One of the most exciting things about starting each year with the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. Captivating stories, soon-to-be iconic shots, and timely cinematic conversations are all cornerstones of the 2023 Festival slate - and those are all birthed from the hearts and souls of these filmmakers. That means that this year we have the privilege of being introduced (or reintroduced for returning filmmakers) to the artists behind 111 features, 64 shorts, and four indie episodic projects.
And while we learn a lot from the art that these storytellers share with us, there's always more we can learn about these filmmakers as people. This year, we decided to get to the bottom of those artistic wells with our Backstory questionnaire!
I'm the clich story of the kid that has been making little movies since he was young, admits director Jake Van Wagoner. A lot of the people in my family are performers, and growing up I would reenact movies or plays with my siblings, and we would film it on my parents' VHS camcorders. As I got a little older, in high school, I started paying more attention to how movies were made. I've been a fan of those '80s and '90s films for forever, movies like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit and E.T. and The Goonies. Van Wagoner may be all grown up now, but he's still making films for families.
Van Wagoner's latest family-friendly project premiered at 2023 Sundance Film Festival and arguably had the most memorable title of the whole program: Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out. And though the film screened as part of the Festival's Kids section, Van Wagoner doesn't want grown-ups to miss out on the fun. This film is for everyone. It's meant to be enjoyed by all ages.
In the film, teenage Itsy (Emma Tremblay) is less than thrilled when her family moves to the tiny Utah town of Pebble Falls. A writing competition dangles a chance to return to the big city, so Itsy chooses the strangest subject she can think of for her expos : her classmate Calvin (Jacob Buster), who wears a homemade spacesuit to school and sincerely believes his parents were abducted by aliens 10 years prior.
Below, discover Van Wagoner's inspiration behind the story, one of the most memorable moments during filming, and why the director believes filmmaking is important.
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One of the most exciting things about starting each year with the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. Captivating stories, soon-to-be iconic shots, and timely cinematic conversations are all cornerstones of the 2023 Festival slate - and those are all birthed from the hearts and souls of these filmmakers. That means that this year we have the privilege of being introduced (or reintroduced for returning filmmakers) to the artists behind 111 features, 64 shorts, and four indie episodic projects.
