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The fear of losing one’s sight is perfectly captured in an inspiring docudrama about author and academic John Hull

Cinema’s paradoxical fascination with sightlessness has spawned movies as diverse as Terence Young’s 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark, Takeshi Kitano’s 2003 martial-arts actioner Zatôichi and Eskil Vogt’s prurient 2014 psychodrama Blind. Yet few films have portrayed the absence of vision with any degree of insight. Honourable exceptions include British film-maker Gary Tarn’s 2005 documentary Black Sun, an electrifying, expressionist portrait of painter and photographer Hugues de Montalembert, who found new ways of seeing after being blinded by a violent attack in 1978.

The film highlights the growing tactility of Hull's world, closing in on the sources of sound

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When theologian John Hull’s eyesight failed, faces crumbled and he felt trapped. His extraordinary diaries have been turned into a new film that takes you on his journey to a new state of consciousness

In 1983, at the age of 45 and after years of failing sight, theologian John Hull went completely blind. He was close to understanding, if not accepting, the fact three years later. The time in between was filled with a struggle: to recognise his condition and willingly enter what he later called “the state of deep blindness”. Until then he was stuck: “a sighted person who couldn’t see”.

Gradually, Hull’s visual memory fragmented. His impressions of his wife, his older children (his youngest were born after he lost his sight) and his own face crumbled. His dreams started to morph into sound. He forgot which way round a 3 went. He worked, slowly, on finding a...

Peter Middleton and James Spinney have made a miraculous doc based on the audio recordings made by theologian John Hull after he became completely blind

After theologian John Hull lost his sight in the early 1980s, he began to document his observations on blindness on hundreds of cassette tapes. An academic dedicated to deep thinking, he spent years recording vignettes in a melancholy Australian lilt. This does not sound like the stuff of era-defining documentary, but Peter Middleton and James Spinney have made a miraculous piece of work that combines lip-synced recreations of Hull’s verbal adventures with stagings of Hull’s vivid dreams of sightedness.

Over 85 minutes, we dip in and out of the life of a man trapped in visual darkness, but whose imagination is ravishingly bright. Hull’s immaculately recorded tapes feature cameo appearances from his wife Marilyn and five children, documenting his gradual acceptance of blindness, understood through the comfort and routine of home and family life.

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Projects range from a film about centenarians to documentaries about renowned hunger striker Bobby Sands, Winnie Mandela, Ratko Mladic and Madonna’s backing dancers.Scroll down for full list of projects

Idfa (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) has unveiled the 50 titles that will be presented at its international co-finance and production market, the Idfa Forum (Nov 24-26).

At the market, filmmakers and producers will present their documentary projects to commissioning editors from international television stations and other financiers with the aim of completing finance for their documentary projects.

A total of 50 projects have been selected for the upcoming Idfa Forum, including new projects by Heddy Honigmann, Janus Metz and Vitaly Mansky.

The Idfa 2014 programme contains 17 documentaries that were presented as projects at previous editions of the Idfa Forum.

Projects selected for this year’s Idfa Forum will be pitched in a variety of settings: the central pitches in the main auditorium of the Compagnietheater, the round table...

We are a couple of weeks away from the Sundance London film and music festival hitting the O2 arena in the capital. The full lineup of panels, music events and films was announced last week and we’ve decided to dive in and surface here with our picks of the festival.

As you’ll see we have chosen a number of films to keep an eye on, noted a couple of the panels and highlighted an event or two. You can find more information on all of these events right here at the Sundance London homepage or keep an eye here on HeyUGuys as we’ll be bringing you the best coverage of one of our favourite festivals.

Film – Frank

It’s hard to pass up the opportunity to see Michael Fassbender take on one of the oddest figures in the last thirty years of British popular culture. Papier Mâché...

YouTube’s importance at Sundance grows every year. This year, they held free workshops on how to maximize your use of YouTube. Here is the latest schedule of YouTube on Main Street events and press assets, please visit google site ytsundance2014 or Twitter at #YouTubeSundance.

YouTube offered film fans access to the 2014 Sundance Film Festival both on and offline through several initiatives including:

Youtube On Main Street (596 Main Street, Park City, Ut 84060)

Open January 16-25, 2014 at various times. Warm up at “YouTube on Main Street,” the place for the creative community to convene for must-see panels, happy hours, film receptions, screenings, talks and DJ sets. Free Wi-Fi and drinks are available to badge holders when programs are not in session.

Daily Events at YouTube on Main Street:

“Live @ Sundance” On The Sundance Film Festival Youtube Channel Live daily from January 17-24, 2014 at 11am Mst at www.youtube.com/sff. Whether you’re in Park City or Phuket, you can check out the best of the fest daily with “Live @ Sundance.” The one-hour talk show will air live daily at 11am Mst January 17-24, 2014 from “YouTube on Mainstreet” on the sff (Sundance Film Festival) YouTube channel. The show will feature guest hosts Shira Lazar,Casey Neistat andJimmy Conrad, filmmaker interviews, the latest news from the festival, exclusive sneak peeks and more.Yoga (Jan. 17-24; 7:30-9am Mst) - Breathe and ease into warrior pose at these daily yoga sessions. Cassey Ho, star of the popular blogilates channel on YouTube, will lead these classes on January 17-21 Free and open to the public.

Individual Events:

How and Why to Use YouTube Panel (Jan. 22; 2-3pm Mst) - Hear from independent filmmaker Casey Neistat about how he successfully uses YouTube to distribute his films and build an audience. Free and open to the public.YouTube on Main Street and Paste Afternoon Showcase (Jan. 22; 3- 6pm Mst) Paste Magazine’s Josh Jackson will introduce performances by Sleeping at Last, Matt Scannell of Vertical Horizon, Michael Tolcher, and Carina Round. Press RSVP recommended.YouTube Party (Jan. 22; 9pm-1am Mst) Includes Dj set by Mick By invitation onlyNext and Midnight Cocktails (Jan. 23; 9:30-11pm Mst) By invitation onlyThey Came Together Film Reception (Jan. 24; 6:30-8:30pm Mst) - A reception for the world premiere of the romantic comedy. Includes a live Google+ Hangout with talent from the film including Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd. By invitation only.Film Contact: Shelby Kimlick – skimlick@mprm.com

Youtube Presents The 2014 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Program As the presenting sponsor of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Program, YouTube will help showcase some of the official shorts in competition on the sff (Sundance Film Festival) YouTube channel. For a complete list of this year’s short films, please visit Sundance.org. Additionally, Sundance audiences will be exposed to some of the best content on YouTube with select videos from popular YouTube channels to run before short film screenings at the festival.

Youtube Audience Award

On Saturday, January 25, 2014, the YouTube Audience Award will be presented at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony to a short film in competition that garners the most amount of views on YouTube between January 16-24, 2014. Check out the films on the sff (Sundance Film Festival) YouTube channel or click here.

The Sundance Institute selected 15 films eligible for this award from this year’s competition that include:

Allergy to Originality

Directed by Drew Christie

4 min, U S A

Animation

A humorous animated 'Op-Doc' explores the rich history of adaptation, plagiarism, and other forms of appropriation in art.

The Big House

Directed by Musa Syeed

5 min, U S A/Yemen

fiction

When a young Yemeni boy ventures out of his cramped apartment and finds a key to the empty mansion down the street, he lets himself and his imagination run wild in the big house.

Burger

Directed by Magnus Mork

11 min, Norway/United Kingdom

fiction

It's late night in a burger bar.

Catherine

Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp

13 min, U S A

fiction

Catherine returns to work after a hiatus.

Chapel Perilous

Directed by Matthew Lessner

13 min, U S A

fiction

Levi Gold is paid an unexpected visit by Robin, a door-to-door salesman with nothing to sell. The ensuing encounter forces Levi to confront his true mystical calling, and the nature of reality itself. A metaphysical comedy trip-out with Sun Araw.

Crime The Animated Series (Marcus McGhee)

Directed by Alix Lambert and Sam Chou

4 min, U S A/Canada

Animated documentary

From Bank robbers to cops to victims to observers, Crime: The Animated Series explores how crime affects us all. The series is dark, compelling, heartbreaking, and yes - sometimes funny.

Cruising Electric (1980)

Brumby Boylston

1 min, U S A

fiction

The marketing department green-lights a red-light tie-in: 60 lost seconds of modern movie merchandising.

Dig

Directed by Toby Halbrooks

10 min, U S A

fiction

A young girl watches her father dig a hole in their backyard. Mystified about his purpose, the neighborhood comes to watch.

Funnel

Directed by Andre Hyland

7 min, U S A

fiction

A man's car breaks down and sends him on a quest across town that slowly turns into the most fantastically mundane adventure.

Gregory Go Boom

Directed by Janicza Bravo

17 min, U S A

fiction

A paraplegic man leaves home for the first time only to discover that life in the outside world is not the way he had imagined it.

MeTube: August Sings Carmen 'Habanera'

Directed by Daniel Moshel

4 min, Austria

fiction

George Bizet`s "Habanera" from Carmen has been reinterpreted and enhanced with electronic sounds for MeTube, a homage to thousands of ambitious YouTube users and video bloggers, and gifted and less gifted self-promoters on the Internet.

Notes on Blindness

Directed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney

13 min, United Kingdom

Documentary

In 1983, writer and theologian John Hull became blind. To help make sense of his loss, he began keeping an audio diary. Encompassing dreams, memories, and his imaginative life, Notes on Blindness immerses the viewer in Hull's experience of blindness.

Passer Passer

Directed by Louis Morton

4 min, U S A

Animation

An animated city symphony celebrates the hidden world of background noise.

Rat Pack Rat

Directed by Todd Rohal

19 min, U S A

fiction

A Sammy Davis, Jr. impersonator, hired to visit with a loyal Rat Pack fan, finds himself delivering last rights at the boy's bedside.

Tim and Susan Have Matching Handguns

Directed by Joe Callander

2 min, U S A

Documentary

Love is swapping clips with your spouse...

Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "Into Darkness" Tweetable Logline: A journey into the world of blindness Elevator Pitch: In the summer of 1983, just days before the birth of his fist son, writer and theologian John Hull went blind. In order to make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began keeping a diary on audiocassette. Over the next three years he kept this diary, excavating the interior world of blindness. The diaries were published in 1991 to wide critical acclaim. With exclusive access to these original recordings, "Into Darkness" is a cinematic documentary, encompassing dreams, memory and imaginative life, immersing the viewer in John’s experience of blindness. Production Team:Producers/Directors: Peter Middleton,...

Exclusive: Notes on Blindness, a short docudrama screening at Sundance in January, is being developed into a feature film.

Into Darkness will examine the true-life journey into blindness by academic John Hull, recorded in his autobiographical account Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness. The directors were given exclusive access to the audio tapes Hull recorded in the early 1980s as he struggled to deal with his condition, and these will form the narration and structure for the film along with archive footage, verbatim reconstructions and dramatic interpretation.

The film will be produced by Alex Usborne for 104 Films, which has credits including We Are The Freaks, and Jojo Ellison for Archer’s Mark, which recently completed production on its debut feature War Book starring Sophie Okonedo and Anthony Sher.

Pete Middleton and James Spinney will direct the feature from their own script, and Gerry Floyd will serve as director of photography.

With the full...

The odds of having your short film included in this year’s Sundance Film Festival are .008 percent. Out of the 66 short film line-up (selected among 8,161 submissions) we find actress Rose McGowan move behind the camera for her directing debut (Dawn), we have Ain’t Them Bodies Saints producer Toby Halbrooks shovel out Dig (see pic above) and Todd Rohal (The Guatemalan Handshake) returns to the fest in between features with Rat Pack Rat. Filmmaker Magazine New Faces of Independent Film director Dean Fleischer-Camp rolls up his shirt sleeves with Catherine, Matthew Lessner returns to Park City with the helping hand Chapel Perilous while The Strange Ones (’11 accepted short) co-helmer Christopher Radcliff won’t be making a dissappearing act with Jonathan’s Chest. Finally docu feature-film helmer Lucy Walker moves into The Lion’s Mouth Opens. I’ll of course be covering several of these – look out for our coverage.

Here...

Short films can go a long way. Especially when they’re showcased at the Sundance Film Festival. The festival’s Shorts program, which was announced today, has a tradition of identifying remarkable filmmakers as well as introducing stories that ultimately make it to the big-screen as features. For example, David O. Russell brought his first film, a short titled Bingo Inferno to Sundance in 1987, while Half Nelson, which earned Ryan Gosling his first Oscar nomination, grew out of Ryan Fleck’s 2004 Sundance short titled, Gowanus, Brooklyn. “If you look back at the directors who got their start by having a short at Sundance,...