In a brand new initiative, the video on demand label “Sundance Selects” has partnered up with the Sundance Institute and created “Direct from the Sundance Film Festival”—a program that will bring three of the films being screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival to a nationwide, on-demand audience.
 
“This is an exciting time to experiment with these kinds of ventures,” says first-year Sundance director John Cooper. “The independent film community has been abuzz of dialogue and speculation in recent years about what is possible. This is true innovation combined with action. New mythologies for how the Sundance Film Festival can help the films we so carefully select need to become realities. If it serves our filmmakers, it is right for the festival.”
 
Chosen for this initiative are The Shock Doctrine, Mat Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom’s socio-political documentary centered around the rise of disaster capitalism; Ben and Joshua Safdie’s Daddy Long Legs, the story of a divorced father’s odd, yet beautiful use of fairytale and myth in the limited time he has with his children; and Daniel Grou’s 7 Days, a same-name novel adaptation about a prominent surgeon whose life turns upside-down after the death of his daughter. The Shock Doctrine and Daddy Long Legs will be making their North American premieres, while 7 Days will be making its world premiere.
 
The films will be made available simultaneously with “Sundance Selects” as they premiere at the festival itself. Approximately 40 million homes across the country will have access, including homes from some of the country’s largest cable systems, including Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, Time Warner and top satellite provider DirectTV.
 
“Moving the storytelling of the Sundance Film Festival beyond 10 days in Utah remains a top priority for us,” offers Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford. “This collaboration with ‘Sundance Selects’ is a new and important complement to this ongoing goal and is a perfect way to introduce unexpected and refreshing voices to wider audiences simultaneous with the even. I couldn’t be more pleased that these particular films will be available in this way.”
 
For more information about this and everything else regarding the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, visit http://festival.sundance.org/2010.