By While signs of progress with diversity can feel slow to emerge from Hollywood, the programme at Sundance London this weekend is filled with stories told by a refreshingly broad mix of perspectives.
Now in its fifth year, and the second it has pledged a 50/50 divide between male and female filmmakers, the UK outpost of the Utah festival proves the benefits of showcasing work from a wide spectrum of voices.
Set to be a surefire hit is Lulu Wang's The Farewell, a dark comedy about the farcical side of grief and loss and the obligations that come with family. Alone and living in New York, Billi returns to China to say goodbye to her dying grandmother who has been told the reunion is for a wedding. Awkwafina is excellent as Billi in a performance that suggests her comedy roles have wasted her talents. As well as the sniping between family members ("You're not that skinny!") and clashes between those who have left the East for the West, there are shots of neon-lit markets and sizzling fried buns which transport you to the streets of China.
Similarly stirring is Shola Amoo's The Last Tree, the story of a boy who grows up in care in rural Lincolnshire before being taken to an estate in London to live with his prickly mother. It's a film that may well draw comparisons with Barry Jenkins' Oscar-winning Moonlight for its tender portrayal of a young black boy who we watch grow up, quietly reproachful of the paths his life is forced down. Amoo skilfully captures the anxiety currently pervading a divided England without hammering the point too hard.
It's a more overtly fractured America that we see in The Brink, a terrifying documentary about former Trump advisor and Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon. Alison Klayman's film finds Bannon in the wake of being fired from the White House and follows him as he tries to unite global populist movements in the run up to the 2018 midterm elections.
Instead of pandering to the cartoon villain Bannon has sometimes been painted as, Klayman shows how frighteningly charismatic he can be, shutting down hecklers with jokes that it's his ex-wife in the crowd and calmly dismissing difficult questions. Fear not, he's no less grotesque that you'd imagine - "My shit in Auschwitz rocked" he laughs as he necks cans of Red Bull - and there's some very enjoyable scenes where he asks Raheem Kassam if he needs his nappy changed.
Todd Douglas Miller's Apollo 11 retreads the much-chronicled story of the moon landing in his documentary which, unlike many film retellings, is light on dramatic flourishes. Instead it focuses on the precision and mundane details of the mission, and as a result the landing of a 6.5 million pound object on the moon seems even more like lunacy. There's also brilliant flavour of the public excitement surrounding the event, like a woman combing her hair while sat on a car bonnet and waiting to see the spacecraft enter the sky.
A refreshing take on the growing genre of female empowerment films came in the form of Sophie Hyde's Animals, adapted from Emma Unsworth's novel of the same name. In it Tyler (Alia Shawkat) and Laura (Holliday Grainger) are two friends snorting and sleeping their way through Dublin in their thirties, until one of them falls in love. It posits friendship as a love story as powerful as romantic relationships, and is a judgement-free exploration of women's choices that may just fill the Fleabag-shaped hole in your life.
The festival's most A-list and light-hearted contribution is Late Night starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling and directed by Transparent and Brooklyn Nine-Nine director Nisha Ganatra. In it Thompson plays Katharine Newbury, a long-reigning talk show host who in a desperate bid to save her flailing ratings, does the unthinkable in television comedy and hires a female writer. Some good one-liners from Kaling ("I've seen the other writers - I'm not worried about masculinity") and food for thought about the current culture wars of low vs highbrow content make it a thoughtful comedy worth seeing.
Perhaps the most extraordinary story was that of Ruth Westheimer, who in Ryan White's documentary Ask Dr Ruth retells the story of how she escaped Nazi Germany as a child and went on to become the world's most famous sex therapist. Her tenacity in the face of witnessing human horrors is incredibly moving, as is hearing from the countless people who she has saved from the shame of sexual stigma.
Throughout we see the ninety year old woman pin-balling around with brilliant humour, instructing an embarrassed radio interviewer that he must say the word sex "with warmth and arousal" while on-air.
Sundance London film festival runs from 30 May - 2 June
