"It's been 'TheYear of the Documentary' for at least the past two years," quipped Sundance Film Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore dryly as he dodged a question about the validity of Sundance 1999's muchbandied-about tagline. Nonetheless, documentaries did indeed garner a surprising amount of attention at this year's festival.

Last year's string of narrative competition dazzlers was a tough act to follow, but several features did stand out. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchezs The Blair Witch Project practically reinvented the horror genre with its scary pseudodocumentary format. The moviemakers kicked off the buying season by signing a distribution deal with Artisan Entertainment after the film's sold-out midnight premiere on the first weekend.

Genghis Blues

Mark Illsley's quirky comedy Happy Texas also made a splash when it closed with Miramax for an alleged $7-10 million. The 24 Hour Woman, by festival veteran Nancy Savoca, was very well received; Michael Polish's complex Twin falls Idaho and Thom Fitzgerald's sexy Beefcake also drew favorable notices. But stealing the show for quality, range and dramatic content was a documentary program that generated at least as much excitement as the narratives. Roko and Adrian Belies Genghis Blues won the Documentary Audience Award with the story of a blind bluesman's triumphant journey to the heart of Asia, in his quest for the ancient throatsinging tradition. Unanimous acclaim and a distribution deal with Sony Classics went to Chris Smith's American Movie, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, which brought the subject matter of indie filmmaking to a metaphorical level. Shot at the famed Bed-Stuy Boxing Center, Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen's poignant On the Ropes pieced together the stories of three young boxers and their coach as they trained for the 1997 Golden Gloves Tournament. Rich photography and keen editing blurred the line between documentary and fiction and won the film a Special Jury Prize. Barbara Sonneborn's harrowing Regret to Inform, (a subsequent Academy Award nominee) won the Director's Award. Other films that created a stir included the controversial and always sold-out Sex: the Annabel Chong Story, by Gough Lewis, the Hughes brothers' American Pimp, Rory Kennedy's American Hollow, and Jon Else's Sing Faster: the Stagehands' Ring Cycle, winner of the Filmmaker's Trophy.

Guinevere

"One of the qualities that made this group so impressive, and the reason why they can be viewed as a group" concedes Gilmore in a phone interview a few days after the festival,"is the significance of the subject matter and the way the filmmakers explored themes of the American subculture. American Movie, American Pimp, On the Ropes, and Genghis Blues were not necessarily considered documentary material in the past:' Citing, among others, last year's Academy Awardnominated The Farm, by Liz Garbus and Jonathan Stack and Vicky Funari's Paulina, Gilmore explains that "What's happening is a real revolution in this country as far as the aesthetics of documentaries. Documentaries have now evolved from the idea of personal doc into a distinctive vision that has built in the last decade-they're no longer educational. Technological progress, the so-called digital revolution-much talked about in recent years-is taking longer than expected, but has opened up possibilities by lowering costs. Downsizing crews and equipment has freed filmmakers stylistically and is changing the model aesthetic in documentaries-the filmmaker brings complexity to the work and strong emotional content. There's a certain intimacy in documentaries like Barbara Kopple's Wild Man Blues and American Hollow-there's an intimacy and emotional closeness that's absolutely captivating."

Sugar Town

Robert Altman's latest effort, Cookie's Fortune, opened the festival with a comically dark look at the idiosyncrasies of an all women, three-generation, small-southern-town family. Featuring seamless ensemble work from a cast that includes Glenn Close, Charles Dutton, Patricia Neal, Liv Tyler and Julianne Moore, the film segues between generations exposing, now playfully, now morbidly, the longings, appetites, phobias and dark secrets of each of the women. On a decidedly darker note was Tim Roth's provocative directorial debut The War Zone, based on Alexander Stuart's wrenching novel about incest. Darkest of all, Errol Morris's riveting new documentary, the work in-progress Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. drew a perplexing portrait of the man who authored The Leuchter Report, a document alleging the nonexistence of gas chambers at Nazi Death Camps. "Human beings can believe absolutely everything," mused Errol Morris at the Q&A after the screening, maintaining that "Sick, sad and funny" are the three basic ingredients of my films." Lighter fare included Allison Anders and Kurt Voss's centerpiece premiere, the spirited Sugar Town, Scott Sanders' ingenious debut Thick as Thieves and Doug Liman's (Swingers) follow-up film, Go.

An otherwise fairly flat Dramatic Features competition category spawned a tantalizing directorial debut by Hampton Fancher with The Minus Man and the Lili Taylor-starrer A Slipping Down Life, by Toni Kalem, based on Anne Tyler's novel. Fittingly winning three prizes in a ceremony vaguely resembling the Academy Awards was Tony Bui's Three Seasons. Set in post-war Vietnam, Bui's melodramatic tale about redemption won best Cinematography for Lisa Rinzler's arresting issues/33/images, as well as the Audience and Grand Jury Awards. Among other winners were Audrey Wells's radiant Guinevere, picked up by Miramax, featuring fine performances by leads Stephen Rea and Sarah Polley, and tied the Waldo Salt Screenwriting award with Frank Whaley's Joe the King. Eric Mendelsohn won the Directing Award for Judy Berlin. The Filmmakers Trophy went to Gavin O'Connor's delicate and exuberant Tumbleweeds, nabbed by Fineline a few days before the end of the festival. The Cinematography Award for documentary went to Emiko Omori for Rabbit in the Moon and Regret to Inform. Despite more than a few bursts of genuine inspiration on both fiction and documentary fronts, Sundance 1999 remains a year that escapes definition and is perhaps best summarized by Robert Redford's opening night remarks: "Independent Film is not into answering but into questioning, for as long as there are filmmakers of passion, vision and commitment it will never be dull, and that's the way we like it" MM