We have been eagerly waiting for some information about Ellen's latest projects »The East« and »Touchy Feely«, and today I finally have exciting news to pass along. The Sundance Institute announced that both movies are premiering at the Sundance Film Festival next year. While Lynn Shelton's »Touchy Feely« has been selected for the U.S. Dramatic competition, »The East« will play out of competition in the Premieres section. The latter is no surprise considering there already have been test screenings in Pasadena, California earlier this year and the 11-day festival in Utah has proven to be a good circuit for director Zal Batmanglij and his colleagues. With the premiere dates set, it's probably only a matter of days or weeks until we get to see more stills and the first trailers.

The 2013 edition of the Sundance Film Festival runs January 17-27, 2013 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and the Sundance Resort in Utah. It will screen 115 feature-length films representing 32 countries. The haul includes projects from 51 first-time filmmakers, including 27 films that are in competition. These projects were selected from 12,146 submissions, 429 more than last year. To purchase tickets, or for more information on the festival and its line-up of films, please visit www.sundance.org.

Update - 12/15/2012

The festival schedule has been released on the official website. Check the listing below for details on »The East« and »Touchy Feely« screenings. If you can't make it to Park City, the films will also be shown in a selected city on January 31st as part of the Sundance USA program. There will be a special screening for »Touchy Feely« at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, Illinois and another one for »The East« at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In mid-late October Ellen was among a string of celebrities and entertainers from Canada and the United States who added their names to a growing number of supporters of the »Defend Our Coast« rally and sit-in on October 22 to oppose pipelines from Alberta's tar sands to the B.C. coast. Organizers, however, made clear from the beginning the actors, actresses, singers and musicians would not be attending the event in Victoria, but instead were offering their written support in advance. The protest was against the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and the proposed new Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline, both of which would bring tar sands oil to the coast where it would be loaded onto oil tankers. Over 400 oil tankers would then be plying the sensitive and spectacular coastal waters of British Columbia. The Enbridge pipeline would travel through the Great Bear Rainforest and the Kinder Morgan Pipeline would travel through the city of Vancouver. Aside from the danger of accidents involving the tankers, there is real concern about pipeline breaks and leaks doing serious harm to fragile eco-systems on the pipeline routes. This initiative was not just about pipelines however, but about the Canadian government’s efforts to rapidly expand the tar sands while eliminating many environmental protections implemented over many years, thus putting at risk the land, air and particularly the water on which local people have survived for generations. All this is set against the backdrop of the Canadian government’s abysmal record on climate change and the fact that the tar sands companies are aggressively lobbying for the expansion of the tar sands while fighting any action on climate change.

"We stand in solidarity with our northern neighbours who are gathering in Victoria to defend the coast and wisely oppose the equally toxic and destructive threat that is the Enbridge Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline," said actress and longtime environmental activist Daryl Hannah in a statement issued by Greenpeace Canada, which helped to organize the movement. Actor Mark Ruffalo added that "real energy independence would be moving ourselves to wind, water and sun and get rid of the toxic, outdated and antiquated fossil fuel paradigm that continues to trample First Nation and land owner rights and destroy fresh water, fresh air and farm land."

Was the venture a success? One of the goals with »Defend Our Coast« was to empower local community leaders to take the message home where they lived, showing the unbroken wall of opposition across the whole province. Organizers were indeed wildly successful at getting actions into newspapers across the province from Terrace to Abbotsford and Prince Rupert to Prince George. With more than 5,000 people (3,500 according to the police) showing up on a Monday at the provincial legislature in Victoria to voice their concerns, more than 3,500 people having signed an online pledge and hundreds of people participating in more than 70 actions in different communities shows that the people of BC are committed to doing whatever it takes to stop these pipelines. Eventually, it's a small success in a big fight, which will not be over until Canada's provincial and federal governments start working toward a green energy future that respects First Nations right to free, prior and informed consent and promotes and protects the health of the environment and local communities!

On a side note, although she has made herself scarce in the past months, Ellen remains the most popular export in her hometown of Halifax. She was voted "Best Halifamous Person" for the fifth time in a row by the readers of the local weekly newspaper "The Coast". Congratulations!