Change in local Sundance Film Festival plans - now coming to a drive-in near you!

Last week, I wrote about how the Sundance Film Festival is going virtual this year in the wake of the pandemic, and how it is hosting satellite screenings across the country, including in Wichita.

Well, while local screenings will still happen in Wichita, plans have changed in the ever-changing landscape during a pandemic. Originally, local screenings of some Sundance official selections were going to be hosted at the Mama.film Microcinema in The Lux, Groover Labs and the Wichita Art Museum.

But now, that has all been shuttered to be more cautious, and those screenings have moved to the Starlite Drive-in at 3900 S. Hydraulic from Jan. 28-Feb. 2.

“We’re so thankful that Wichita has a real drive-in,” says Lela Meadow-Conner, director of Mama.film, who is coordinating the satellite Sundance screenings. “Many other cities had to cancel their screenings totally. Of course it’s January, but it is Wichita, and I think people here are always up for an adventure. It might almost be like experiencing Sundance in its natural habitat of Park City. The plan is to show the films rain or shine.

“We’re also thankful that the Starlite can accommodate so many attendees, which allowed us to open up this experience of world premiere films to lots more of Wichita and the surrounding areas, at a really affordable price -- which is very important to us.”

All-access tickets are available now for $140 at https://www.goelevent.com/mamafilm/e/SundanceStarliteAllAccess. (It’s $100 for 2021 mama.film members.) This includes access to all films for all days for your entire carload.

General admission tickets are $28 per carload per day ($20 for 2021 mama.film members) and go on sale Friday, Jan. 17.

Here is the new schedule for Sundance films at the Starlite Drive-in (Find more info at https://mama.film/sundance/)

Thursday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m.

“Coda” (Director: Sian Heder) — A hearing child in a deaf family finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her family’s reliance on her to be their connection to the outside world (U.S. Dramatic Competition category).

Friday, Jan. 29, 7 p.m.

“I Was A Simple Man” (Dir. Christopher Makoto Yogi) — A family in Hawaii faces the imminent death of their eldest as the ghosts of the past haunt the countryside. (U.S. Dramatic Competition)

Saturday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m.

“Mass” (Dir. Fran Kranz) — The aftermath of a violent tragedy affects the lives of two couples in different ways. (World premiere)

“Sabaya” (Dir. Hogir Hirori) — Follows a group or people into Syria’s Al-Hol, a dangerous camp in the Middle East, as they risk their lives to save women being held by ISIS as abducted sex slaves. (World Cinema Documentary Competition)

Sunday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m.

“Misha and the Wolves” (Dir. Sam Hobkinson) — A woman’s Holocaust memoir takes the world by storm, but a fallout with her publisher-turned-detective reveals her as an audacious deception created to hide a darker truth. (World Cinema Documentary Competition)

“Mayday” (Dir. Karen Cinorre) — A young woman is transported to a dreamlike and dangerous land where she joins an army of girls engaged in a never-ending war along a rugged coast. Though she finds strength in this exhilarating world, she comes to realize that she’s not the killer they want her to be. (U.S. dramatic competition)

Monday, Feb. 1, 5:45 p.m.

“Fire in the Mountains” (Dir. Ajitpal Singh) — A husband and wife in a Himalayan village clash over how to care for their special-needs son. (World cinema dramatic competition)

“Life in A Day 2020” (Dir. Kevin Macdonald) — Ten years after the 2011 Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Life in a Day,” director Kevin Macdonald returns to present the story of another day on Earth: July 25, 2020. Following the concept of the original, this is an ambitious crowdsourced documentary compiled from 15,000 hours of footage submitted from 192 countries.

“Judas and the Black Messiah” (Dir. Shaka King) — The story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”), chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield). (World premiere)

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 6 p.m.

“At the Ready” (Dir. Maisie Crowe) — A group of seniors train to become police officers and border patrol agents at El Paso’s Horizon High School, near the U.S./Mexico border. (U.S. documentary competition)

“Ailey” (Dir. Jamila Wignot) — An immersive portrait of dance pioneer Alvin Ailey, told through his own words and a new dance inspired by his life. (U.S. documentary competition)

For more information on the Sundance Film Festival go to https://www.sundance.org/festivals/sundance-film-festival/.