John Wilson attends The History of Concrete premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Yarrow Theatre on January 22, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Sundance Film Festival)
By Erik Adams
I just want to congratulate all of you here, because you are clearly doc ball knowers, Sundance Institute programmer Sudeep Sharma says to the audience packing the house for The History of Concrete's premiere at the 2026 Festival. You know this is a big film.
Taking an opposite tack, director John Wilson strikes a more modest stance in his opening remarks. He recalls one of the first times he discussed the movie with his agent, who he told I didn't really want that many people to see it. Which is not what your agent wants to do.
But people - including Wilson's parents, brother, and friends, who receive a heartwarming shoutout at the top of the screening - clearly want to see The History of Concrete. Fans of the filmmaker's late, great HBO series How to with John Wilson or any of his previous POV documentaries will be familiar with Concrete's surprising, free-associative flow. But even the most ardent Wilson supporter won't be able to guess where the director's debut feature goes.
It begins with Wilson searching for a new project, a quest that winds through a seminar on writing a romantic comedy for the Hallmark Channel and eventually lands on, well, the history of concrete. Concrete is the second-most used material on the planet, Wilson says in the film - and yet it's a topic that's rarely given a second thought. Narrating in his signature deadpan, Wilson gives second, third, fourth, and fifth thoughts to this ubiquitous mix of limestone, ash, clay, water, clay, and sand, eventually branching off into other avenues of exploration, like a 52-day race around a single block in Queens or a short film production starring a guy who, coincidentally, works in concrete.
These surprises are often funny, but they have the potential to be profound, too. Wilson's knack for documenting happenstance and coincidence is all over The History of Concrete, always ready to be given new meaning (or any meaning) in voiceover. Within this seemingly bottomless trove of B-roll, you're as likely to encounter a major celebrity as you are an off-color, supremely specific piece of graffiti.
(L-R) Clark Filio, Shirel Kozak, John Wilson, Francis Carr, Allie Viti, and Cori Wapnowska attend The History of Concrete premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Yarrow Theatre on January 22, 2026 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Sundance Film Festival)
A lot of times, the shots are so funny already and they demand a certain voiceover, and we end up writing to that, says editor Cori Wapnowska during the post-premiere Q&A.
There are also the times when you'll have a line and no visual for it, and then there's like four days worth of clips lined up, and then Cori has to scrub through them super fast until you're like, Stop that one,' adds co-producer Francis Carr.
Wilson is the voice and driving force of The History of Concrete, but he acknowledges the tremendous amount of collaboration that made the film possible by bringing Wapnowska, Carr, and producers Clark Filio, Shirel Kozak, and Allie Viti up with him for the Q&A. Theirs is one of the many projects playing the Festival this year about the ups and downs of creative pursuits, something we see in scenes of Wilson trying to drum up funding for the movie, or in his friendship with Jack, a liquor sales rep by day and aspiring guitar hero by night. It's not hard to draw a line from scenes of Wilson surrounded by Zoom windows full of production execs who can't see his vision and the sight of Jack playing his heart out to bar patrons who are barely listening.
Jack opens up to Wilson in unexpected ways over the course of the movie, but so do a lot of the other interviewees. There's just something about the filmmaker's approach that gets people to reveal their true selves. It didn't hurt that he was in dire technical straits when he met Jack. After a day of filming potholes, and at a point in the production where he was seeking musicians to feature in the documentary, Wilson found himself entering a liquor store with a broken camera.
I saw Jack, and he just looked like a musician, he says during the Q&A. And so I'm holding the viewfinder in one hand, and the body [of the camera] in the other, and the mic is barely hanging on. I think that was disarming, in a way. My shit was so fucked up in that moment, and I think that makes people feel a bit calm.
It certainly struck some sort of chord with Jack, who Wilson and the team wound up filming for a year-and-a-half. Carr says that Jack still texts him all the time.
He just texted me, he says. He said the band is killing it right now. They're booking a lot of gigs. And he said something like, Everyone is just out for promotions and premonitions,' or something. He has a poetic texting style.
The Musical and the Power of Spiteful Thinking
Release Rundown: What to Watch in August, From American Doctor to Idiots
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass Gets Big Cameos, Bigger Laughs in Crowd-Pleasing Premiere
North America Stories
15/11/2026
Can VideoProc AI Really Reduce Noise and Enhance Blurry, Old Footage? Real-World...
14/11/2026
Longtime MLB Network employee David Maybrown passed away Thursday at the age of 57. David joined MLB Network in 2009 shortly after its launch, beginning as an i...
14/11/2026
Marcelo Dai's Live Session Captured with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
Artist takes viewers on an immersive journe...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Newest Lenses, Horizon Anamorphic Seminar & Guided Lens Character Experience Highlight Creative Possibilities
At the 2026 Toru CAMERIMAGE Film Festival, ZEISS...
14/11/2026
Sonnet Announces Black Friday Sale on Select Products
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
WHAT: Sonnet Technologies is having a sale on a select...
14/11/2026
Berklee Alumni Shine at the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards This year's winners included songwriters, engineers, and performers who contributed to acclaimed reco...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
John Wilson attends The History of Concrete premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Yarrow Theatre on January 22, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Sundance Film Festival)
