Like many freelance film journalists whose bread and butter is writing about independent film while operating in an increasingly brutal economy, I won't be at the Sundance Film Festival when it opens with Adam Eliot's Mary and Max tonight at the Eccles. Although I was initially disappointed to not be able to afford to go to Park City this year, it's been muted somewhat with other commitments. I'll be in Holland next week for the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam, which starts smack dab in the middle of the Park City proceedings, covering that event for Filmmaker Magazine and participating (as a 'project trainee") as a FIPRESCI Jury member. Still, I'm wistful about not going to Park City, be it with a film (my short Evangeleo played Slamdance in 07') or as a journalist.
If I were in Park City this year, without discriminating between features or shorts (or even festivals for that matter) I'd definitely try to catch these titles, and I look forward to seeing them in the near future (if I haven't already).
Amreeka (Dir. Cherien Dabis)
Big Fan (Dir. Robert Siegel)
Black Dynamite (Dir. (Scott Sanders)
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Dir. John Krasinski)
Brooklyn's Finest (Antoine Fuqua)
The Carter (Adam Bhala Lough)
Children of Invention (Dir. Tze Chun)
Cold Souls (Dir. Sophie Barthes)
Chameleon Street (Dir. Wendell Harris Jr.)
Copper on the Chopping Block (Dir. Kai Orion)
Finding Bliss (Dir. Julie Davis)
Good Hair (Dir. Jeff Stilson)
Hot Dog (Dir. Bill Plympton)
Hug (Khary Jones)
Humpday (Dir. Lynn Shelton)
I Am So Proud of You (Dir. Don Herzfeldt)
The Informers (Dir. Gregor Jordan)
Rope A Dope (Dir. Laurent Briet)
She Walked Calmly into the Darkness (Dir. Milik Hassan Sayeed)
Manure (Dir. Michael Polish)
Mississippi Damned (Dir. Tina Mabry)
The Messenger (Dir. Oren Moverman)
Moon (Dir. Duncan Jones)
Paper Heart (Dir. Nicholas Jasenovec)
Passing Strange (Dir. Spike Lee)
Punching the Clown (Dir. Gregori Viens)
Push (Dir. Lee Daniels)
The Rapture of the Athlete Assumed into Heaven (Dir. Keith Bogart)
Road to Fallujah (Dir. Mark Manning)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (Dir. Jordan Galland)
Rudo y Cursi (Dir. Carlos Cuaron)
The September Issue (Dir. RJ Cutler)
Sergio (Dir. Greg Barker)
Sin Nombre (Dir. Cary Fukanaga)
Sparks (Dir. Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
Spread (Dir. David Mackenzie)
Steel Homes (Dir. Eva Weber)
Taking Chance (Dir. Ross Katz)
Thriller in Manila (Dir. John Dower)
Time and Again (Dir. Antonio Méndez Esparza)
Tyson (Dir. James Toback)
Unmade Beds (Dir. Alexis Dos Santos)
World's Greatest Dad (Dir. Bobcat Goldthwait)
You Won't Miss Me (Dir. Ry Russo-Young)
