Two locally produced films will have their world debuts at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Jan. 21-31.
"Howl," a drama about Allen Ginsberg's 1957 obscenity trial, produced by Minneapolis-based Werc Werk Works, is in the festival's U.S. Dramatic Competition with 15 others selected from 1,058 films submitted.
"The Runaways," a fact-based rock 'n' roll story from Twin Cities financier/filmmaker Bill Pohlad's River Road Entertainment, will screen in the festival's non-competetive Premieres section. The film stars Kristen Stewart as rocker Joan Jett, leader of the legendary all-girl rock band. Also in the cast are Dakota Fanning, Scout Taylor-Compton, Michael Shannon, Alia Shawkat and Tatum O'Neal.
James Franco (of the "Spider-Man" films, "Milk" and "Pineapple Express") plays Ginsberg in the other biopic, which follows the beatnik bard finding his voice and the creation of his experimental epic poem "Howl" ("I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked ... "). It portrayed sexuality and radical nonconformism in frank, profane terms, which led to an obscenity trial in 1957. "Mad Men's" Jon Hamm plays the defense attorney, David Straithairn the prosecutor and Jeff Daniels a prosecution witness.
The epic poem itself is read in its entirety in the film, its swirling visions of alienated souls and power-hungry Philistine gods represented in dreamlike animation.
Werc Werk Works, founded last year by Minneapolis producers Elizabeth Redleaf and Christine Kunewa Walker, also recently completed Todd Solondz's "Life During Wartime" while "The Turin Horse," a period drama from Bela Tarr, is currently in production. The ministudio's fourth offering, a conman story titled "The Convincer," is eyeing a first-quarter 2010 shoot in the Twin Cities.
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