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Two classics of independent film — a seminal work in African-American cinema, and one of the first "Generation X" movies — will return to the Sundance Film Festival.
Festival organizers today announced two titles, "Daughters of the Dust" and "Reality Bites," that will screen with newly struck preservation prints in the "From the Collection" series at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
On Jan. 22 at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, the festival will screen Ben Stiller's 1994 directorial debut, "Reality Bites." The movie centered on a group of post-collegiate members of Generation X, figuring out what they want in life. Lelaina (Winona Ryder) is presented with two options: Michael (played by Stiller), a charming but status-conscious video executive, or Troy (Ethan Hawke), her grungy but too-cool-to-commit friend. The cast also includes Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn, with cameos by Jeanne Tripplehorn and rocker Evan Dando.
Screening on Jan. 23 at the Egyptian is "Daughters of the Dust," Julie Dash's 1991 film set among the Gullah, descendants of African slaves living along the islands of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. The movie, set in the early 1900s, showed the Pazants family preparing to migrate from Sea Island to the mailand, leaving their land and traditions behind them.
Dash is expected to be in Park City to introduce her film, and take part in a Q-and-A session after the screening.
The "From the Collection" program spotlights The Sundance Collection at UCLA, a film archive established in 1997 to preserve independent films. The archive now holds more than 1,000 titles.
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 19-29 in Park City and at venues in Salt Lake City, Ogden and the Sundance resort.