The Sundance 2024 Film Festival will take place from January 18 to 28, 2024. Organized by the Sundance Institute, it is the largest independent film festival in the USA. The grand event is attended by thousands of people, including celebrities, every year.
The Sundance Film Festival happens every January in Park City and Salt Lake City in Utah. It was first organized in August 1978 by founders John Earle and Sterling Van Wagenen. Notably, many films that have premiered in this festival have gone on to be nominated and won Oscars in prestigious categories. Aside from that, many documentaries have premiered at this festival for years, and for 2024, the roster has some interesting selections.
On that note, here are 3 much-awaited documentary releases from Sundance 2024.
Agent of Happiness
Directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, Agent of Happiness takes a closer look at the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan. Interestingly, the people under the spotlight are two “Happiness Agents.” Their task is to measure the country’s so-called Gross National Happiness level. The government of Bhutan introduced the Gross National Happiness Index in late 1990.
As per Catapult Film Fund, the synopsis of the documentary reads, “Amar and Gunaraj are not only close friends, but also Happiness Agents who work together for the Happiness Ministry of Bhutan. Travelling door to door measuring people’s happiness level while searching for their own among the remote Himalayan mountains. On their mission, they encounter various people chasing their dreams.”
It further reads, “This satirical road movie through a mosaic of different stories discovers the real desires of a society behind a national identity created by the Happiness Ministry of Bhutan, a closed country for centuries.”
The producer of Agent of Happiness is Noémi Veronika Szakonyi.
Realm of Satan
Directed by Scott Cummings, Realm of Satan is a documentary about Satanists. Variety reports that it will feature graphic sexual content. In addition, Realm of Satan will show how practitioners of Satanism live every day and deal with extraordinary situations.
According to Asterlight, the synopsis reads, “Realm of Satan is an experimental non-fiction portrait of the Church of Satan, a world-wide, half-century old religion dedicated to the celebration of carnality and individualism that takes Satan as its central figure. The film explores Satanists as they exist today, portraying key members of the Church of Satan, their environments, their everyday lives and the magical rituals they engage in.”
It further reads, “The film seeks to illuminate this underground, outsider organization, but freely incorporates fictional and supernatural elements to create a more complicated and mysterious picture of the Church, centering on their embrace of Black Magic. Existing in a space between fiction, experimental film and documentary, Realm of Satan will playfully explore popular, personal, objective and subjective ideas about the Church of Satan.”
Joe Poletto and Sam Roseme are the executive producers of this project.
Black Box Diaries
Black Box Diaries will show the brave efforts of Shiori Ito, a celebrated journalist and director of this project, as she investigates her sexual assault. Variety reports that the documentary is dark and gritty and delves into Japan’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
IMDb summarizes the premise as, “Journalist Shiori Ito investigates her own sexual assault, seeking to prosecute the high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case, exposing Japan’s outdated judicial and societal systems.”
Black Box Diaries’ executive producer is Mitsunobu Kawamu. The documentary’s other producers include Eric Nyari, Hanna Aqvilin, and Ito.
Other documentaries that are part of the Sundance 2024 roster are Nocturnes, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, Sugarcane, and more.
