written and directed by Jersey Village native Robbie Pickering. The film won six major awards at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival, and received airtime at the 2011 Ebertfest, an annual event organized by film critic Roger Ebert.
See the full calendar here.
