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Media and Hollywood have continuously underrepresented Asian Americans in our digital culture. Evidence of such bubbles over in media backlash on Twitter, whitewashing of characters in blockbuster films (“Ghost in the Shell” and “Death Note,” and those are just the most recent examples), and limited opportunity.

Arthur Chu, a champion contestant on the game show “Jeopardy!,” uses his newfound online celebrity to battle dark forces on the internet as a blogger and cultural pundit in the documentary “Who is Arthur Chu?”

Read More: Slamdance 2017: 13 Must-See Films At This Year’s Festival

The film made its world premiere at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival in the Documentary Competition. The film gives a raw, unfiltered and poignant background on Chu as he comes to grips with reconciling with his estranged family as well as aiming to achieve positive change in the world.

Read More: ‘Shiners’ Trailer: Hot Docs Selection Explores...

In Jeopardy! format, the clue might go something like: “This controversial contestant won 11 games and earned almost $300,000 on this show.” The response, of course, would be: “Who is Arthur Chu?”

If the name of this 2014 winner still isn’t familiar, you may not be spending enough time watching TV or hanging out online, where Chu can sometimes be found writing about social and cultural issues for a variety of outlets. Yu Gu and Scott Drucker’s eponymous documentary relies primarily on Chu’s lower profile, post-Jeopardy! period for material, which comes off as rather uneventful and as a result could...

Now well into its second decade, the Slamdance Film Festival is gearing up for its 2017 edition. Mostly taking place at the Treasure Mountain Inn at top of Park City, Utah’s busting Main Street, Slamdance is dedicated to presenting a festival and a community designed “for filmmakers by filmmakers.”

In previous years, projects from directors like Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster, Jared Hess, Oren Peli, Benh Zeitlin, Seth Gordon, Lynn Shelton and Lena Dunham have bowed at the festival, and it’s become a fertile — if offbeat — proving ground for fresh talents. This year looks to be yet another banner one for the fest, and as such, we’ve gone on a little trip through the Slamdance slate to dig up some prime possibilities for must-see films (shorts and features!).

Ahead, check out 13 titles we’re...

Slamdance has announced the 11 narratives and eight documentaries that will comprise its 2017 lineup. The festival was established in 1995 and takes place in Park City, Utah in January — the same time and place, of course, as Sundance. 12 of the films will be world premieres, and all competition entries are directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million that have yet to receive stateside distribution. Next year’s edition of the festival will run from January 20–26. Full lineup below:

Read More: Watch Slamdance Selections ‘Coming To’ and ‘Courtesan,’ Thanks to Digital Bolex and Seed&Spark (Exclusive)

Narrative Features

“Aerotropolis” (Jheng-Neng Li)

“Beat Beat Heart” (Luise Brinkmann)

“Cortez” (Cheryl Nichols)

“Dave Made a Maze” (Bill Watterson)

“Dim the Fluorescents” (Daniel Warth)

“The Family” (Shumin Liu)

“Kate Can’t Swim” (Josh Helman)

“Kuro” (Joji Koyama, Tujiko Noriko)

“Weather House” (Frauke Havermann)

“Wexford Plaza” (Joyce Wong)

“Withdrawn” (Adrian Murray)

Read More: Watch the Trailer for...

Programmers at the Park City jamboree’s upcoming 23rd edition announced on Monday the 11 narrative and eight documentary selections that will play in January.

The 2017 showcase will also feature Dig (Digital, Interactive & Gaming), a platform of eight works by emerging artists working in cutting-edge digital media, while Polytechnic is a series of free workshops exploring disruptive perspectives on filmmaking from industry insiders.

“As filmmakers themselves, the Slamdance programmers and staff share the same creative spirit as the festival artists,” said Slamdance co-founder and president, Peter Baxter. “Our stories are different but our divergent attitude is the same.

“Together, we give a voice to Diy filmmaking. Empowering emerging artists is what we do, and you are about to see a great group at Slamdance 2017.”

The feature competition roster includes 16 premieres – 12 world, 3 North American and one Us. All competition films are feature directorial debuts with budgets of under $1m and without Us distribution.

Jury awards...