Art, film and technology collide at Sundance Film Festival's New Frontier exhibition, where installations and multimedia performances from Doug Aitken, Chris Milk and emerging Paris-based artist Lauren Moffatt are subverting traditional storytelling. Exploring refuge and rebellion in our CCTV-saturated culture, Moffatt’s wry Not Eye is featured in its full stereoscopic glory at this year's showcase, and is presented today in 2D. “I like characters who are withdrawn but I am not interested in victimizing them,” says the filmmaker of the elderly French madame played by Daniele Hennebelle who stars in the quasi documentary, and whose homemade helmet is the last line of defense against the modern world’s all-conquering gaze. “The woman in the film talks very clearly about what she is afraid of, all the while staring straight into its face. That sort of courage and indignation drove the conception of the helmet and of the character wearing it.” NOWNESS spoke to Sundance curator and programmer Shari Frilot about the painter-turned-director’s installation at New Frontier, 3D filmmaking and other future-focused ideas. 

What are your thoughts on film as an installation piece?
Shari Frilot: The moving image as encountered in an installation gets the viewer’s body involved. This resonates strongly with how we engage with it in our networked and media saturated environment.

How do these new filmmakers twist their storytelling techniques?
SF: Cinema culture is no longer simply contained in black box movie theaters, it is woven into the fabric of our everyday. Veering from traditional storytelling, and all of the binding structures that come with it, creates a more capacious storytelling culture. 

With Sundance’s 30th anniversary, how have you seen Park City evolve over the years?
SF: I’ve seen indie film culture floss large with lots of swag and cash in the early noughties, and the bust of the economy and the indie industry in 2009. At the moment there is an incredibly exciting rebirth of the movie business happening, and with it a revitalization of the role indie filmmaking is playing in cinema.

New Frontier runs at the Sundance Film Festival from January 17 through 25.