Making Sundance is huge for two state film teams

Every year, around the third week of January, the small ski resort town of Park City, Utah (pop. 7,371), swells with about 30,000 visitors for 10 days. It's a prime time to hit the slopes, but most of these people aren't anywhere near a pair of skis — they're there with their ears to the snowy ground to get the buzz on the next hot indie film.

The Sundance Film Festival, which opens Thursday, clues in film fans to notable American independent releases of the year (last year's lineup included "Napoleon Dynamite," "Garden State," "Open Water," "Super Size Me" and the award-baiting "Maria Full of Grace" and "The Motorcycle Diaries"). And it's the ultimate launching pad for filmmakers, many of whom have toiled on their labors of love for years

This year, the hordes of Sundancers descending on Park City include a number of Northwesterners attached to two films that will screen (and compete) at the festival.

Coming up Sundance Film Festival 2005, Thursday-Jan. 30, Park City, Utah. For information: www.sundance.org.

"New York Doll" was one of 16 fact-based films chosen out of 624 submissions for the documentary competition. It was directed by Greg Whiteley and co-produced and co-edited by Seth Gordon — both originally from the Seattle area — and co-produced by former University of Washington football captain Ed Cunningham.

The trio didn't know each other in Seattle, but met up later in life in Los Angeles to collaborate on this movie about Arthur "Killer" Kane of the seminal punk-rock group the New York Dolls. Kane converted to Mormonism after the band broke up, following a decade of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. The documentary picks up 30 years later when the group decides to reunite for a concert in London.

The drama "Police Beat" has a number of Seattleites behind it, including director and co-writer Robinson Devor, co-writer Charles Mudede and producers Alexis Ferris and Jeffery M. Brown. It was also executive-produced by the local nonprofit center for film artists, the Northwest Film Forum.

Based on Mudede's police-blotter column in the alternative weekly The Stranger, "Police Beat's" main character is an African-born bicycle cop named Z (played by newcomer Pape Sidy Niang). Z navigates Seattle's mysterious mean streets while his American girlfriend Rachel (Anna Oxygen) goes on a camping trip with another man.

"Police Beat" bested over 700 entries for one of 16 spots in Sundance's drama competition. It's the first film produced by Northwest Film Forum to be thus honored — a fact that is not lost on the producers.

"Sundance does a lot for an organization," says NWFF executive director Michael Seiwerath. "It will raise our profile and [advance] the specific model of making narrative features, start to finish, with a nonprofit, which no one else is doing."

Having a slot at Sundance is sure to raise the filmmakers' stature, no matter what the outcome of the competitions. And a Northwest presence will hopefully raise the region's profile as a place for filmmaking.

"There is always a 'pride of place' when Washington films get accepted into the festival," says Suzy Kellett, director of the Washington State Film Office. "There is always the anticipation that maybe one of ours could be a breakthrough film that could raise Washington's profile nationally."

That anticipation will certainly kick into high gear when "Police Beat" has its world premiere next Sunday at the festival's brand new 700-seat venue at the Park City Racquet Club.

"We're up against some incredible filmmakers," says Brown. Indeed, the drama competition includes some seasoned film vets like Steve Buscemi and Noah Baumbach. "Just to be in the same category is remarkable."

For many, getting into Sundance is achieving a goal in itself; it's an unparalleled environment to celebrate some of the best independent filmmaking in the country.

"During a two-week period, American filmmakers from all over convene to see great film, play, and rekindle old friendships," says Kellett. "There is a spontaneous, enthusiastic, youthful joie de vivre that you don't get at, say, Cannes."

And while the festival is a concentrated time to celebrate independent film, Seiwerath and Brown are also looking beyond the film culture flash point that is the Sundance Film Festival. "I'd like to sell the movie," says Brown.

Seiwerath adds, "The big thing is to make it easier to make the next one — for Rob as a director, Jeff as a producer and us as a production company. That's vague, but important."

Shannon Gee: shannonlgee@hotmail.com