Panic in Park City

PARK CITY, UTAH

'A dollar is a dollar," proclaimed Steven Soderbergh at the recently completed Sundance Film Festival, where every other once-familiar definition -- of what a movie is, how it looks best and where we might see it -- seemed open to debate.

Soderbergh's epic "Che," the two-part film to whose economic model the director was referring, is at war with itself for our movie dollar: It has been playing in a four-plus-hour "roadshow edition" at specially selected theaters (including the Uptown in Minneapolis), and, at the same time, it's available to some cable viewers on demand.

Soderbergh said it doesn't matter to him where people see his films -- although he earned chuckles when, a minute later, he was forced to admit that a big movie such as "Che" doesn't fit as well on the small screen.

That Soderbergh was ubiquitous in Park City this year seemed emblematic of the alternative film industry's divided attention in a tough economy, of its fear of missing the action.

Besides stumping for the two-tier release of "Che," the filmmaker screened his classic "sex, lies and videotape" on the 20th anniversary of its Sundance debut, and the next night screened "The Girlfriend Experience," a kind of thematic sequel starring porn star Sacha Grey, as a semi-secret work in progress. ("You were never here; this never happened," he told the crowd after it was over.)

Soderbergh also appeared with other filmmakers on a panel whose title -- "All Grown Up, Now Where to Go?" -- reflected the uncertainty that clouded this year's festival.

"People say the sky is falling, but when indie movies were selling for $10 million, that was an artificial sky," said "Che" distributor Jonathan Sehring, whose IFC Films will offer to its cable subscribers some selections from next month's South by Southwest Film Festival -- during the festival.

iTunes and nostalgia

For its part, Sundance has allowed iTunes to stream some of this year's short film selections, such as the 12-minute "Acting for the Camera," which riffs on Meg Ryan's faux-climactic scene from 1989's "When Harry Met Sally."

One lesson here is that sex, lies and video still sell, and in more varieties than ever before.

"It's Friday night, you're calling or texting somebody" you're interested in getting to know better, said indie vet James Schamus, head of Focus Features, whose "Milk" is up for multiple Oscars. "You say, 'Hey, do you want to watch an IFC On Demand movie in my dorm room, or do you want to go to the movies?' If it's the first date, it'll probably be at the movies. If it's the third date, and you're lucky, it'll be [IFC]."

An audience member at the panel complained about the typical theater experience: "bad projection, bad sound, 15 minutes of commercials, 10 trailers -- these theaters are beating up on the audience."

As the movie infrastructure crumbles, it's no wonder that nostalgia was in abundant supply at this year's Sundance. Ethan Hawke reunited with "Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua for the ultraviolent "Brooklyn's Finest." Ashton Kutcher reprised Warren Beatty's sudsy "Shampoo" role for "Spread." "Black Dynamite" revisited the early '70s "blaxploitation" genre -- and sold for $2 million to Sony.

Even documentaries got into the redux act this year, as "The Yes Men" spawned a pranksterish sequel ("The Yes Men Fix the World"); the Doors broke on through again with "When You're Strange," and "Thriller in Manila" revisited the same Ali-Frazier fight that powered the Sundance hit "When We Were Kings" in 1996.

Although the fest's pre-film trailers came with the declarative logo "What's next," as if to answer the question on everyone's mind, the actual footage in these teasers had filmmakers such as Soderbergh and "Super Size Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock wistfully recalling the fest's jumbo days.

Whatever might be next, including more of the same, at least it's still in demand. Warner Independent's otherwise doomsaying ex-boss Mark Gill reported at the "Panic" panel that his young son -- and, presumably, millions like him -- has the movie bug.