BYOD showcases four more stunning documentaries from Sundance 2013. With in-depth interviews with the filmmakers and film footage that gives us a look into the films we will look for in the coming months.

THE CRASH REEL, Dir: Lucy Walker
This eye-popping, yet intimate, story of U.S. champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce uses years of vérité footage to expose the excitement and appeal, as well as the high stakes, of participating in extreme-action sports. As an elite athlete, Kevin was a professional risk taker, but after a brain-injury, his skills were now impaired, and even a small blow to the head could kill him.

The Crash Reel is director/producer Lucy Walker’s fifth film at the Sundance Film Festival. Devil’s Playground screened in 2002, Waste Land won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award in 2010 and was nominated for an Academy Award, Countdown to Zero also screened in 2010, and her short The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom earned a Jury Prize last year and was nominated for an Academy Award.

TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM, Dir: Morgan Neville

The exhilarating ode to back-up singers, Twenty Feet from Stardom, juxtaposes interviews with industry legends (Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, and others) and the relative unknowns who support them like Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill as they illuminate the art of melding their own distinct voices with lead vocals and reveal their desires for careers as solo artists. Filmmaker Morgan Neville’s unprecedented look at the moving personal journeys of these normally uncelebrated artists pays tribute to their indelible role in popular music.

Morgan Neville is an award-winning documentary filmmaker specializing in music. He has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for his films Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, Muddy Waters Can’t Be Satisfied, and Johnny Cash’s America. Over the past 18 years, Neville has created films about many of the musicians who have helped shape twentieth-century music. Recent productions include Pearl Jam Twenty (2011); Troubadours, which screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival; Beauty Is Embarrassing (2012); and Crossfire Hurricane (2012)

PANDORA’S PROMISE, Dir: Robert Stone

The atomic bomb, the specter of a global nuclear holocaust, and disasters like Fukushima have made nuclear energy synonymous with the darkest nightmares of the modern world. But what if everyone has nuclear power wrong? What if nuclear power is the only energy source that has the ability to stop climate change?

Robert Stone is an internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker. Born in Britain and raised in the United States, he first rose to prominence in 1988 with his antinuclear documentary, Radio Bikini, which premiered at Sundance and earned an Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature. Since then he has created such multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed feature documentaries as Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, which screened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Oswald’s Ghost (2006), and his environmental epic, Earth Days, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as the closing night film.

DIRTY WARS, Dir: Richard Rowley
(winner: excellence in cinematography - US Documentary)
Prior to 9/11, it was customary for America to sound a formal declaration of war on a given country before attacking. Today drone strikes, night raids, and U.S. government–condoned torture occur in hidden corners across the globe, generating unprecedented civilian casualties. No target is off-limits for the JSOC “kill list,” even if the person is a U.S. citizen.

Director Richard Rowley takes us on a chilling ride with fearless whistle-blower Scahill.Dirty Wars is a battle cry for the soul and conscience of an America few of us know exists.
Big Noise Films co-founder Richard Rowley has made multiple award-winning documentary features, including The Fourth World War and This Is What Democracy Looks Like.