Sundance Stories

The 2017 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, playing Park City, Utah from Jan. 19-29, sets out to define the independent-film menu across a broad range of genres. What follows is our guess on what may prove hot in 2017, based on some preliminary reports from the mountains. The 2017 edition is dedicated to films about climate change.

Beach Rats Eliza Hittman, whose 2014 first feature "It Felt Like Love" debuted at Sundance, returns with the tale of a confused Brooklyn teen caught between misbehaving buddies, potential girlfriends and the dark world of online chats with older men.

Band Aid A battling couple finds their salvation in a rock band whose song list is inspired by their domestic squabbles. Zoe Lister-Jones writes, directs and stars.

Burning Sands A college frat's pledge week becomes a hellish ordeal for a once-favored pledge torn between obeying the group's code of silence or speaking out against a rising tide of violence during the secret hazing rituals. Gerard McMurray directs a cast headed up by Alfre Woodard, Steve Harris, Tosin Cole, DeRon Horton and Trevante Rhodes.

Crown Heights Matt Ruskin adapted this true-life miscarriage-of-justice story from the acclaimed Public Radio program "This American Life." When a man (Colin Warner) is falsely charged and convicted of murder, his best friend (Carl King) attempts to prove his innocence.

Golden Exits Writer/director Alex Ross Perry demonstrates how the arrival of a young foreign girl upends the lives and emotional stability of two Brooklyn families. With Emily Browning, Adam Horovitz, Mary-Louise Parker, Lily Rabe, Jason Schwartzman and Chloe Sevigny.

The Yellow Birds Director Alexandre Moors (with writers David Lowery and R.F.I. Porto) commands this topical drama showcasing promising newcomer Tye Sheridan as one of two friends who join the all-volunteer army and are sent to Iraq. Following a battlefield tragedy the surviving buddy must juggle a vow of silence with the desire to assist a grieving mother's need for consolation and closure.

The Hero Filmmaker Brett Haley (with co-writer Marc Basch) gives us Lee (Sam Elliott), a retired cowboy actor who's retired to a life of residual checks from TV ads cushioned by a strong pot habit. A big award and some startling news lead to reflection and a new friendship with an opinionated comedian. With Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman, Katharine Ross.

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore In filmmaker Macon Blair's story, a depressed woman (Melanie Lynskey) collaborates with a rude neighbor (Elijah Wood) after a home burglary to find the culprits.

Ingrid Goes West Matt Spicer with co-writer David Branson Smith have hatched an odd comedy-drama about a young woman's misadventures with an Instagram "influencer."

Landline Gillian Robespierre (with co-writer Elisabeth Holm) presents this tale of a pair of sisters coming of age in 90s New York. The girls' Pop turns out to be one of many family members cheating on their marriage vows, practiced liars who connect only in devious ways. With Jenny Slate, John Turturro, Edie Falco, Jay Duplass and Finn Wittrock.

Novitiate Maggie Betts' drama flashes back to the early '60s, when the fallout from Vatican II forces a young aspiring nun to grapple with issues of faith, sexuality and secularism. With Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo and Julianne Nicholson.

Patti Cake$ Geremy Jasper gives us a New Jersey-based drama about an aspiring rapper who survives a jungle of strip malls and clubs seeking her 15 minutes of high-octane fame.

Roxanne Roxanne Michael Larnell flashes back to NYC in the early 80s as a wannabe teen singer seeks to be a hip-hop legend in her Queensbridge neighborhood.

To the Bone Marti Noxon's world premiere unfolds at a group recovery home where Ellen, a 20something recovering anorexic, finds help from an unorthodox physician. With Lily Collins, Keanu Reeves, Lili Taylor, Alex Sharp and Liana Liberato.

Walking Out The filmmaking Smith Brothers, Alex and Andrew, return with a potentially lethal father-son struggle during a Montana big-game hunt.

Axolotl Overkill (Germany) Helene Hegemann's Berlin-based teen drama features 16-year-old Mifti. Mourning the death of her mom, she finds herself embroiled with half-siblings and their rich, self-involved father. Mifti seeks relief in an obsessive fling with Alice, an older white-collar-criminal junkie.

Berlin Syndrome (Australia) Cate Shortland and screenwriter Shaun Grant's passionate vacation romance takes a sinister turn when an Australian photographer awakens in a Berlin flat and is unable to leave.

