Ira Deutchman

An aspiring painter meets various characters and learns valuable lessons while traveling across America.

In 1963 New England, a group of friends at an all-girls academy learn that they're going to be combined with a nearby all-boys institution. They concoct a plan to save their school while dealing with everyday problems along the way.

When the mastermind behind New York's infamous Studio 54 disco plucks young Shane from the sea of faces clamoring to get inside his club, he not only gets his foot in the door, but lands a coveted job behind the bar — and a front-row ticket to the most legendary party on the planet!

Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.

Dorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.

A couple checks into a suite in Las Vegas. In flashbacks we see that he's a computer whiz on the verge of becoming a dot.com millionaire, she's a lap dancer at a club. He's depressed, withdrawing from work, missing meetings with investors. He wants a connection, so he offers her $10,000 to spend three nights with him in Vegas, and she accepts with conditions. Is mutual attraction stirring?

During the 1950 World Cup, the hastily assembled U.S. soccer team enters as heavy underdogs when matched up against the highest-ranked team in competition — England.

In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric guitarist in a last ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.

The story of a mentally anguished high school history teacher going through a complete reassessment of his life. His method for reassessing his life is to narrate it to his class and interweave in it three generations of his family's history.

A Paul Joyce documentary on the American independent film scene.

Relative Evil (aka Ball in the House) - When JJ (Jonathan Tucker) returns home from rehab, he is greeted by a conniving family who are plotting to cash in on a life insurance policy before his 18th birthday

After being thrown out of her home, a young woman decides to disguise herself as a man to survive the ruthless Wild West.

A wealthy Beverly Hills resident who has just become a widow, Clare Lipkin temporarily takes on her friend Lisabeth as a house guest. As the two women deal with their upper-class woes, Clare's driver, Frank, and Lisabeth's servant, Juan, make a wager to see who can be the first to seduce the other's boss.

A famous jazz saxophonist's life is forever changed after he is accidentally shot.

Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'The Killing Fields'. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set.

The feature documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff is the story of Donald Rugoff, who was the crazy genius behind Cinema 5, the mid-century theater chain and film distribution company. Rugoff was a difficult (some would say impossible) person but was also the man who kicked art films into the mainstream with outrageous marketing schemes and pure bluster. Rugoff's impact on cinema culture in the United States is inestimable, and his influence on the art film business-from the studio classics divisions to the independent film movement to the rise of the Weinsteins-is undeniable. Yet, mysteriously, Rugoff has become a virtually forgotten figure. The story is told through the eyes of former employee Ira Deutchman, who sets out to find the truth about the man who had such a major impact on his life, and to understand how such an important figure could have disappeared so completely.

When he discovers his girlfriend having sex with his brother, Frankie decides to head to Manhattan, leaving his Bronx pizza shop forever for the fame and fortune of show business. But before stardom, he needs a place to stay. Looking in the personals, he notices GWM. And thinking it "Guy with Money," he heads to the Village and the apartment of gay actor Warren, who's in desperate need of this month's rent.

Sammer is a 13 year old boy who escapes the streets of New York City by stealing video cameras from tourists. He and his friends retreat to their working class neighborhood to quickly sell the cameras, but Sammer always keeps the tapes. Alone in his bedroom and editing on a rack of stolen computers, Sammer explores this world of footage, infatuated by all the far away places and other people’s seemingly happy lives.

When their latest work is buffed by a rival crew, two determined graffiti writers embark on an elaborate plan to bomb the ultimate location: the New York Mets' Home Run Apple.

Filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival discuss what it is like to be an independent filmmaker, and what Sundance has done for them.