written by Addie Morfoot, Variety
The Sundance Film Festival has added two documentaries from directors Andrew Jarecki‘s and Bao Nguyen to its 2025 documentary lineup.
Jarecki’s docu, titled “The Alabama Solution,” is about, per the film’s press release, “incarcerated men who defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.”
“The Alabama Solution” is the fourth project that Jarecki has debuted at Sundance. Twenty-two years ago, in 2003, the director’s inaugural film, “Capturing the Friedmans,” had its world premiere in Park City. An investigatory docu that cast light and doubt on a family of alleged child molesters, “Capturing the Friedmans” was a critical hit that went on to garner an Oscar nomination. In 2004, Jarecki’s short film “Just a Clown” premiered at Sundance. That was followed by the 2015 debut of the director’s “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” The HBO bombshell six-part docuseries, which uncovered evidence of the late real estate tycoon’s connection to various murders, went on to win two Primetime Emmys. Last year, Jarecki’s “The Jinx: Part Two” debuted on Max. “The Alabama Solution” will be released by HBO later this year.
“Because of the care Sundance takes in creating the most receptive environment for new and challenging documentaries, every time we’ve shown a film there it’s been a profound experience,” says Jarecki. “This time, after six years of investigative work, we will be introducing an urgent story about a system that has been hidden from public view. The unique alchemy of being able to share a film like this with so many attentive minds in the same room is what makes Sundance the ideal place to begin the important dialogue around this story in advance of its release on HBO later this year.”
Last month, Jarecki’s brother, filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, voluntarily withdrew his latest doc, “The Six Billion Dollar Man,” from the Sundance 2025 lineup. About WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the film was supposed to have its world premiere in Utah, but Eugene Jarecki said that due to “significant recent and unexpected developments (that) have emerged at the heart of the story,” he was pulling the doc.
A Sundance representative said that “The Alabama Solution” and “The Stringer” did not replace “The Six Billion Dollar Man.”
Nguyen’s “The Stringer” follows a two-year investigation that uncovered a scandal behind the making of one of the most-recognized photographs of the 20th century. In the film, five decades of secrets are unraveled in the search for justice for a man known only as “the stringer.” “The Stringer” is an acquistion title.
Both “The Alabama Solution” and “The Stringer” will make their world premiers in the Premieres category at Sundance.
“Adding these two nonfiction features to our robust slate of documentary offerings at the festival, both told by filmmakers who have been a part of our Sundance community for many years, completes our programming with compelling explorations around justice and truth-telling,” says Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming.
With the two additions to the 2025 slate, 88 feature-length films from 33 countries will play at the fest, which launches on Jan. 23.
Featuring cinematography from Nick Kraus
