Sundance: Tough Movies, Tougher Deals

January 23 -- First-time feature director Ilya Chaiken has created a compelling, unique story about motherhood and relationships among the underground art and music scenes of New York with Margarita Happy Hour, as yet our favorite dramatic film of the festival. While Happy Hour has enjoyed some organic word of mouth and received some distributor interest over the past couple of days, its sales rep, Steven Beer, expects to watch that buzz build before he's able to sell the film. "We're in mile eight of a 26-mile marathon," Beer told Mr. Showbiz today. "I think this is a film that we'll sell after the festival, primarily because there are not any big names attached to it. I also think it's a bit edgy and at the moment, it seems that distributors are paying more attention to flashier films."

While we can't wholly disagree with Beer, one of the most explicit, provocative films to play the festival in recent years is circling its wagons and fielding multiple offers. Raw Deal: A Question of Consent is a documentary focused on the sensational Gainesville, Fla., rape case of Lisa Gier King, who accused a University of Florida fraternity member of raping her, and another member of videotaping it. Her charges were contested, and Raw Deal presents both sides of the sensitive story. The movie is reportedly fielding interest from major distributors, indies, and cable television. Because of the controversial nature of the film, both in subject matter and content (the contested videotape is shown), striking any kind of deal will be complex and the details could take a while to iron out, according to a source involved with the talks.

Working the MicIt's become clear over the past few years that filmmakers can't just let their movies speak for them — they have to be pithy in front of a microphone as well. Documentarian Doug Pray, whose film about the Seattle music scene, Hype, played to accolades at the 1996 festival, returns this year with Scratch, a look at the history and artistry of hip-hop DJs and turntablism. Pray got up to introduce his 10 p.m. screening Friday evening and said that his sole goal in making the film was "to make a movie that would get into Sundance, where you would not have to turn off your cell phones before the movie started." His goal was accomplished to a booming soundtrack from Dilated Peoples, the Jurassic 5, Q-Bert, Mixmaster Mike, Grand Mixer DXT, Steinski, the X-ecutioners, and others.