Slamdance succeeds independently

By Larry D. Curtis
Deseret News

Published: January 18, 2009

PARK CITY — There have always been peripheral "dances" around the Sundance Film Festival that piggybacked on the world-famous independent Utah festival.

Most are gone and forgotten, but Slamdance has both thrived and carved out its own niche on the Park City mountainside.

Late Friday night, the opening-day premiere of the even-more-independent-than-Sundance festival kicked off with "I Sell the Dead," a period-buddy-comedy-horror hybrid about bumbling grave robbers. Using a horror film to pave the way to a cinema career is a road well-traveled, but getting Dominic Monaghan ("The Lord of the Rings," "Lost") and Ron Perlman ("Hellboy") to star in your first film is a bit off the beaten path. "I am attracted to good scripts," Monaghan said. "It is a fun caper, and it tickled me."

That suits the Slamdance festival just fine since it was started "as a way to antagonize the efforts of Sundance," according to co-founder and president Peter Baxter. He and his friends didn't get films into the Sundance festival while it was taking films that were already attached to studios. The beginning filmmakers felt their films deserved to be showcased as well, and so Slamdance was born as a sort of counter to the big bully on the block and its stars and its worldwide following.

"Where would we all be without Sundance?" he asked. "If it wasn't Slamdance, it was going to be someone else." Sundance had grown too big and too important not to leave room for talent that lacked the resources or contacts to get into the festival.

Often described in the media as "the competition," Baxter doesn't quite see it that way — anymore.

"Today they really compliment one another, each has its role. Ours is very much supporting emerging talent — we have quite a track record."

That point certainly can't be argued. Last year's box-office warrior "The Dark Knight" is the product of director Christopher Nolan, who launched from Slamdance with 1998's "Following." Steven Soderbergh, who competed against himself for the "Best Picture" Oscar category in 2000 with "Erin Brockovich" and eventual winner "Traffic," also premiered his first effort "Schizopolis," at Slamdance in 1997.

The list of success is much longer and includes Salt Lake's own Jared Hess ("Napoleon Dynamite") and Marc Foster ("Quantum of Solace"). The Slamdance mission now includes screenwriting, and it has turned out its share of successes as well.

"If you look at Sundance now, there is an expectation of finding distribution. It features mature filmmakers; often movies come with a promotional campaign behind them."

Meanwhile, despite its growth and success, Slamdance remains laser-focused on helping beginning filmmakers, even if they do manage to attract bigger-name stars like those attending Slamdance's opener.

"I Sell The Dead" lead actor and producer Larry Fessenden, who has taken his own work to Slamdance before, insisted there was no nepotism in having director and writer Glenn McQuaid's film selected as the launch for the screenings that continue through Jan. 23 at the Treasure Mountain Inn at the top of Park City's Main Street.

"It was very brave of them to choose this film," he said. Noting that by having well-known faces Slamdance may open itself to criticism of a sellout. His film went through the process just like all the rest of the submissions.

"The focus has stayed true," said Baxter. "We have matured. We have a year-round office, year-round support of the filmmaker and the writer. We definitely have become more organized and established. Our heart and soul remains the same."

Monaghan, who calls Manchester, England, home, was pleased to be in Utah for the first time and pleased to be part of the fiercely independent festival.

"I always thought I would come here eventually to Sundance or Slamdance, but I didn't want to turn up just for the free (stuff). It is cool to be part of."

He narrated the indie film, "Ringers: Lord of the Fans," which played at Slamdance a few years ago and had audience members camping out in subzero temperatures to get tickets. It even played for a week in Salt Lake City to meet the demand for tickets, although the actor was working at the time and not able to attend.

The cast reportedly had managed to join a lot of Park City's private clubs and joked they planned to make the most of the memberships.

The veteran of red-carpet experiences helped New York castmate Brenda Cooney handle a gaggle of photographers and their flashes.

Other "names" involved with the festival include Matthew Lillard, the Broken Lizard writers, Mark Harmon, Leelee Sobieski, Denise Richards, Jamie Kennedy, Ralph Macchio and Jeremy Sisto.

Submissions have increased from 48 films the first year to well over 3,000 for 2009 and thousands of screenplays as well. Ever seeking to innovate and champion the cause of its talent, viewers can also pay for and stream films from the festival online.

Slamdance.indieroad.net lets viewers watch films or a block of shorts for $9. The revenue is for the emerging indies who are always cash-strapped and operate on shoestring budgets or even none at all.

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