Local Heroes Tell All

It depends on how you count them, I guess, but by my own estimation, roughly 60 films tied to New York locations or New York filmmakers are screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Some are obvious enough (you can't really mistake Adrift in Manhattan), while others are more far-flung products of their environment (Hal Hartley's globetrotting Fay Grim, Columbia alum Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa's island psychodrama Salt Kiss), but they're all informed by the city, and in a continuation of last year's more abbreviated undertaking, I'm following up with as many of these filmmakers as possible.

The results are accruing over at the section called "From NYC to Sundance," with more than a dozen filmmakers profiled so far and a few dozen more to come in the days ahead. Presently you can't go wrong with directors like Ian Olds (Bomb) and George Ratliff (Joshua), and expect forthcoming chats with the likes of Hartley, Justin Theroux, Rory Kennedy, Jake Paltrow and literally more than I can count in my bleary-eyed stupor. But don't mind me; I'll be fine. I just hope you'll check these out; it's turning out to be a nifty little cross-section of the great work headed west.

Posted at January 17, 2007 8:24 AM