I scanned the Slamdance Survival Guide for filmmakers and got excited. Slamdance bills itself as a "festival by filmmakers, for flimmakers," which does give me pause. We have interviewed and/or talked to probably a 100 filmmakers over the years, and while many of them are creative souls they tend to have a complete lack of business expertise. And, let's be honest, a film festival is a business enterprise. Fortunately, my hasty generalization appears to be untrue with regard to the 2003 Slamdance Film Festival, a festival that is packed with wonderful films by creative minds.

Of course, I'm looking forward to meeting filmmaker Greg Pak whose film Robot Stories is screening in the competition at Slamdance. As you know, I really liked Greg's film and wish him the best.

But Robot Stories is not the only feature in competition. From the Slamdance website, a few films look interesting.

All Night Bodega is a film directed by Felix Olivier. According to the synopsis, it is about a young girl named Venus who is forced into a life on the streets of New York's Washington Heights. A love interest develops between Venus and an undercover police officer. Violence appears to be an inevitable escape hatch. The war story on this one states that a real life drug dealer asked to become part of the production during filming. The dealer allegedly (remember that Rusty and I are criminal defense attorneys by day) was "peddling crack to parents after they dropped their children off at school." I should screen this film on Thursday, January 24, 2003, at 12:30 pm.

Amna, my wife, has agreed to take in Assisted Living, a story that may be a mockumentary of sorts taking place in a real nursing home. Focusing on an odd relationship between Todd, the home's janitor, and Mrs. Pearlman, a resident, Assisted Living features actual residents of the facility that reportedly give the film a "unique documentary effect." Assisted Living is directed by Elliot Greenbaum.

Since Amna and I will be in Park City starting on Wednesday, January 22nd, we will miss the screenings of one of the most ambitious sounding narratives in competition, Briar Patch. This "Southern Gothic tale" is a love triangle story involving a young woman, Inez, who is in a dangerous marriage to a theif named Edgar. When Inez falls for a wealthy young attorney, Druden, all Hell breaks loose including murder, betrayal, and escape. Let's hope that Amna and I get to see this one on video in our hotel room (I'm packing a VCR for the trip). Briar Patch is directed by Zev Berman.

Other feature films are in competition including short films. And I hope to see them all, well, most of them anyway, and Amna will be on hand to help out. One film called Long Gone boasts that "during the cruelest of times, the crew meals came from fast food dumpsters or from money earned by standing on street corners holding 'Traveling Hungry' signs." Now, that sure sounds like indigent filmmaking to me.

Check back for updates from Slamdance starting next Wednesday, and remember, after some flight reschedules, Stephen has finally arrived in Park City and will be covering Sundance.

Jonathan reports on Day 1 of Slamdance
Jonathan reports on Day 2 of Slamdance
Amna Kahn-Hickman reviews Sundance entry Deadend.com
Jonathan reports on Day 3 of Slamdance
Jonathan reports on Day 4 of Slamdance

Jonathan W. Hickman