It sounds like the strangest of unions: The world's largest software developer, console gaming's most successful download service, and 45 of the most outre short films going. Will gamers pay 160 Microsoft Points at $2 a pop (or $90 for the whole shebang) to watch arty flicks about: The Iran-Iraq war? An Inuit hunter? A couple lovers gabbing about dogs they heart? A former rock idol who buys a monkey to be his friend?
Not to worry, if the answer's a resounding "What the heck is Sundance?" the films will be available via iTunes and Netflix for non-gamers and anyone short a 360 as well. Oh, and free online in a browser if you're willing to keep pace with the official festival site, which plans to show the top ten, one at a time (here today, gone tomorrow, 24 hours each) beginning today, January 18, with "I Love Sarah Jane" at 12:01 a.m. mountain standard time (MST).
The Xbox Live versions also launch immediately in collaboration with Sundance Channel and will include a selection of 45 short films from the festival, beginning today and running rather ambitiously through 2011.
The day-by-day "top 10" breakdown, from the official press release:
Day 1: Friday, January 18 "I Love Sarah Jane" (Director: Spencer Susser). Jimbo is 13 and can think of only one girl -- Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way -- bullies, violence, chaos, or zombies -- nothing will stop him from finding a way into her world.
Day 2: Saturday, January 19 "Pariah" (Director: Dee Rees). A Bronx lesbian teenager juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection from friends and family, but pressures from home, school, and within corrode the line between her dual personas with an explosive consequence.
Day 3: Sunday, January 20 "Yours Truly" (Director: Osbert Parker) Animation and live action collide in the story of Frank and Charlie, a dark romance of psychological tension that unfolds as the two sacrifice their morals surrounding the ultimate kiss off letter.
Day 4: Monday, January 21 "My Olympic Summer" (Director: Daniel Robin) After his marriage fails, the filmmaker looks at home video footage of his parents when they were young in hopes to understand how they kept the magic. This film is set against the historical backdrop of the hostage crisis at the Munich Olympic games of 1972.
Day 5: Tuesday, January 22 "Sick Sex" (Director: Justin Nowell) Amanda has a fever. Ken is horny.
Day 6: Wednesday, January 23 "Because Washington is Hollywood For Ugly People" (Director: Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung) Employing images from popular culture, political figures and Internet imagery, this piece adopts viral advertising in a reduction of contemporary events to a cartoon-like mythology while touching on issues such as identity politics, US Foreign policy, sexuality and power.
Day 7: Thursday, January 24 "Force 1 TD" (Director: Randy Krallman) Three friends, one of whom is visually impaired and has a miniature guide horse named Carmine, set off to find Carmine a very special pair of sneakers for a very special occasion.
Day 8: Friday, January 25 "Wind, Ten Years Old" (Director: Marzieh Vafamehr) A day in the life of a 10-year-old Iranian girl highlights the Iran-Iraq war and the national/educational propaganda that informs the tumult, fear, infatuation, and mindset of a generation.
Day 9: Saturday, January 26 "Sikumi (On the Ice)" (Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean) An Inuit hunter takes his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean in search of seals, and inadvertently becomes a witness to a murder.
Day 10: Sunday, January 27 "Spider" (Director: Nash Edgerton) It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Films Available on the iTunes Store, Netflix, and Xbox 360:
The rest of the 45 are listed with descriptions here.
Hats off to Microsoft for doing this deal. I love this stuff, and if you're at all about the art and theory of film, I'm betting you will too.
