Sundance On Ice
by Ray Pride

Deals, movies, swag, the occasional journalist-on-journalist dust-up (see end of column): all part of the scene and the reports back home, yet, like the Hollywood Reporter's Anne Thompson's consideration of movies like Who Killed Cock Robin? and This Revolution, the days and nights' many conversations are resoundingly optimistic about the present moment and its hopes for alternative-independent-underfunded-not-quite-Pollyannish filmmakers finding ways to get fresh perspectives.
Sundance On Ice: Friday
Sundance On Ice: Sunday

Sundance: Day Eight
by David Poland

The Paramount machine keeps rolling with Paramount Classic's pick-up of Mad Hot Ballroom yesterday. As with Hustle & Flow, the studio has an eye towards synergy, as Nickelodeon will team up with Classics to release the Slamdance doc that suddenly became the second "it" movie of the 10 Days of Sundance.

Sundance: Day Seven
Sundance: Day Six
Sundance: Day Five
Sundance: Day Four
Sundance: Day Three
Sundance: Day Two
Sundance: Day One

Preview
Twist of Faith
This is not a crusading film… but it makes you want to take action. It is an intimate look at one life that was changed forever. And watching this grown man try to explain to his daughter what happened to him because the former priest has moved nearby and she needs to know to avoid him… it is truth that could never be recreated as powerfully in fiction.

Also: Happy Endings
Shake Hands With The Devil

Gross Behavior
Indie Anna Groans And Another Crusade
by Leonard Klady

When you add it all up, who really wants to be present at the apocalypse? The juxtaposition of an ailing film movement set against the backdrop of snow and glitz isn't the postcard view that sounds at all appealing when one could be sitting comfortably in a cozy chair. If I truly wanted to confront the horror, being embedded in Iraq sounds infinitely more appealing.

The Hot Button Sundance Preview
by David Poland

Where does one begin at Sundance?

Well, I'll start with the title I expect to be the highlight of the American Drama Competition and one of the very likely early sales at the festival… Craig Brewer's Hustle & Flow. People who have seen Brewer's earlier, little-seen work, The Poor & The Hungry and Resolutions of the Complacent Man, came away expecting a lot from this young writer/director. And with one of the best actors in the game who has not gotten a great lead role, Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow may answer those expectations.