Sundance Channel’s July programming which includes a special “Night of Independents” film marathon to celebrate the July 4th holiday. The lineup kicks off at 8pm with A Prairie Home Companion, the final film directed by quintessential American independent, Robert Altman which is followed by the Sundance Channel premiere of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, director Steven Shainberg’s (Secretary) creatively audacious, highly personal film about the visionary photographer Diane Arbus, played by Nicole Kidman, and then A Dirty Shame at 12:05am and Eraserhead at 1:30am. Each Monday at 10pm in July, Sundance Channel will present “Passport,” which features exciting and cutting edge world cinema with a weekly double feature of such foreign films as Caramel and A Lost Man. “Knock Knock,” Sundance Channel’s primetime comedy destination will continue on Friday nights at 9pm et/pt featuring an hour of made-for-television comedy followed by a feature film. Additionally, Sundance Channel will air all new episodes of the series “Man Shops Globe” on Wednesday nights at 10pm (premieres June 30th) and the eco-friendly primetime programming destination THE GREEN on Tuesday nights at 8pm with an original series, a documentary and interstitial elements each week.
PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS: JULY 2010
Tuesdays at 8:00pm
THE GREEN – Now in its fourth season, THE GREEN offers entertaining primetime source of information and inspiration about the planet we call home. Each Tuesday features original series, a documentary and interstitial elements. Presented by Robert Redford, THE GREEN airs at its new time on Tuesday nights at 8:00pm, with additional broadcasts on Sundays at 10:00am. See THE GREEN Highlights, below.
SERIES
Fridays at 9:00pm, May 21 – September 3
“Shameless” Season 6 (U.S. Television Premiere) – Sundance Channel premieres five new episodes of this BAFTA Award-winning British series about the anarchic Gallagher clan of Manchester’s working class Chatsworth Estates. Based on the childhood of creator Paul Abbott (“Cracker”), “Shameless” stars David Threlfall as ne’er-do-well paterfamilias, Frank Gallagher. New episodes of “Shameless” premiere as part of Sundance Channel’s Friday night comedy block, “Knock Knock,” at 9:00pm.
Wednesdays at 10:00pm, June 30 – August 18
“Man Shops Globe” Season 2 (Original Production/U.S. Television Premiere) – Sundance Channel kicks off a new eight-episode season of international treasure hunting with Keith Johnson, buyer-at-large for specialty retailer Anthropologie. Beginning June 30, new episodes of “Man Shops Globe” premiere every Wednesday night at 10:00pm, with additional airings on Saturdays at 8:30pm and Sundays at 1:00pm.
SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
Sunday, July 4 at 8:00pm
Night of Independents – Sundance Channel celebrates Independence Day with a night of films by four stalwarts of American independent cinema. The lineup includes the Sundance Channel premiere of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, director Steven Shainberg’s (Secretary) creatively audacious, highly personal film about the visionary photographer Diane Arbus. Nicole Kidman stars as “Diane Arbus” a 1950s housewife and photographer’s assistant who finds her true artistic calling when she befriends her mysterious new neighbor, played by Robert Downey, Jr.
The night’s programming kicks off with A Prairie Home Companion, the final film directed by quintessential American independent, Robert Altman. A gentle backstage comedy about the last performance of a 30-year-old radio variety program, it boasts a typically wondrous Altman ensemble that includes Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, as well as “A Prairie Home Companion” creator Garrison Keillor. Airing just after midnight is David Lynch’s unforgettable 1977 debut Eraserhead, a surreal tale of a young man and the premature creature he has sired. Closing out the event is A Dirty Shame, a rambunctious sex comedy from John Waters, America’s pioneer auteur of outrageous bad taste. Tracey Ullman stars as a prudish Baltimorean who joins a horny horde of sex addicts after a freak accident unleashes her libido.
The schedule for Sundance Channel’s Night of Independents is as follows:
8:00pm A Prairie Home Companion
10:00pm Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (Sundance Channel Premiere)
12:05am A Dirty Shame
1:30am Eraserhead
WEEKLY DESTINATIONS
Mondays at 10:00pm
“Passport” – Sundance Channel’s primetime destination gives viewers a passport to exciting and cutting edge world cinema with a weekly double feature of foreign films. July’s edition of “Passport” visits features pairings by country.
