USA: "Chicago 10" premiere raises the curtain on the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Sundance opens with "Chicago 10" documentary that uses cutting edge animation to retell famed trial. The Sundance Film Festival raised the curtain on 2007 with the Thursday night(January 18, 2006) premiere of "Chicago 10," a cutting edge documentary that uses animation to tell the story the dramatic 1960's Chicago trial of eight political activists . Sundance founder Robert Redford, in his keynote address, said the film by director Brett Morgen is a good example of just what the festival is looking for. "But, finding what we are really about, is a festival of the discovery of new and very very fresh work of new artist who are going to bring new ideas to the screen," explained Redford, who started the festival back in 1978. "Now, that means that there are going to be stuff that is not commercial, but we never intended for that. We were relying on the idea of diversity being an attraction, not commercial. Who wants to be the in the position of deciding commercial, we'll leave that to the mainstream." Morgen, who spent last year just trying to get tickets to the Sundance, called the opportunity to open it an honor of a lifetime. "He's an icon," said the visibly excited director when asked about Redford at the premiere. "He was an icon for me as a child and he is an icon for me as a documentary filmmaker, for what he has done for my generation of filmmakers. So to be on the stage with him was just awesome. He's done such incredible work." With that said, "Chicago 10" boast star power in the likes of Hank Azaria, Mark Ruffalo and Nick Nolte, who lent their voices to the project that has created a "buzz" prior to its screening for the blending of animation and archival footage. For a veteran actor like Nolte, the solid script was helpful in getting around the whole animation issue. "It was good, the script was real good," Nolte told Reuters, adding that the premiere was the first time he would actually see the film. "There is no way to tell if the animation is going to work. You know, you just don't know , even when you shoot you just don't know." "Chicago 10" is actually just one of many films that will play out at the festival over the next 10 days.

ITN Source | January 25, 2007

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