Sundance Film Fest Diary Day One Featuring Jesse Eisenberg

Sundance Film Festival welcomed audiences to an action-packed first day of premiere screenings and conversations featuring some of the most notable visionaries in independent film, new media, and culture at-large, including Jesse Eisenberg, Eva Longoria Bastón, Sam Green, Julianne Moore, Finn Wolfhard, Emma Stone, Dale Dickey and more.

Kicking off the Festival’s first day with a press conference, Festival Director Tabitha Jackson was joined by Director of Programming Kim Yutani and Senior Programmers John Nein and Shari Frilot  to tee-up what audiences can expect from the next ten days of Sundance.

As a point of convergence and unity for the opening day, audiences were invited to the New Frontier Spaceship to experience 32 Sounds, an immersive audio-visual documentary experience from Award-winning documentarian Sam Green that enabled the Sundance community to connect together, as one. Additional Day One Highlights listed below.

OPENING DAY PRESS CONFERENCE  (Watch the Zoom recording here. PW:X&hs*4Y%)

Tabitha Jackson (Festival Director) on this year’s mission statement for the Festival: “The notion of community and joy speaks to our humanity–in a world dominated by screens gathering to experience joy is what the festival is all about. We will converge in any way we can. This moment in the year around these artists making this work is what we’re here for–to celebrate and champion the project of freedom of creative expression and the independent voice.”

Kim Yutani (Director of Programming) on the broader “trends” and themes programmers noticed this year: “We don’t intentionally program to themes, but we’re very attuned to the submissions we’re getting. Films speak to each other, to the cultural moment and to audiences. Just to address some of the trends and connections we saw within the work this year  – we saw a lot of work that addresses the current state of the environment, climate politics–I’d signal out the doc To The End dealing directly with the green new deal. There are also striking films from Latin America like Utama and The Cow That Sang A Song Into The Future. We also noticed a lot of films around reproductive rights: The Janes, Call Janes, The Happening, and Aftershock. We also saw films that deal with injustice especially from the viewpoint of people of color and women. Here, I would mention 892, God’s Country, and also the documentaries, Phoenix Rising, and the film Nothing Compares which focuses on Sinead O’Connor.”

OPENING NIGHT WELCOME VIDEO Featuring Robert Redford (Sundance Institute Founder), Joana Vicente (Sundance Institute CEO), Tabitha Jackson (Sundance Film Festival Director) who  provided a welcome to this year’s festival, followed by a short film, Spirals, featuring Carrie Mae Weems.

NEW FRONTIER Festival Welcome and 32 Sounds. Despite being online, people came together in a theater (in their avatar form) for the ambitious opening moment of the Festival when Award-winning documentarian Sam Green returned to Sundance with a groundbreaking and immersive documentary that explores the elemental phenomenon of sound and how it affects our conscious and unconscious lives. This indelible, feature-length journey weaves together 32 audio experiences, crafting a cinematic poem about the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world.

Featured Film Q&A

When You Finish Saving The World Panel.

Finn Wolfhard and Julianne Moore appear in When You Finish Saving the World by Jesse Eisenberg, an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Beth Garrabrant.
All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or ‘Courtesy of Sundance Institute.’ Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.

JESSE EISENBERG (First-time Director) on the personal inspiration for this script: “The movie was in some ways born of my inner conflict of the work that I do and mainstream entertainment, being so exposed to the work that’s done in these [women’s shelters] – the immediate need in social service. The movie is kind of born of that: the conflict between art and social activism. These characters are in some ways reflective of the fight that I’m struggling with in my own mind.”

JULIANNE MOORE (Actor) on the collaborative spirit of independent films: ”When you make a little movie like this, you’re there because this is important to you. There’s no other agenda than to create this thing together.” On what most excited her about the script: “I was really relishing this opportunity to play a character who was a human being, who didn’t get it right! Who actually had a difficult time communicating, who had every intention of being the kind of parent that she wanted to be but was failing – miserably. And was better able to communicate with someone outside her family… I feel like this movie was rife with those moments that were incredibly illuminating and humane.”

