The Sundance Film Festival has wrapped for the year, which means it's also time to check for survivors in the debris at its snaggle-toothed cousin, the Slamdance Film Festival. Begun in 1995 by a posse of spirited malcontents who were relative pioneers in the growing field of regarding Sundance as compromised and cut off from the "real" independent film scene, Slamdance — held, like Sundance, in Park City, Utah — concentrates on showcasing first-time filmmakers, with a special love for anyone or anything who tried, and failed, to get into Sundance. It started small but has since produced its own roster of notable discoveries, including Christopher Nolan's Following, Marc Foster's Monster's Ball, Jared Hess's Napoleon Dynamite, and the crowd-pleasing documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. This year's festival "received over 3,500 submissions from 25 countries for less than 100 programming slots."
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