"Chameleon Street," the humorous true story of a self-educated man who impersonated a doctor, lawyer and other professionals, was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic competition of the Sundance United States Film Festival on Saturday night.
The documentary jury, however, chose to split its grand prize between two films - "Water and Power," a non-narrative exploration of parched land that was once rich farming country in Southern California's Owens Valley, and "H-2 Worker," a look at the restricted lives of more than 10,000 Caribbean men who harvest sugar cane in Florida each year.The awards were announced Saturday at Z Place, a Park City nightspot, during an evening celebrating this year's festival theme - "Independent Vision." The banquet program was emceed by Willem Dafoe, star of such films as "Platoon," "Mississippi Burning" and the upcoming "Triumph of the Spirit."
Filmmakers, whose low-budget works were entered in both the documentary and dramatic competition categories, sat in suspense to hear which films would be named winners in their version of the Oscars.
"Chameleon Street" director-screenwriter-star Wendell B. Harris Jr., who has spent a good deal of the past week in interviews with local and national media to promote the film, accepted the dramatic Grand Jury Prize. "H-2 Worker" producer-director Stephanie Black and "Water and Power" filmmaker Pat O'Neill shared the documentary award. Each award includes a $5,000 cash prize.
Jurors also voted Special Jury Recognition prizes to "Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia," a 28-minute documentary that was too short to qualify for the competition and was screened before a formal entry film, and "To Sleep With Anger," a dramatic competition film that starred Danny Glover.
The Cinematography Awards in each category, which carry $1,000 cash prizes from Eastman Kodak, went to Maryse Alberti for the documentary "H-2 Worker" and to Peter Deming for the comedy "House Party."
The Audience Awards, voted by audience members who cast ballots after competition films, went to the documentary "Berkeley in the Sixties" and the dramatic film "Longtime Companion."
And the Filmmakers Trophies, awarded by the independent competition filmmakers themselves to peers in each category, went to "House Party" and the documentary "Metamorphosis: Man Into Woman."
The festival was in full gear Saturday, with screenings rapidly selling out as it quickly became the most crowded day of the 10-day event. The hottest ticket was the afternoon world premiere of Alan Rudolph's mystery-comedy "Love at Large," starring Tom Berenger, Elizabeth Perkins, Anne Archer, Annette O'Toole and Kate Capshaw.
The hot ticket Friday was "Blue Steel," another world premiere, introduced and discussed afterward by Jamie Lee Curtis, who stars in the violent action thriller as a rookie cop, and its director Kathryn Bigelow ("Near Dark"). Both were received warmly by the audience, though audience members argued about the film's merits as they left the Egyptian Theatre.
But everyone who attended Melvin Van Peebles' live show Friday afternoon agreed it was a marvelous display of his multiple talents. He offered an informal collection of readings from his novels and stage plays, film clips from a never-released movie ("I used it as a tax write-off"), anecdotes about his life in show business, and a number of wonderful songs accompanied by piano and bass - concluding with his son Mario Van Peebles leading the audience in a sing-a-long to his father's "Opportunity." It was one of those wonderful once-in-a-lifetime moments the festival offers.
That might also describe the wild rock concert performed Thursday evening by the Soviet band Kino, following a showing of the Soviet film "The Needle," which starred the band's lead singer, Viktor Tsoi.
And if you looked closely you could see stars like Bette Midler dressing down to go unnoticed among the hordes of people attending movies. Midler really couldn't go unnoticed, however. Nor could many others.
But the quiet celebrity who sparked the most whispered discussion in the Egyptian's lobby was Sondra Locke. You may recall that Clint Eastwood was a festival participant earlier in the week.
Films that won Grand Jury Prizes will be shown again Sunday. See the schedule on page E10 of today's Arts Section for times and places.
The dramatic jury was composed of Steven Soderbergh, writer-director of "sex, lies and videotape"; actress Alfre Woodard ("Miss Firecracker," "Cross Creek"); New York film critic Armond White (The City Sun, Film Comment); experimental filmmaker Morgan Fisher ("Standard Gauge"); and film scholar Peter Wollen, who has also written and directed films ("The Passenger," "Friendship's Death," respectively).
On the documentary jury were filmmaker Susan Fromke ("Karajan in Salzburg"); producer-director Christine Choy ("Who Killed Vincent Chin?"); Michael Renov, associate professor at USC's film school and editor-in-chief of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video; Ed Lachman, a director ("Songs for Drella") and cinematographer ("Desperately Seeking Susan"); and producer Orlando Bagwell ("Mississippi, Is This America?").