The 2010 Sundance Film Festival opened Thursday night in Park City, Utah with a screening of Howl, a dramatic recreation of Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem from 1955 and the subsequent obscenity trial that ensued. Robert Redford, the independent film festival’s founder, introduced the film in his opening remarks at the Egyptian Theatre. The film is the work of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, made with help from the Sundance Documentary Fund. Along the way, the two decided to switch from straight documentary to a dramatic film, with James Franco playing Ginsberg.

This year’s festival is being billed as “renewed rebellion” and a “recharged fight against the establishment of the expected,” and the choice of an experimental film like Howl to open the festival underscores this re-emphasis on its less commercial, more “arty” roots. In his opening remarks, Robert Redford belittled the “ambush marketers” who, in previous years, capitalized on the festival and took over the town’s main street to sell their chic sunglasses and cell phones. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, who, as Redford bitingly put it “doesn’t have anything to do with anything,” turned up at the festival for no apparent reason, other than to be photographed.

The festival has a reputation for screening “difficult” films, though some, like last year’s Precious, have gone on to find broad popular appeal. Another film that first screened at Sundance, the anti–big business The Corporation, was also seen by a wide audience, especially on television.

The festival has a new section this year for films that cost less than $500,000 to make, and the new festival director, John Cooper, spoke about a possible partnership with YouTube to make festival films available as Video on Demand. This type of arrangement, along with self-distribution, may be necessary to save the independent film, which has not fared well in recent years.  

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