Sundance ’07 touts ‘sense of optimism’

LOS ANGELES - If there were any question about the Sundance Film Festival’s primacy in the independent world, just look to 2006, when no fewer than 40 of the festival’s premieres ended up in movie theaters.

Granted, there’s a big difference between breakaway hit “Little Miss Sunshine,” which took in more than $60 million at the box office and seems certain for Oscar accolades, and the less conspicuous features and documentaries that were channeled through the art-house pipeline.

But from such widely released sleepers as “The Illusionist” and “An Inconvenient Truth” to such acclaimed fare as “Half Nelson” and “Old Joy,” Sundance still can claim responsibility for a significant chunk of the art-house market.

How much Sundance, which runs through Jan. 28, determines the course of the indie world (or vice versa) is a matter of debate, but there’s little doubt that the festival remains the most reliable crystal ball for the art-house scene. With that in mind, what can moviegoers expect from Sundance ’07?

“If there’s any one overriding theme this year, it’s the sense of optimism that runs through many of the films — the theme of surviving adversity with a little bit of hope,” programming director John Cooper says. “And that’s not really the hallmark of the independent film traditionally, which has always ridden the darker side of life. But I saw a switch this year into films that are lighter in tone, at least in that they’re about overcoming struggle and getting to the other side.”

To that end, Cooper cites the dramatic competition feature “Grace Is Gone,” in which John Cusack plays a father who learns that his wife has died in Iraq and must adjust to this new reality with his two young daughters, and another competition entry, “Never Forever,” which stars Vera Farmiga (“The Departed”) as a woman who paradoxically tries to save her marriage by having an affair. Even two films about intolerance in the church, the Spectrum entry “Save Me” and the documentary competition film “For the Bible Tells Me So,” find some revelation and redemption in religious struggle.

“I’m not sure that ‘optimism’ is the right word,” festival director Geoffrey Gilmore counters. “But I’d echo John’s sentiment that this year represents a big leap for independent film in that we’re not looking at that dark independent vision we had in years past. The films have a much more engaged, more expansive view of what the world is because people are coming to grips with issues and problems rather than seeming alienated from it all.”

Says Cooper with a laugh: “We’ve gotten away from the nihilistic youth stories. I remember when I first started, the films were all about driving across the desert with a gun in the glove compartment. You stopped at a diner, there was a pretty waitress, and you knew there was going to be a gun somewhere that was going to pop out at a certain point. But filmmakers are now getting very savvy, and they know that it’s not good enough just to make a movie any longer. It has to be something that’s fresh.”

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