If all went as planned, the Sundance Film Festival ’07 kicked off last night in Park City, Utah, with Brett Morgen’s “Chicago 10,” an inventive mix of animation and archival footage exploring the famed prosecution of protesters following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Last January, when the festival celebrated its 25th year, the milestone seemed to hobble kvetching critics and programmers alike. Now, big anniversary behind them, fest honchos return to their truest ambitions: looking forward, not back; trying to balance art, industry and the occasional pursuit of social justice with the varied pleasures of visual storytelling.
And kvetching critics can decide when they do and don’t pull it off.
For better and for weirder, Sundance is America’s most important film festival. Yet looking at which of last year’s films made an impression on moviegoers in theaters you’d be right to ask, “How can that be?”
This year’s fest, which runs through Jan. 28, already promises more buzz – and not always of the “Pimp My Main Street,” “Is That Paris Hilton?” “I’ll Show You My Gift Bag if You Show Me Yours” variety.
Why does Sundance matter?
Here are a few reasons that come to mind as we start the day waiting for a shuttle in a modest resort town that each January becomes more Los Angeles than Los Angeles, sort of the way a martini tastes more alcoholic than the straight stuff.
Because it works hard not to matter: Each year Sundance slips the clutches of its overwhelming success by programming beyond that success.
Are too many people paying heed to its premiere section, which highlights films most likely to make it to art houses and even the occasional multiplex? Then shift focus to competitions for dramas and documentaries from around the globe.
You’re more likely to see these films at our Starz FilmCenter or local festivals. Movies strutting their distribution in the Premiere section include Tamara Jenkins’ “The Savages,” starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as siblings forced to care for their aging dad; Craig Brewer’s “Black Snake Moan”; Canadian actress Sarah Polley’s assured directorial debut “Away From Her,” featuring a lovely performance by Julie Christie as a woman with Alzheimer’s.
World Cinema alternatives with pre-fest hum include the documentary “A Very British Gangster,” about the Noonan crime family; “How She Move,” a Canadian feature about a young woman who must return to a rough Toronto neighborhood when money for private school runs out; “The Night Buffalo,” written by the fab screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, (“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” “Babel”).
This year’s grand push to elude the box-office chase comes by way of the revamped New Frontier section, where art meets film in a potent mix of installations and movies.
By “not mattering,” we mean Sundance works hard to really mean something: There is no shortage of films wrestling with how we live today. Nelson George’s autobiographical debut, “Life Support,” closes the festival. Queen Latifah plays a former drug addict doing AIDS outreach.
Acting: Forget the adage that there are no small roles, only small actors: Some American performers do their finest work in indie-size fare. Among the notables making multiple appearances: Parker Posey (“Fay Grim” and “Broken English”); Vera Farmiga, who won the fest’s best actor award for 2004’s “Done to the Bone” (“Joshua” and “Never Forever”): Steve Buscemi (“Delirious” and “Interview”)
A sense of place: Contrary to the Cracker Barrels and Red Lobsters that stitch this great nation together, Sundance films come with a real sense of our vital places: Brewer’s “Black Snake Moan” stars Samuel L. Jackson as a former bluesman who finds a reclamation project in Christina Ricci’s tortured young woman. As he did with “Hustle & Flow,” the writer-director shows abiding love for his Tennessee environs.
Documentary forthrightness: In a tart bit of counterprogramming, a breakfast press conference for Charles Ferguson’s investigative documentary about the run-up to the Iraq quagmire, “No End in Sight,” vies with the Academy’s Oscar nomination announcement.
Check out film critic Lisa Kennedy’s and Style editor Dana Coffield’s missives from Sundance ’07 at denverpostbloghouse.com.