The July lineup for “Passport is as follows:
July 5: Caramel and A Lost Man (Lebanon)
July 12: Ghosts and Metroland (England)
July 19: Good Morning Heartache and The Tiger and the Snow (Italy)
July 26: Pusher and Pusher II (Denmark)
Fridays at 9:00pm
“Knock Knock” – Sundance Channel’s primetime destination is dedicated to the fine art of making people laugh. Now airing at 9:00pm, “Knock Knock” leads off with an hour of made-for-television comedy, followed by a feature film.
The July lineup for “Knock Knock” is as follows:
July 2
9:00pm: “Shameless” Season 6, Episode 7 (U.S. Television Premiere)
10:00pm: Visioneers
July 9
9:00pm: “Shameless” Season 6, Episode 8 (U.S. Television Premiere)
10:00pm: French Film
July 16
9:00pm: “Shameless” Season 6, Episode 9 (U.S. Television Premiere)
9:00pm: Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic
July 23
9:00pm: “Shameless” Season 6, Episode 10 (U.S. Television Premiere)
10:00pm: On the Road With Judas
July 30
9:00pm: “Shameless” Season 6, Episode 11 (U.S. Television Premiere)
10:00pm: A Prairie Home Companion
All Times Listed are Eastern/Pacific.
DOCDAY HIGHLIGHTS: JULY 2010
Monday, July 5
8:00pm
Of Time and the City (U.S. Television Premiere) – Directed by Terence Davies. Acclaimed writer/director Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives; House of Mirth) offers a love note to the city that shaped his life – his native Liverpool – in this stunning visual essay, named best non-fiction film of 2009 by the New York Film Critics Circle. In a voiceover narration that is by turns poetic, funny, elegiac and angry, Davies tells his own story of growing up in Liverpool in the post-war era, when his world was shaped by family, the Catholic Church, the movies and his inner torment over his sexuality. He seamlessly interweaves his personal tale with a larger portrait of Liverpool from 1945 to the present, using a fascinating trove of found footage and classical and popular music to evoke a city almost completely changed, yet, in some ways, gloriously the same.
Monday, July 12
8:00pm
Toots (U.S. Television Premiere) – Directed by Kristi Jacobson. Jacobson captures a vanished era of New York — and American — cultural life with this loving biography of her grandfather, famed restaurateur Toots Shor. Toots tells the story of how a Jewish boy from Philadelphia came to Prohibition-era New York City, where he found his professional calling in the city’s boisterous speakeasy culture. A towering man with strong fists and a larger-than-life personality, Toots had a gift for friendship, and the eponymous saloon he ran in mid-Century Manhattan was the home-away-from home for America’s most illustrious entertainers, athletes, gangsters, politicians and writers, among them Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, Joe DiMaggio, Ernest Hemingway, mob boss Frank Costello, and Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. Interspersed with archival materials are interviews with those who knew Toots well, including athletes Frank Gifford and Whitey Ford; journalists Walter Cronkite, Nicholas Pileggi and Mike Wallace; bandleader Peter Duchin; and Shor’s daughter, Kerry Jacobson.
Monday, July 19
8:00pm
Grizzly Man (Sundance Channel Premiere) – Directed by Werner Herzog. Master filmmaker Herzog delivers one of his most haunting works with this award-winning look at the life and death of amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell lived unarmed among the grizzlies of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Reserve for 13 summers, and filmed his adventures during his final five seasons there. In October 2003, the remains of Treadwell and his girlfriend were discovered; they had been mauled and devoured by one of the park’s bears. In Grizzly Man, Herzog plumbs not only the mystery of wild nature, but also the mystery of human nature as he uses Treadwell’s own startling documentary footage to paint a nuanced portrait of a complex and compelling figure.
Monday, July 26
The U.S. vs. John Lennon (Sundance Channel Premiere) – Directed by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld. This acclaimed documentary touches on timely issues of dissent and power as it reveals the true story behind the U.S. government’s efforts to deport former Beatle John Lennon in the early 1970s. Spanning the years 1966 to 1976, the film traces Lennon’s emergence as a uniquely compelling political activist whose outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War did not go unnoticed by the Nixon Administration. Featuring never before seen or heard audiovisual materials from the John Lennon/Yoko Ono archives, The U.S. vs. John Lennon also captures a public and private John Lennon that many viewers may not know: a funny, vital and principled young man who refused to be silenced or intimidated.
