Sundance 2023 Preview: Judy Blume, the Indigo Girls, and Bethann Hardison Make Their Mark on Park City

The first major fest of 2023 is nearly upon us. With over 100 films representing 23 countries, the 25th edition of Sundance Film Festival features plenty of promising titles from emerging voices as well as hotly anticipated, star-studded offerings. We’re highlighting some of the films we are most looking forward to seeing. This list is by no means exhaustive. Other titles on our radar include Nicole Holofcener’s latest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus-starrer “You Hurt My Feelings,” Susanna Fogel’s “Cat Person,” based on Kristen Roupenian’s viral New Yorker story about a college student’s relationship with an older man, and Celine Song’s feature directorial debut, “Past Lives,” a romance led by “Russian Doll’s” Greta Lee.

Sundance runs from January 19-29 this year. We’re rolling out interviews with directors throughout the fest.

Here are some of our most anticipated films of Sundance 2023. Synopses are courtesy of the festival.

“Invisible Beauty” (Documentary) – Directed by Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng

What it’s about: Fashion revolutionary Bethann Hardison looks back on her journey as a pioneering Black model, modeling agent, and activist, shining a light on an untold chapter in the fight for racial diversity.

Why we’re excited: The fashion industry is hardly known for being inclusive, but Bethann Hardison has spent decades doing her damndest to transform the biz from within. Long before diversity in the world of entertainment became a hot topic, the trailblazing model was speaking out and getting to work on making a change. She formed the Bethann Management Agency, dedicated to “challenging prevailing notions of beauty,” back in 1984. In 1988, she and fellow model Iman co-founded the Black Girls Coalition, launched to celebrate Black models and connect them with ways to give back to the community.

“Invisible Beauty” isn’t just a doc about Hardison — it’s a work of art by her. In addition to serving as the film’s subject, she co-directed it. After making a name for herself in front of the camera, she’s stepping behind it. We’re looking forward to learning more about this pioneer through her own lens.

“It’s Only Life After All” (Documentary) – Directed by Alexandria Bombach

What it’s about: Blending 40 years of home movies, film archives, and intimate present-day vérité, a poignant reflection from Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of iconic folk rock duo Indigo Girls. A timely look into the obstacles, activism, and life lessons of two queer friends who never expected to make it big.

Why we’re excited: We welcome any excuse to listen to the Indigo Girls. Just reading about “It’s Only Life After All” inspired us to cue up “Galileo” and “Closer to You.” Besides offering the opportunity to revisit some of the band’s biggest hits, Alexandra Bombach’s doc will also offer a fascinating look at friends and collaborators who have known each other since childhood: Amy Ray and Emily Saliers first met all the way back in elementary school. Besides creating decades of beloved music together, the pair are also noted for their activism, which has seen them fighting against racism and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and environmental causes.

We are also big fans of Bombach’s last doc, 2018’s “On Her Shoulders,” the story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, who survived genocide and sexual slavery after being kidnapped by ISIS. She was later appointed as the first-ever Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

“Judy Blume Forever” (Documentary) – Directed by Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok

What it’s about: The radical honesty of the books by young adult fiction pioneer Judy Blume changed the way millions of readers understood themselves, their sexuality, and what it meant to grow up, but also led to critical battles against book banning and censorship.

Why we’re excited: Judy Blume rocked our worlds in elementary school, and we’re far from alone in this: it’s no exaggeration to say that she shaped generations of young readers. With a slew of adaptations in development, including a film from Kelly Fremon Craig based on “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” and a Netflix series from “Girlfriends” creator Mara Brock Akil that’s inspired by “Forever,” now seems like a perfect time to reflect on how the author was able to write stories about sexuality, puberty, and relationships that resonated with so many adolescents — and to analyze the intense backlash these frank depictions inspired.

“Plan C” (Documentary) – Directed by Tracy Droz Tragos

What it’s about: A hidden grassroots organization doggedly fights to expand access to abortion pills across the United States keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Why we’re excited: Tracy Droz Tragos previously directed 2016’s “Abortion: Stories Women Tell,” a doc that sees women sharing their own accounts of what their experiences with abortion were like. Now she’s tackling the subject from another angle. With “Plan C,” she will shine a light on Francine Coeytaux, who has spent “decades working in public health and focusing on new reproductive technologies, including the development of emergency contraception,” per Sundance. Coeytaux and her team launched Plan C to expand access to medication abortion. The film follows their efforts to “look for ways to distribute abortion pills while following the letter of the law. Unmarked vans serving as mobile clinics distribute medication to those who cannot get help in their own states.” As utterly horrifying as it is that we are living in 2023 and folks don’t have the right to choose, orgs like Plan C help give us hope — and their call to action couldn’t be more urgent.

“Shayda” – Written and Directed by Noora Niasari

What it’s about: Shayda, a brave Iranian mother, finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter. Over Persian New Year, they take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings, but when her estranged husband re-enters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardized.

Why we’re excited: Zar Amir Ebrahimi took home Cannes’ best actress award for “Holy Spider,” and “Shayda” sounds like it will offer her another opportunity to show off her chops. Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari drew from personal experiences for this portrait of a  woman doing all she can to create a new, safer, and more stable life for herself and her daughter. This perspective will add depth and richness to an important story that we haven’t seen told on-screen before.

“The Disappearance of Shere Hite” (Documentary) – Directed by Nicole Newnham

What it’s about: Shere Hite’s 1976 bestselling book, The Hite Report, liberated the female orgasm by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Her findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. So how did Shere Hite disappear?

Why we’re excited: It’s been nearly 40 years since “The Hite Report” — dubbed “The Hate Report” by Playboy — was published, and a significant percentage of women still cannot definitively identify whether or not they’ve orgasmed. In news that is not surprising to anyone, the orgasm gap persists. Still, the impact of “The Hite Report” cannot be overstated. Shere Hite’s first book sold a whopping 50 million copies, inspiring plenty of backlash along the way. We’re interested to see just how much of Hite’s groundbreaking work remains relevant all these years later, and how discourse around sex and sexuality has evolved — and devolved — since. The doc marks Nicole Newnham’s follow up to “Crip Camp,” an Oscar-nominated look inside a summer camp for teenagers with disabilities and the social movements it helped inspire, one of our favorite titles of 2020.

“Victim/Suspect” (Documentary) – Directed by Nancy Schwartzman

What it’s about: Investigative journalist Rae de Leon travels nationwide to uncover and examine a shocking pattern: Young women tell the police they’ve been sexually assaulted, but instead of finding justice, they’re charged with the crime of making a false report, arrested, and even imprisoned by the system they believed would protect them.

Why we’re excited: We were impressed with — and enraged by — “Unbelievable,” the 2019 Netflix miniseries inspired by the true story of a teen who was charged with lying about having been raped. “Victim/Suspect” sounds as though it will cover similar ground, exploring how young women who have survived sexual abuse have been further victimized by the legal system — as if the trauma of dealing with their initial attack wasn’t nightmarish enough. The doc hails from Nancy Schwartzman, whose investigation into the Steubenville High School rape case, 2018’s “Roll Red Roll,” demonstrated a deft touch with handling this kind of sensitive subject matter.