Author: The JT Leroy Story, Life, Animated and Weiner all enjoyed their UK premieres as part of #SundanceLondon this past weekend.
First up on Friday night was the UK premiere of Sundance Directing Award winner Life, Animated. The film follows Owen Suskind, an autistic boy who couldn't speak for years until his parents realised they could communicate through the Disney Animated films he loved. Director Roger Ross Williams joined us onstage afterwards for a Q&A and invited special guest Cornelia Suskind on stage to the audience's delight. Life, Animated will be released in UK cinemas on 9 December and will also screen as part of Sheffield Doc/fest.
Saturday was a busy day with all three films screening, starting with the second sold out screening of Life, Animated. This was followed by the UK premiere of Weiner, the film took home the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Weiner follows US politician Anthony Weiner and his race for mayor of New York following his resignation from US Congress after a very public sexting scandal. It was one of the first films to sell out ahead of the festival and the audience was left raving about the film. There was an abundance of questions when directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg joined us after the screening. Weiner is released in the UK on July 8th and the film will also screen as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest.
We ended Saturday night with the UK premiere of Author: The JT LeRoy Story in Picturehouse Central's screen 1. Author takes us down the infinitely fascinating rabbit hole of one of the most explosive literary scandals of our time. Director Jeff Feuerzeig gave an enthusiastic Q&A explaining how he first heard of JT LeRoy and the making of the film. Author: The JT LeRoy Story is coming to UK cinemas 29th July and will screen at Sheffield Doc/Fest and Open City Docs.
Sunday was met with more sold out screening of Weiner and Author: The JT LeRoy Story. You can find more reactions and pictures from our weekend below: