New Preservation Print Of Richard Linklater’s Slacker To Screen At Sundance 2011

Next January, the film world will turn it’s collective head towards a small town outside of Salt Lake City, in the form of the Sundance Film Festival. Among all of the new works from filmmakers from all over the world, the Festival will screen several films out of their UCLA collection.

Last year, Sundance screened such classics as Harold and Maude, and even Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan, during their 2010 line-up.

They’ve recently announced the inclusion of another Criterion title, Richard Linklater’s Slacker, screening during the festival. An incredibly influential piece in the American Independent Film movement, Slacker follows several characters through Austin, Texas, in a highly innovative approach to an unconvential narrative. I hate to reduce it to this, but it’s very similar to Linklater’s animated film, Waking Life, but obviously this is live action. If you’ve seen and enjoyed Waking Life, but not seen Slacker, I’d highly recommend checking it out. Apparently the Sundance attendees will get to see a “newly struck preservation print” of the film.

I don’t know how much demand there is from the Criterion community to see this film on Blu-ray, but I for one would drop the cash on a disc like that, especially if they can have access to this new print.

Will you be attending the Sundance Film Festival this winter? What do you think of Slacker? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Richard Linklater‘s film presents a day in the life of a subculture of marginal, eccentric, and overeducated citizens in and around the University of Texas at Austin. Shooting the film on 16mm for a mere $23,000, writer/producer/director Linklater and his close-knit crew of friends eschewed a traditional plot, choosing instead to employ long takes and fluid transitions to create a tapestry of over a hundred characters, each as unique as the last, culminating in an episodic portrait of a distinct vernacular culture and a tribute to bohemian thought. SLACKER is a forward-thinking look at an emerging generation of aggressive non-participants, and one of the keynote films of the American independent film movement of the 1990s.

RICHARD LINKLATER’S SEMINAL INDIE FILM, SLACKER, SELECTED FOR 2011 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL FROM THE COLLECTION SCREENING

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES NEW ‘COLLECTOR’S CIRCLE’ DEDICATED TO FILM PRESERVATION

PARK CITY, UT ‘“- Sundance Institute, the global, nonprofit arts organization, today announced that the 20th anniversary of Richard Linklater’s seminal indie film Slacker has been selected as the special 2011 Sundance Film Festival From the Collection screening. The Institute, which, with the UCLA Film and Television Archive, created The Sundance Collection at UCLA to preserve and restore independent films, also announced a new program, Collector’s Circle, where for the first time Institute supporters are given the opportunity to directly impact the acquisition and preservation process.

Established in 1997, The Sundance Collection at UCLA (The Collection) broke new ground by becoming the first archive devoted specifically to the preservation of documentaries, narratives, shorts, festival films, and commercially released independent films. It is part of a larger Institute initiative designed to engage independent film and theatre artists, enhance public knowledge, maintain an exhaustive record of the artists and work supported through the Institute’s Labs and the Film Festival since 1981, and ultimately to create and sustain an inclusive artistic community. In addition to The Collection, similar initiatives include the Sundance Institute’s Alumni Initiative, and The Sundance Institute Archive.

To reflect the current needs of Sundance Institute and these initiatives, the new Collector’s Circle brings opportunities for enhanced engagement on behalf of Institute supporters to raise the visibility for and awareness of independent film preservation. With an annual contribution of $10,000, members of the Collector’s Circle will help the Institute choose films to be added to the Sundance Collection at UCLA. At the Festival, members will also be invited to a special From the Collection screening followed by a private dinner with Festival Director John Cooper.

‘In many ways Slacker is the perfect Collection film,’ said Cooper. ‘It launched a brilliant career, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers and paved the way for countless others. People don’t necessarily think about preservation for newer films, and we are working to change that. What would it mean for our industry and for our culture if prints like these didn’t exist?’

A newly struck preservation print of Slacker will screen on Monday, January 24 at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City. Director Richard Linklater is expected to introduce the film and attend the Q&A, hosted by Festival Director John Cooper, along with other special guests. The Sundance Film Festival will run January 20-30, 2010 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah. Tickets are available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/tickets.

About the film:

Slacker/USA 1991 (Director and screenwriter: Richard Linklater. Cast: Richard Linklater; Marc James; Stella Weir; John Slater; Louis Mackey). Praising the film in the Chicago Sun Times in 1991, Roger Ebert wrote, Slacker is ‘a movie with an appeal almost impossible to describe, although the method of the director, Richard Linklater, is as clear as day.’

The Sundance Collection at UCLA has grown to nearly 1000 titles, generously donated by individual filmmakers and eight founding donors: Fine Line Features, Gramercy Pictures, Miramax, New Line Cinema, October Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Strand Releasing, Zeitgeist Films and Trimark Pictures. To supplement its growing library of films, the Collection also features a rare assemblage of data on the history of independent cinema. Filmmakers can visit http://www.sundance.org/archives/collection/ to learn more about donating their work to the Sundance Collection at UCLA.

Festival Sponsors

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival sponsors to date include: Presenting Sponsors’”Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura and Sundance Channel; Leadership Sponsors’”Bingâ„¢, DIRECTV, Southwest Airlines and YouTubeâ„¢; Sustaining Sponsors’”FilterForGood ®, a partnership between Brita ® and Nalgene ®, L’Oréal Paris, Stella Artois ®, and Timberland. Their support will defray costs associated with the 10-day Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s year-round programs for independent film and theatre artists. In return, sponsorship of the preeminent Festival provides these organizations with global exposure, a platform for brand impressions and unique access to Festival attendees.

Sundance Institute

Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover, support, and inspire independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America.