Independent's Day

"Just because you've made a film doesn't mean that I should see it," says film critic Roger Ebert. And so say I. Ebert, one of the few working critics today who actually watches and writes up most of the movies theatrically released each year, squeezes a few cogent words into Marina Zenovich's sound-bite barrage Independent's Day, a fast, mildly entertaining, supposedly inspirational piece of fluff on the Sundance Film Festival. In 1985, a total of 50 independent films were entered in the indie film fest held each year in Park City, Utah. In 1997, a mind (and butt) numbing 800 titles were offered up for consideration. With rival Slamdance and Slumdance festivals, Sundance has become rather big business and many of the interviewees allow that the good old guerilla atmosphere of old has somewhat given way to endless talk about "the deal," i.e., the distribution package which allows the filmmaker to create art for money's sake. Still, while there's a bit of carping about the derivative, soulless nature of much of the juvenilia shown at Sundance, it's still true that some wonderful films discover an audience this way, films such as sex, lies & videotape and In the Company of Men. Of course, there are also films like Sunday, which Sundance honors, leading to comments about Utah's thin air, brain fog, etc. Perhaps most typical is Tom DiCillo, a director who has labored on the indie circuit for years (Living in Oblivion, Box of Moonlight) and just hasn't hit the big time because--according to Tom--no one has figured out how to successfully distribute his movies. I'm not a big fan of DiCillo's work, but I enjoyed his disgruntled, half-hearted carping, especially his comment that filmmaking has become so obscenely pop that he expects to see a magazine soon which features directors in bathing suits. Budding auteurs and film buffs will surely be interested in this rapid-fire docu-schmooze, which features comments from Sundance founder Robert Redford, Steven Soderbergh, Neil Labute, Sydney Pollack, Parker Posey and plenty of good-to-not-so-good film clips. Recommended. (R. Pitman)