The 30th Annual Sundance Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, which – of course – involves plenty of head-scratching and beard-stroking and careful, thoughtful contemplation in articles and pop-culture think-pieces with titles like "Wither Sundance?" or "Last Dance?"  The movie-going chattering classes can – and will – look askance at the corporate sponsorship proliferating in the Festival (including AOL, Cinematical's owner) resulting in torturously-named events like the "Power Breakfast" panel sponsored by a well-known cereals maker. They'll also note the phenomenon of films that open at Sundance where you have to ask what the point is – middle-of-the-road post-Tarantino crime flicks, or metaphysical thrillers with the poor judgment to cast Ashton Kutcher as a man trying to outwit the space-time continuum. There will be arch observations that every revolution becomes what it rebelled against. And there will be story after story coming out of Park City in the next few days about the gifts and 'bling' for celebs at various parties, as if the Native tradition of the potlatch were being resurrected, throwing goods and services at people who can for the most part already afford them, resulting in shivers of mixed contempt and avarice in people who don't rate a gimmie bag. These things are not untrue.

And still, I love this Festival. And I can tell you why.

(More after the jump. ...)

 

First, let's look at the facts: There are an incredible number of films here. An incredible number of them are debuts from new talents; some of them are from people whose excellent movies can still use all the help they can get. (Opening night film Friends with Money may star Jennifer Aniston, but director Nicole Holofcener is not exactly a household name, even after the excellent Lovely and Amazing.)  And despite Ray Liotta's famous dismissal that " … the movies that do well at Sundance tend to be about pamphleteering lesbian nuns …," Sundance is becoming more and more intriguingly diverse – and not 'diverse' in the mealy-mouthed sense that it's normally used by student councils and quota-driven peacemakers, but actually diverse – finding space for horror, comedy, films shot on video, and more, not merely the downer dramas and high-fiber documentaries that people (often mistakenly) associate with the Sundance name.

Or, let me put it like this: Napoleon Dynamite; Super Size Me; Mirrormask; Better Luck Tomorrow; Primer; Dig!; Born into Brothels; Tarnation; Brother to Brother. None of these films have much in common aside from excellence and ambition – but they've all played at Sundance in the past few years, alongside other movies you've never heard of, or haven't heard of yet like Down to the Bone, Brick and Why We Fight.

And finally, walking around Sundance isn't just an experience in watching for movie-stars (or, failing that, seeing people from L.A. who don't understand snow slip, slide and stumble): It's a chance to be in one of the greatest concentrations of ambition, aspiration and energy you can imagine. Everyone here with a film is trying to say something, to do something, and that energy runs through the theaters and streets like lightning. The biggest drawback of Sundance for me isn't crowds or traffic or corporate encroachment; it's the fact that it always, always makes me take a long hard look at my life and wonder what, if anything, I have to believe in as fiercely as these filmmakers, whether veterans or novices, believe in their films.

Naysayers will say Sundance is moving towards the mainstream; I'd counter that the mainstream is moving towards Sundance. Idealists will suggest that maybe car companies don't have a lot to do with independent film; I'd counter that someone has to pay for this stuff, and if it takes a logo-emblazoned sedan to do it, it's not much of a price. And finally, just browse the Sundance catalog. Go ahead. And feel the ideas, the passion, the life leaping out of every synopsis, every film's description.

We'll be here for the duration. Hope you will too.