Having outlived and outlasted such erstwhile rivals as Slumdance, No Dance, Slamdunk, Lapdance, DigiDance, Dances With Films and even Son of Sam Dance (which turned out to be a Toyota van with a projector attached to its roof), the Sundance Film Festival is pleased to be able to celebrate its 25th anniversary this very year. Sort of.
The event itself, which began as the United States Film Festival in Salt Lake City, actually started in 1978. And the name wasn't changed to Sundance until 1991. What happened 25 years ago was that Robert Redford's Sundance Institute took things over, and nothing has been the same since.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, January 15, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 68 words Type of Material: Correction
Dances With Films: An article about the Sundance Film Festival in Wednesday's Calendar section included Dances With Films on a list of festival rivals that the Sundance event has outlived. While Dances With Films did make an appearance in Utah one year, it is based in Los Angeles and is still functioning, with its 12th edition scheduled for June 5-11 at the Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood.
For one thing, the number of films clamoring to be included in Sundance, which opens Thursday night in Park City, Utah, with a screening of the animated feature "Mary and Max," continues to be staggering. A total of 118 features were selected from 3,661 submissions, and don't even ask about the shorts: 96 were taken from 5,632 submissions.
Also showing no sign of letting up is the celebrity and swag hubbub that has increasingly shadowed the festival. Perhaps the most boggling press release this year was from one Christopher Ryan of Oceanside Entertainment, the creator of an "Unofficial Sundance Party List" that ran to 23 pages last year and was apparently bootlegged on Craigslist for upward of $500. Austerity has never been a Sundance hallmark.
However, it is the quality of the films shown that makes or breaks Sundance. It takes only a handful of quality films to make a festival memorable, especially on the often-chancy dramatic side, and there are several that fit that definition this year.
In the dramatic competition, a pair of films stand out of those available for viewing before the festival.
"Amreeka," beautifully written and directed by Cherien Dabis, stars the irresistible Nisreen Faour as an ebullient Palestinian woman who has to cope with the strains of moving to the U.S. shortly after the Iraq invasion. Made with a keen eye and a light touch, "Amreeka" excels at finding the warmth and humanity in a difficult situation.
Very different in tone is "Big Fan," written and directed by Robert Siegel, best known as the screenwriter of "The Wrestler." While both films deal with the unglamorous underside of professional sports, this story of how the life of an ultimate New York Giants fan gets turned upside down when he has an unplanned encounter with his idol is a poignant character study that is exceptionally well-acted by Patton Oswalt.
