Summing Up Sundance

January 25, 2008

PARK CITY, Utah -- Jamal Anderson knows a thing or two about upsets in the NFL Playoffs. Nearly a decade ago, he led the Falcons over the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game and couldn't help but think back to that game as he watched the Giants upset the Packers on Sunday during a party at Park City's Town Lift center.

"The Giants have been like a taiji, they feel like it is their karma to go to the Super Bowl," said Anderson, who will be on the upcoming season of Pros vs. Joes. "The Giants are a lot like we were in that when you believe you're a team of destiny, it's hard to lose. The Vikings were the greatest team ever when we played them but we knew we could beat them. The Giants know they can beat the Patriots."

Anderson watched the game with some celebrity friends including Will.i.am, Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton. He's currently trying to get his acting career off the ground after dabbling in sports broadcasting after retiring in 2001.

"Will Smith is not the only pretty black dude that's in shape," said Anderson, who recently signed with the Paradigm Talent Agency. "Will, the competition is coming. I'm trying to do $75 million on my first weekend too."

Bias View

The streets of Park City were lined every morning with movie posters for a documentary on Len Bias. Simply titled, Len Bias: The Legend You Know, The Story You Didn't, the documentary was not a part of the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, if you called the festival's office asking about it you got a terse response from someone who no doubt had to take the signs down every morning.

The only way you could've seen the film before it's released this spring is if you ran into writer Anthony Edwards or producer Sammy Steward, who walked around Park City, passing out DVDs of the film.

"We went straight guerilla street marketing with this film," said Steward, who was a 16-year-old kid in Washington D.C. when his father woke him up and told him the news of Bias' death. "We don't have a big organization behind us so we came down here with about 1,000 signs and DVDs and every morning at 5:30 we posted our signs all over the street. They took them but we posted them again. I'm sorry if we pissed off Sundance but we were just trying to promote our movie."

The film, which features rare interviews from family and friends who were in the room with Bias right before he died, was worked on by a crew mostly from Washington D.C., Bias' hometown where he still viewed as a cult hero by local basketball fans.

"Len was our Michael Jordan," said Edwards. "It's a passionate subject because Len touched our community so much. He was the next one to come out of D.C. He was supposed to be the next great one and we can never forget that."

LOL Film

Women snowboarders don't get a lot of love from the cameras. It isn't that they aren't beautiful and talented, but like many women sports they are often pushed aside and forgotten about in a male-dominated field. It would have been easy for Amber Stackhouse to accept this, but she refused to.

Stackhouse, a professional snowboarder, teamed with Roxy to produce and direct Labor Of Love, a film about 13 female snowboarders traveling the globe from Japan, Aspen, Norway, Sweden and even Park City to snowboard.

"We made the film more geared towards a girl audience," said Stackhouse, who appears in the film as a snowboarder as well. "But everyone seems to like it. There's a big mix here at Sundance and the reception has been positive."

The film's premiere, which was attended by Rosario Dawson, Marc Ecko and Adrian Grenier, drew loud ovations every time the snowboarders in attendance hit a move on the big screen.

"It's really cool to be an inspiration to someone else," said Comstock, one of the snowboarders in the film. "It's a great feeling to inspire young girls to know that they can do what we do."

Sundance Sightings
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith rolling up to Tao with six guests after they had already shut the club down and getting in so he could watch 50 Cent perform. ....

Former NFL quarterback Josh Booty grabbing as much swag as he could from the Boost Mobile Lounge and other gifting suites while little brother John David Booty was at the Senior Bowl. ...

Los Angeles Clippers guard Shaun Livingston rolling up to the Green Door Mansion, a 12,000 square foot pad in Deer Valley, and mingling with party goers after the Clippers lost to the Jazz earlier in the night. Livingston went down to the indoor court and picked up a ball but left the one-on-one games to the shirtless inebriated players. "I'll leave the games to you guys," he said as he walked off the court. "I can't play right now." ...

The surfers from Bra Boys, a film about the cultural evolution of the inner-Sydney beachside suburb of Marouba, throwing a party after the premiere of their film at Celsius Club and then going across the street to a party being thrown by Paris Hilton. ... "Sugar," a film about a fictional Dominican baseball star, Miguel "Sugar" Santos, being recruited to play in the U.S. minor-leagues debuted at Sundance. Jose Rijo, the 1990 World Series Most Valuable Player, who now works as an assistant for the Washington Nationals, served as the film's consultant and also played a part in the film. ...

Former Los Angeles Kings great Luc Robitaille threw his first Celebrity Shoot Out during Sundance but things didn't go as planned for him as he was traded for Jason Reitman, the director of Juno, after the first period by his coach/wife, Stacia. "That was the most disgraceful moment of my career," said Robitaille. "It's like at home, I can never do things right." ...

Golden State Warriors guard Baron Davis was at Sundance making the rounds with his friends Cash Warren and Jessica Alba. Davis is serving as an executive producer for Warren's film Made In America, a documentary about gang violence in South Los Angeles which debuted at Sundance.