After Eugene Jarecki‘s documentary “The Six Billion Dollar Man” about Julian Assange mysteriously withdrew late last month, the Sundance Institute had a small hole in its programming schedule. Today, it made up for it with the announcement of two new films to the 2025 Sundance Film Festival slate. The new selections are Bao Nguyen’s “The Stringer” and Andrew Jarecki’s “The Alabama Solution.” Both documentaries will be included in the premieres category.
Both filmmakers have screened at Sundance previously. Nguyen premiered “Be Water” in 2020 and “The Greatest Night in Pop” last year. Jarecki has brought three projects to Park City: “Capturing the Friedmans” in 2003, “Just a Clown” in 2004, and “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” in 2015. “Friedmans” earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary while “The Jinx” was one of the most acclaimed documentary works of the past decade taking two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and numerous other accolades.
In a statement from the festival, Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming, noted, “Adding these two nonfiction features to our robust slate of documentary offerings at the Festival, both told by filmmakers who have been a part of our Sundance community for many years, completes our programming with compelling explorations around justice and truth-telling.”
The official festival synopsis for each film are as follows:
The Alabama Solution / U.S.A. (Directors, Producers: Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman) — Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems. World Premiere. Documentary.
The Stringer / U.S.A. (Director: Bao Nguyen, Producers: Fiona Turner, Terri Lichstein) — A two-year investigation uncovers a scandal behind the making of one of the most recognized photographs of the 20th century. Five decades of secrets are unraveled in the search for justice for a man known only as “the stringer.” World Premiere. Documentary.
The addition of these works increases this year’s slate to 88 feature-length films representing 33 countries. 37 of the 88 (42%) include film directors who are first-time feature filmmakers. Nine of the feature films and projects were supported by Sundance Institute in development through direct granting or residency labs. This year the film slate includes 84, or 96%, world premieres, a genuine accomplishment compared to many of the world’s great festivals.
Single Film Tickets for in-person and online screenings go on sale January 16 at 10 a.m. MT. Visit the Sundance Film Festival site for more information: festival.sundance.org.
The 2025 Sundance Film Festival will run from Jan 30 – Feb 2. Look for complete coverage on The Playlist direct from Park City.
