Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition is I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, written and directed by Austin transplant Macon Blair. Another Austinite receiving a top prize at the fest is UT lecturer Ramona Diaz, whose documentary Motherland won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Commanding Vision.
Prior to making his writing and directing debut with this Sundance Film Festival breakout, which stars Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood, Macon Blair has been best known to audiences as an actor cast in starring roles in childhood pal Jeremy Saulnier‘s Green Room and Blue Ruin. He also has a featured role in Gold, the Matthew McConaughey vehicle which opened nationally last Friday. The Sundance catalogue description of the film follows: “When a depressed woman is burglarized, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves, alongside her obnoxious neighbor. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.”
Of the writer/director’s film, Variety‘s Peter Debruge writes: “What a pleasure it is to watch Lynskey underplay her frustration, while Blair raises the stakes at every turn, suggesting the sort of high-potential new voice audiences saw in Reservoir Dogs 25 years ago at Sundance. The only suspense more delicious than watching this story unfold is wondering what Blair will do next.”
Ramona Diaz’s nonfiction film Motherland documents “the planet’s busiest maternity hospital … located in one of its poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. There, poor women face devastating consequences as their country struggles with reproductive health policy and the politics of conservative Catholic ideologies.” Her previous films include Imelda and Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey.
As if the argument needed bolstering, these two wins add prestigious fuel to Austin’s claim to be one of the top filmmaking meccas in the country.
This article appears in January 27 • 2017.
