Sundance Film and Music Festival London 2013

You no longer need to trek to the snowy slopes of Utah to sample independent cinema’s cutting-edge. For the second year running, Robert Redford is bringing the Sundance Film and Music Festival to London’s O2 Arena. Over four days from Thursday 25th to Sunday 28th April, the festival will showcase the international, European or UK premieres of dozens of feature films and short films.

Peaches Does Herself

(Image credit: LYNN LAUTERBACH)

Live music plays a big part, too, with a range of artists from provocative electroclash musician Peaches (Friday) to rock and blues veterans Greg Allman and John Paul White (Saturday) and indie rock band British Sea Power (Sunday) performing in the indigO2.  Peaches’ first film, the electro rock opera Peaches Does Herself, features in the festival line-up; White and Allman’s one-off performance follows a screening of the music documentary Muscle Shoals; while British Sea Power will perform their score to Penny Woolcock’s documentary about the British coast, From the Sea to the Land Beyond, alongside a screening of the film.

British Sea Power

Other highlights include the UK premiere of Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love, starring Steve Coogan as porn impresario Paul Raymond; Upstream Color, Shane Carruth's follow-up to his fiendishly clever, low-budget, sci-fi mindbender Primer; In A World… a comedy about a voiceover artist, written, directed by and starring Lake Bell; Blood Brother, the award-winning documentary about a tourist helping children with HIV on the streets of India; and History of the Eagles Part One, a documentary about the iconic rock band, whose screening will be followed by a Q&A with band members Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmit.

Upstream Color - Amy Seimetz & Shane Carruth

Sundance London runs from 25-28 April at the O2, London

Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.