The five Sundance films I'm excited to see

The Sundance Film Festival begins this week and I'm not going up this year, but the films look fantastic! Here is a list of five films I'm most excited to see from Sundance 2008, not necessarily for professional reasons, more personal ones.


I already talked about BAGHEAD here. I hope the Duplass brothers have a successful year at the festival. The word on the street is that the Writer's strike will generate even more sales up at the festival, and I hope these guys get some good buzz.





The next film is from Sundance's Frontier section. The Frontier section is a showcase for experimental and cutting edge films works. (Not a showcase for Westerns as one of my friends assumed, with hilarious results.) These films all tickle my interest but the one I want to see primarily is CASTING A GLANCE. It's an experimental documentary about the incredible, singular artwork known as the Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake. I'm bummed I didn't take the drive out there to see the Jetty this November when I was in Utah, now I'll probably make a pilgrimage there if this film is as good as I'm hoping it could be.

Another Frontier title I want to see is FEAR(S) OF THE DARK. It's a collection of short subject works by a number of animators and illustrators on the subject of fear. All of these artists look fantastic but I'm most excited for Charles Burns. He's one of my favorite comic book creators living today and his book Black Hole is simply an amazing work.


How excited am I for this next film, GOLIATH? You have no idea. I've only seen the short films of the Zellner Brothers before but I love them. Also the premise and tone of the film seems hilarious. One of my favorite shorts of theirs is FOXY AND THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD which also is loosely involving an animal, the titular Foxy (a dog.)

In a very different vein is the documentary, STRANDED: I'VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED IN THE MOUNTAINS. It's the true life story behind the survivors who were the subject of the film ALIVE. I know it looks a bit sensational but I'm willing to give it a shot. On a personal note, my girlfriend Susan's dad was a producer on ALIVE. and she has some great stories about being on the set when she was little.

Well, that's my early buzz list, if you are going up and get to see any of these films, drop me a line I'd love to know what you thought.