All Times Listed are Eastern/Pacific.
THE GREEN PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS: JULY 2010
Tuesday, July 6th
8:00pm
“The Lazy Environmentalist Surfer/Teenager” Season 2/Episode 4:– Host Josh Dorfman hunts down green solutions for a professional surfer to test out in a competition. Josh finds that greening a typical teenager is much tougher than he anticipated.
8:30pm
Burning the Future: Coal in America – Directed by David Novack. This timely documentary takes us to the Appalachian Mountains of southern West Virginia to explore the political, economic and environmental issues surrounding coal, the source of more than half of U.S. electricity. At particular issue is the controversial above-ground mining technique known as mountaintop removal, which is defended as safe by the coal industry but opposed by a growing number of residents who believe it is a threat to their land, their health and their unique way of life. Burning the Future offers a penetrating portrait of the hidden cost of coal as it follows the efforts of those trying to halt mountaintop removal, including an ecology professor and a working mother whose Appalachian roots stretch back to the 1700s.
Tuesday, July 13th
8:00pm
“The Lazy Environmentalist: Band/Mover” Season 2/Episode 5 – Host Josh Dorfman attempts to green the band Raining Jane by giving them eco-friendly instruments and merchandise to test out at an LA gig. Josh shows a moving company ways to green their business, and outfits them with all new eco-materials to use on a big job.
8:30pm
Blue Gold: World Water Wars – Directed by Sam Bozzo. Without water, there can be no life: that stark fact adds urgency to this documentary about decreasing fresh water reserves and the dangers of water privatization. Narrated by Malcolm McDowell, Blue Gold looks at the current state of the world’s aquifers and the impact of industrialization, deforestation, population growth and other human activities. Meanwhile, water is a profit-generating commodity for a handful of multinational corporations that have scooped in water rights in countries all over the world. As it details some of the early, deadly battles in today’s water wars, Blue Gold hears from environmental experts and activists about the looming water crisis and how to solve it. Based on the book “Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.”
Tuesday, July 20th
8:00pm
“The Lazy Environmentalist: Daycare/Jewelers” Season 2/Episode 6 – Taking on the case of a Tucson-based daycare, host Josh Dorfman is a bit out of his element as he searches for eco-friendly toys, art supplies and diapers. In San Francisco, Josh goes hunting for eco-friendly stones and materials for two San Francisco-based jewelry designers who are hosting an open house featuring their new green jewelry lines.
8:30pm
Manufactured Landscapes– Directed by Jennifer Baichwal. Photographers like Ansel Adams took as their subject the majesty of the natural world; contemporary photographer Edward Burtynsky also portrays the landscape that surrounds us – only his subjects are the mines, quarries and other man-made vistas that also constitute our “natural” world. Manufactured Landscapes chronicles and expands on Burtynsky’s latest project: documenting China’s epic transformation into an urbanized society. Juxtaposed with the final photos is footage of Burtynsky at work at numerous sites, including a Chinese factory the size of small city; a sprawling recycling dump; and the Three Gorges dam, a gargantuan construction that will ultimately require 15 years to build.
Tuesday, July 27th
8:00pm
“The Lazy Environmentalist: Athlete/Funeral Director” Season 2/Episode 7 – Host Josh Dorfman gets kicked around, literally, when he helps a professional martial arts athlete try out green training solutions. In San Francisco, Josh unearths green caskets, urns and embalming techniques for a Lazy Funeral Director.
8:30pm
How to Cook Your Life – Directed by Dorris Dörrie. Award-winning German filmmaker Dörrie (Men) turns her attention to Buddhism and that age-old saying that you are what you eat. Dörrie enlists the help of the charismatic Zen Master Edward Espe Brown to explain the guiding principles of Zen Buddhism as they apply to the preparation of food as well as life itself. “How to Cook Your Life” encourages us to be attentive in our everyday dealings with the most mundane things and also open our eyes to one of the most beautiful occupations: cooking.
Sundance Channel’s website address is www.sundancechannel.com.