Austin Films Bite Into Sundance
The Unforeseen, Teeth, and Joshua
By Joe O'Connell, Fri., Dec. 8, 2006
The Sundance Film Festival's Texas connection continues this year with Laura Dunn's The Unforeseen, naughty Austin-shot Teeth, and former Austinite George Ratliff's Joshua.
Dunn counts Terrence Malick and Robert Redford as executive producers for her documentary, which is one of 24 films that will screen under the Spectrum section. She describes it as an "Austin growth wars story" starring developer Gary Bradley, Barton Springs, and the Edwards Aquifer. The University of Texas MFA film grad also made Green, a 2000 doc that looked at environmental racism along the mighty Mississippi.
Meanwhile, writer/director Mitchell Lichtenstein's coming-of-age horror flick, Teeth, enters Sundance's dramatic competition after a controversial shoot in Austin this past spring. The plot stems from where teeth are located on a young female character. Need I say more? If so, see www.teethmovie.com.
Most folks know Ratliff from his 2001 documentary, Hell House, about an anti-Halloween event held by a church in Cedar Hill, just outside of Dallas. Joshua – with Teeth, among 16 out of 996 films chosen for dramatic competition – is a psychological thriller.
Meanwhile, Adam Rifkin's Homo Erectus, the caveman comedy from the University of Texas film arm Burnt Orange Productions, will have its world premiere at Slamdance.
