sundance picks, 2008

i'm thinking this will be cool, Slingshot Hip Hop, a film about the emerging Palestinian hip-hop scene.

and this, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, a film that sheds new light on the scenes of his past.

and i'm thinking that this could be fun -- Momma's Man, following a man who sort of refuses to leave his parents' home to return to his family.

and, no fun at all but probably interesting and important is this, Secrecy, about the governmental process of classifying documents.

i'm not yet sure if this screens at our theater, but i'd love to see this, Complete History of My Sexual Failures, in which a recently dumped boyfriend seeks to discover why he fails at love by confronting his exes.

back to serious and important is this, Dinner With the President, a filmic account of dinner with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. i can't believe filmmakers Sabiha Sumar and Satha Sathananthan's request for the event was granted. could be cool, serious, disturbing . . .

Up the Yangtze is sure to be fascinating, a study in the repercussions of the building of the Three Gorges Dam.

and who can resist a film in which "an underground class of node workers who plug their nervous systems into a global computer network that commodifies memory"? Sleep Dealer.

or Great Buck Howard, starring John Malkovich, who plays "Buck Howard, a 'mentalist' infamous for his 61 appearances on The Tonight Show, [. . . ] a bigger-than-life mix of ego, sweetness, and delusion packaged in a flamboyant style." i'm in.

more picks to come . . .