Woodpeckers (Dominican Republic) In filmmaker Jose Maria Cabral's romantic drama, a young man, Julian, finds love and a reason for living in the last place imaginable: his country's dangerous Najayo Prison. His tryst with fellow prisoner Yanelly must develop through sign language and without the knowledge of the prison's guards.

Don't Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl! (Brazil) In Felipe Braganca's fable, a 13-year-old boy is in love with a Paraguayan Indian girl. To win her love, he must confront his part of the world's war-torn history and the secrets of his brother, Fernando, a motorcycle cowboy.

Family Life (Chile) Directors Alicia Scherson and Cristian Jimenez with writer Alejandro Zambra tell the story of a lonely man who invents a vindictive ex-wife supposedly withholding his daughter, in order to cozy up to a single mom he's met.

Free and Easy (Hong Kong) In director Jun Geng's melodrama, a traveling soap salesman appears in a desolate Chinese town.

God's Own Country (UK) Francis Lee's tale is set during springtime in Yorkshire, where lonely young sheep farmer Johnny Saxby numbs his boredom with binge drinking and casual sex. The appearance of a Romanian migrant worker ignites an intense bond that sets Johnny on a new path. With Josh O'Connor, Alec Secareanu, and Gemma Jones.

My Happy Family (Germany/Georgia) In filmmaker Nana Ekvtimishvili's story, three generations of a Georgian family live under one roof. All are shocked when 52-year-old Manana moves out to live alone. Without her family and husband, a journey into the unknown begins.

The Nile Hilton Incident (Sweden) Tarik Saleh sets his tale in Cairo, weeks before the 2011 revolution, Police Detective Noredin is working in the infamous Kasr el-Nil police station when he is handed the case of a murdered singer. He soon realizes that the investigation concerns the power elite, close to the President s inner circle.

The Wound (South Africa) Director John Trengove with writers Thando Mgqolozana and Malusi Bengu relate the story of an isolated factory worker who joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best-kept secret, Xolani's way of life is threatened.

Non-Fiction Films

Casting JonBenet Kitty Green examines the unsolved death of six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, a sensational child-murder case. Over 15 months, reflections and performances were elicited from the Ramseys' Colorado hometown, creating a bold work of art from the collective memories and mythologies the crime inspired.

Chasing Coral Jeff Orlowski explains how coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists sets out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why and to reveal the underwater mystery.

Dolores Peter Bratt probes how a California farmworker activist bucked 1950s gender conventions by co-founding the country's first farmworkers' union. Wrestling with raising 11 children, gender bias, union defeat and victory, and nearly dying after an SFPD beating, Dolores Huerta emerges with a vision that connects her newfound feminism with racial and class justice.

The Force Pete Nicks' cinema verit look at the long-troubled Oakland Police Department examines federal demands for reform, a popular uprising following events in Ferguson, and an explosive scandal.

Icarus Bryan Fogel sets out to uncover the truth about doping in sports, examining a chance meeting with a Russian scientist that transforms his story from a personal experiment into a geopolitical thriller involving dirty urine, unexplained death and Olympic Gold, exposing the biggest scandal in sports history.

The New Radical Adam Bhala Lough explains how millennial radicals from the US and the UK are attacking the system through dangerous technological means.

Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press Brian Knappenberger shows how the trial between Hulk Hogan and Gawker Media pitted privacy rights against freedom of the press, and raised important questions about how big money can silence media.

Quest Jonathan Olshefski's portrait of a North Philadelphia family and the creative sanctuary offered by their home music studio was filmed with verite intimacy. The family's 10-year journey is an illumination of race and class in America, a testament to love, healing and hope.

Unrest Harvard Ph.D. student Jennifer Brea is struck down at 28 by a fever that leaves her bedridden. Not believing doctors who say it's all in her head, she sets out on a virtual journey to document her and four other families' stories fighting a disease medicine forgot.

Water & Power: A California Heist Marina Zenovich's story of California's convoluted water system is an examination into power that shows how small farmers and everyday citizens face drought and a debilitating groundwater crisis.

Whose Streets? Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis give a fact-based account of the Ferguson, MO uprising told by the people who lived it. An unflinching look at how the killing of black teen Michael Brown inspired a community to fight back and sparked a global movement.