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At this year's Sundance Film Festival, we watched a ton of movies, and we're recommending some of the best things we saw.

This includes a thrilling adventure film starring Ethan Hawke, a quiet romance with Chris Pine,

and quite possibly the best documentary I will see all year.

I'm Aisha Harris. Join me today on NPR's

Pop Culture Happy Hour is Culture Desk correspondent Mandelite Del Barco. Welcome back, Mandelite. Thank you so much.

Great to have you. And also with us is freelance film critic and programmer Monica Castillo.

Welcome back to you too, Monica. So glad to be here. Yes, it's great to have you as well.

So, you know,

this year was an especially momentous one for the Sundance Film Festival. It was the first without its founder, Robert Redford, who died last year. It was also the last to be held in Park City, Utah.

The fest is going to relocate to Boulder, Colorado next year. So there was definitely a sense of nostalgia

missed all of the excitement, a lot of remembrances of all the years that Sundance Film Festival

has been around and in Park City. Now, speaking for myself, it was also really hard to ignore

that while all of this was going down, unrest in Minnesota and across the country was in full effect due to the

escalated presence of immigration and customs enforcement. Alex Pready was killed by federal agents

on day three of Sundance and there was at least one protest against ICE that took place in

Park City afterward. Also, on top of all of this, a man was arrested for assaulting Florida Congressman

Maxwell Frost at a Sundance Party. And on social media, Frost said the man yelled racist slurs and

...