Sundance 2010: More Grit, Less Star-$@&!ing

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Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

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PARK CITY, Utah -- Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady here, reporting for blogging duty from the Sundance Film Festival. We are here as the directors of "12th & Delaware," a documentary on the hot-button political issue of abortion, premiering in competition on Sunday. Our film takes place on a street corner in Florida, where an abortion clinic sits directly across the road from a crisis pregnancy center -- a pro-life clinic staffed by folks who try to persuade women considering an abortion to continue with the pregnancy. It is an intense and, we hope, fresh look at the abortion battle that is unfolding more as a hearts-and-minds campaign in this country than an issue for the courts. Today, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the ruling remains as controversial as the day it was decided. But more on that later in the week.

We are no strangers to film festivals. Our previous documentary features "The Boys of Baraka" and "Jesus Camp" did the circuit, too. But this is our first premiere at Sundance and we are curious and quite revved up to experience the legendary festival in all its glory.

Or . . . some of its glory, anyway. In a creaky indie film economy and with much of the country singing the blues, everyone is nervous about the future of our industry. But guess what? Based on the multitude of cinematic offerings here in Park City, it appears that a crappy economy, two wars, disillusionment with a president who turns out to be an actual human being (shocker!), and a new ability for Americans ask hard questions about our own culture and habits all seem to have energized the collective creative bones of our fellow documentary filmmakers. Stories from Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq will be told here. The fervor of the paparazzi and the inner life of Joan Rivers will be dissected. Those who came of age in the age of perestroika and American kids currently being victimized by a sub-par school system will get a serious look. And we will report on all these films and on the reactions they get over the course of the festival.

Robert Redford opened the event by saying, "We're going back to our roots" with a festival intent on getting "fresh again." This attempt to hit the reset button on the fest -- which over the years became criticized for too much star-*&$#ing and too little attention to the real independent spirit -- seemed to be on display opening night, when a competition film rather than a faux-indie Hollywood offering kicked off the party.

We sat with about 1,000 other filmgoers to watch "Restrepo," an action-packed and highly alarming documentary about a platoon of American soldiers fighting in the violent Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, the film reminded me of "The Hurt Locker," with its razor-sharp focus on both the troubling adrenaline junkies among us and the utter absurdity of war. The film also reminded me that certain stories are better suited to non-fiction. The visceral impact of the young soldiers -- these real, unscripted boys trying to be brave but mostly just trying to stay alive -- is hard to describe. But without being overly didactic or ideological, the movie raises important questions about our involvement in Afghanistan, and was a thought-provoking (and non-star-&*$!ing) way to open Sundance 2010.

Filed Under: Sundance Journal

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