Jesse Eisenberg, director of When You Finish Saving the World, an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Karen Kuehn.
All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or ‘Courtesy of Sundance Institute.’ Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.

Each year, Sundance serves as a cultural launchpad, helping to expand audience horizons through film and the conversations that occur the minute that credits roll. Continuing to foster this spirit of discussion into 2022, Sundance Film Festival programs a series of panels across discipline and topic to keep the conversation going.

Sundance Film Festival completed the first day of its fully online festival programming featuring conversations with Jesse Eisenberg, Eva Longoria Bastón, Sam Green, Julianne Moore, Finn Wolfhard, Emma Stone, and more.

TUNE IN TODAY: Friday, January 21

HOW TO FEST: DAILY | 12:00 PM ET //10:00 AM MT // 9:00 AM PT

• BEYOND FILM:

  • CALLING ALL ARTISTS: THE CLIMATE CRISIS IS RECRUITING | 4:00PM ET // 2:00PM MT // 1:00PM PT

• NEW FRONTIER:

  • SUGA’ – A LIVE VIRTUAL DANCE PERFORMANCE | 8:30 PM ET // 6:30 PM MT // 5:30 PM PT

•  A HIGHLIGHT OF FILM PREMIERES AND POST Q&As:

  • 892 | 3:18 PM ET // 1:18 PM MT // 12:18 PM PT

    • Abi Damaris Corbin (Director, co-writer), Kwame Kwei-Armah (Writer); John Boyega (Actor), Connie Britton (Actor), Olivia Washington (Actor), Nicole Beharie (Actor), and Selenis Leyva (Actor).

  • Living | 3:48 PM ET // 1:48 PM MT // 12:48 PM PT

    • Oliver Hermanus (Director), Bill Nighy (Actor), Aimee Lou Wood (Actor)

  • Call Jane | 9:52 PM ET // 7:52 PM MT //6:52 PM PT

    • Phyllis Nagy (Director), Elizabeth Banks (Actor), Sigourney Weaver (Actor), Wuumi Mosaku (Actor), Robbie Brenner (Producer)

  • Master | 10:06 PM ET // 8:06 PM  MT // 7:06 PM PT

    • Mariama Diallo (Director, Amber Gray (Actor), Zoe Renee (Actor), Regina Hall (Actor)

HOW TO PARTICIPATE The Festival takes place digitally via our enhanced online platform at Festival.Sundance.org, on the New Frontier Spaceship, a bespoke immersive platform allowing festival goers to gather virtually, and in-person at seven Satellite Screens venues around the country during the Festival’s second weekend. Additional programming includes a daily talk show (“How to Fest: Daily”), and Satellite Screen conversations as well as partner offerings in the Festival Village. To note, all talks are available online via livestream or posted later on festival.sundance.org to view globally. Sign up for an account at festival.sundance.org to access online. All times are U.S. Mountain Time.

 ABOUT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Flee, CODA, Passing, Summer Of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Clemency, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Zola, On The Record, Boys State, The Farewell, Honeyland, One Child Nation, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Precious, The Cove, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Napoleon Dynamite, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Reservoir Dogs and sex, lies, and videotape.

The Festival is a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute. 2022 Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Acura, AMC+, Chase Sapphire, Adobe; Leadership Sponsors – Amazon Studios, DIRECTV, DoorDash, Dropbox, Netflix, Omnicom Group, WarnerMedia, XRM Media; Sustaining Sponsors – Aflac, Audible, Canada Goose, Canon U.S.A., Inc., Dell Technologies, IMDbPro, Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold, Rabbit Hole Bourbon & Rye, Unity Technologies, University of Utah Health, White Claw Hard Seltzer; Media Sponsors – The Atlantic, IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Shadow and Act, Variety, Vulture. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival’s costs and sustain the Institute’s year-round programs for independent artists. Visit sundance.org/festival for more.