An intensely personal yet epic spiritual journey, The Horse Boy follows one Texas couple and their autistic son as they trek on horseback through Outer Mongolia in a desperate attempt to treat his condition with shamanic healing. When 2-year-old Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife, Kristin Neff, a psychology professor, sought the best possible medical care for their son — but traditional therapies had little effect. Then they discovered that Rowan has a profound affinity for animals — particularly horses — and the family set off on a quest for a possible cure.

The Horse Boy is part travel adventure, part insight into shamanic tradition and part intimate look at the autistic mind. In telling one family’s extraordinary story, the film gives voice to the thousands who display amazing courage and creativity every day in the battle against the mysterious and heartbreaking epidemic. The film companion to Isaacson’s best-selling book of the same name and a festival favorite, the ravishing documentary odyssey gives insight into how, in life’s darkest moments, a gateway to joy and wonder can be found. http://www.horseboymovie.com/

The Horse Boy premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival where it was an Official Selection and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for documentary filmmaking. Since then, the film has played at numerous film festivals including Silverdocs and won the Audience Award at South by Southwest Festival. It was released Sept. 30 in theaters across the country by Zeitgeist Films. The book, “The Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son” was written by Rupert Isaacson and published in spring 2009. It is now an international bestseller.

Big-budget Hollywood event films have lost their luster (see: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), and the most well-written, subversive, innovative independent films only appear at a select few of the world’s film festivals, likely to never enjoy wide distribution.  How are we ever supposed to wade through it all to find the diamonds in the rough?  Not everyone can just hop on a plane to catch Sundance, Cannes, Telluride, Austin or Toronto.  Luckily, prominent producer/director Rick Stevenson and his team of industry professionals are up to the task of doing the dirty work for us.

The Official Best of Fest is a cutting edge organization that employs an army of curators who attend the world’s top film festivals on the lookout for the best of the best undistributed shorts and features.  These films are compiled into DVD box sets according to genre and offered for sale to the general public.

Among the curators are Geralyn Dreyfous, the Founder/Executive Director of the Salt Lake City Film Center; Ted Hope, famed indie film producer; Paula Silver, a member of the Foreign Selection committee for the Academy Awards; Nicole Guillemet, former co-director of the Sundance Film Festival, and many more industry veterans with equally impressive pedigrees.

So what does this mean for the future of independent film?  Potentially, it could mean a radical shift in how the public consumes film.  Until now, the model for most independent filmmakers was to either lure investors (very difficult) or go all-in themselves and max out their credit cards to finance their film.  If the movie actually manages to get made without studio backing, the filmmakers then pray that it gets accepted into Sundance, and maybe, just maybe if the film fits into the schedule and target demographic of a particular boutique banner like Focus Features or Fox Searchlight and is a hit with audiences, it’s got a slim chance to be picked up and distributed.  And even then, it may never be released beyond New York and Los Angeles, likely to enjoy only a very limited run in theaters.

The chances of a low-budget indie film getting a wide theatrical release?  Virtually zero.  Hollywood’s monopoly on the film industry has had the same effect on product quality as all monopolies do in any industry.  When an oligarchy of powerful companies controls everything, quality inevitably suffers.  But the folks at The Official Best of Fest may very well have found a way to circumvent the profit-driven gatekeepers of the lumbering studio system.  What does that mean to the casual movie fan?  Fresh ideas.  New concepts.  Original scripts.  Better movies.  And the more inclined the public is to see film as a premier source of art and entertainment, the more demand there will be for good product, thus increasing the likelihood that the best films, big or small, will be seen by as many people as possible.

So how do you get involved in the revolution?  The Official Best of Fest has compiled a number of DVD gift sets categorized by monikers like “Award-Winning Films that Inspire,” “Award-Winning Indie Chick Flicks,” “Award-Winning Short Films for Kids” and even sets for families, dog-lovers, romance, comedy and many more.  Or if you just want a taste of it all they offer, “The Official Best of Fest Sampler,” which comes loaded with everything from charming, well-written shorts about false teeth and full-disclosure dating, to hard-hitting, feature-length dramas (“Mother of Mine,” “Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont”) that will have you in tears.  Do yourself a favor and check out the official website:

Official Best of Fest

After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, pop culture has returned to Afghanistan. Millions are watching AFGHAN STAR – a Pop Idol-style TV series in which people from across the country compete for a cash prize and record deal. 2000 people audition, including three brave women. The viewers vote for their favorite singers by mobile phone and for many this is their first encounter with democracy. This timely and inspired film follows the moving stories of four young contestants looking for a new life. But their journeys take a terrifying turn as one young woman dances on stage, threatening her own safety and the future of the show itself. In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing.

“AFGHAN STAR” is the feature directorial debut of British director, Havana Marking, and is a joint production of Afghanistan and the U.K. The film is currently being shown at numerous theatres and festivals the world over and was the winner of the Best World Cinema Documentary Director Award and the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, where it held its American premiere in 2009. It continues to be one of the best reviewed films of the past year, still retaining a rare 100% on the “Tomatometer”, a compilation of the published film reviews of more than 200 top film critics at Rotten Tomatoes , resulting in a Golden Tomato Award. Most recently, it was named as Britain’s submission to the 2010 Academy Awards competition for Best Foreign Language Film of 09.

Tallgrass Film Festival’s acclaimed Third Thursday Screening Series returns in February.

The Sundance Institute’s official statement: “On Thursday, January 28, the Sundance Film Festival will dispatch eight filmmakers with their films from Park City to eight cities across the country to screen and discuss direct-from-Festival films with audiences. Tickets will be available through each theatre’s individual box office. All films will be selected from the official Sundance Film Festival program to be announced in December.”

The participating cities and theaters:

* Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
* Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA
* BAM, Brooklyn, NY
* Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL
* Downtown Independent, Los Angeles, CA
* The Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN
* Sundance Cinemas Madison, Madison, WI
* Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, San Francisco, CA

Since then, there has been speculation that Spike Lee, noted director of the films Inside Man, Malcolm X, and Crooklyn, among others would be taking the reigns of the project.

Lee seemed anxious to dispel the rumors when asked about them by an MTV correspondent at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

In his words:
“Not doing it…Everybody and their mama is doing a documentary on Obama.”

Watch the video: