Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
The Sundance
Film Festival
unveils its lineup
Next year’s Sundance Film Festival will feature Jennifer Lopez singing and dancing in Bill Condon’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Questlove exploring the legacy of Sly & The Family Stone and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s latest documentary about the war in Ukraine.
The Sundance Institute on Wednesday unveiled 87 feature films set to premiere at the 2025 festival, kicking off on Jan. 23 in Park City, Utah.
Now in its 41st year, the festival remains a place of discovery for independent cinema and emerging voices. Because of its January timing, it’s also a gathering that arrives alongside the presidential inauguration. At the 2017 festival following Donald Trump’s first inauguration, Main Street was taken over by a lively women’s march full of celebrities. This year, no such plans have been announced.
“Sundance as a festival has endured as a place to gather through inaugurations every four years, through different cultural moments and political moments,” said festival director Eugene Hernandez. “We have a program that both engages with the world and also offers at the very same time an escape.”
Narrative films and documentaries premiering this year will touch on politicized topics like transgender stories and rights, “stand your ground” laws, incarceration, the right to die and book banning. But Sundance doesn’t program by theme or have mandates about topics, said Kim Yutani, the festival’s director of programming.
“I think what you see across the program are stories that are told with real authenticity. There’s an innovative quality to many of these films,” Yutani said. “And the idea of free expression is something that is just as important to us.”
Louisiana rapper NBA Youngboy gets nearly two years in jail
LOGAN, Utah | A federal judge in Utah sentenced Louisiana rap artist NBA Youngboy to just under two years in prison on gun-related charges after he acknowledged having possessed weapons despite being a convicted felon.
The rapper, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, reached an agreement that resolved Utah state charges against him and settled two sets of federal charges against him — one carries a 23-month sentence and the other orders five years of probation and a $200,000 fine.
Gaulden, 25, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reached the agreement with federal prosecutors in September, and he and the attorneys signed the deal Tuesday, court documents show.
The rapper acknowledged that, while filming a rap video in Baton Rouge, he possessed a Glock 21 .45-caliber pistol and a Masterpiece Arms MPA30T 9mm handgun. Also, he said, in April he possessed a Sig Sauer 9mm semi-automatic pistol at his home in Huntsville, Utah. He agreed to give up the guns.
Gaulden had previously been convicted in Louisiana of aggravated assault with a firearm, according to his statement released in advance of the plea agreement.
Utah agents raided Gaulden’s home in April amid a complaint that he had posed as a doctor in an effort to obtain prescription painkillers, multiple news outlets reported. As part of the federal plea deal, he would plead guilty to 10 state charges and be sentenced to time served plus a $25,000 fine.
Gaulden apologized to the court and his family before federal Judge Howard Nielson handed down the sentence, KSL.com reported.
“I let my situation get the best of me,” Gaulden said. He added, “I take full responsibility.”
Nielson said he hopes Gaulden will get to a place where he can make decisions that are “totally unfettered” by substances, noting that he would have to “walk the straight and narrow” by completing court-ordered substance abuse treatment and mental health evaluations.
“This has been a long road that involved extensive litigation and ultimately extensive negotiation,” Atlanta attorney Drew Findling said in a statement Wednesday. “Kentrell’s defense team is very happy for Kentrell and we look forward to his many future successes.”
Goodell: Rape allegation against Jay-Z won’t impact NFL’s relationship
IRVING, Texas | A rape allegation against rapper Jay-Z, whose company Roc Nation has produced some of the NFL’s entertainment presentations including the Super Bowl halftime show, won’t impact the league’s relationship with the music mogul.
“We’re aware of the civil allegations and Jay-Z’s really strong response to that,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday after the conclusion of the league’s winter meetings. “We know the litigation is happening now. From our standpoint, our relationship is not changing with them, including our preparations for the next Super Bowl.”
A woman who previously sued Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging she was raped at an awards show after-party in 2000 when she was 13 years old, amended the lawsuit Sunday to include a new allegation that Jay-Z was also at the party and participated in the sexual assault.
Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, said the rape allegation made against him is part of an extortion attempt. The 24-time Grammy Award winner called the allegations “idiotic” and “heinous in nature” in a statement released by Roc Nation, one of his companies.
The NFL teamed up with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019 for events and social activism. The league and the entertainment company extended their partnership a few months ago.
Kendrick Lamar will perform the Super Bowl halftime show at The Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 9. Roc Nation and Emmy-winning producer Jesse Collins will serve as co-executive producers of the halftime show.
Beyonce, who is married to Jay-Z, will perform at halftime of the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game on Christmas.
“I think they’re getting incredibly comfortable with not just with the Super Bowl but other events they’ve advised us on and helped us with,” Goodell said. “They’ve been a big help in the social justice area to us on many occasions. They’ve been great partners.”
—From AP reports
