What struck me at this year's Sundance Film Festival is that the features I reacted to most strongly were either documentaries that exposed me to the world in a new way, or oddball explorations of utter unreality.
Sundance is most often mentioned in connection with the American independent features that found their audience here. What keeps me going year after year are the documentaries, both domestic and international. There's always something new to be discovered, a fresh window on the world, a refreshing take on reality. Many of the most notable documentaries of the past several years got their start — or at least their US premiere — at the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, four of the five documentaries nominated this year for the Oscars played at last year's Sundance.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.