An Associated Press story on CNN.com this morning says “it’s rare for the Sundance Film Festival to start with a documentary..and [yet] organizers say this year’s opening night film, Chicago 10, represents just the sort of bold gambit the United States’ top independent-cinema venue likes to see in its movies.” Well, okay…but Brett Morgen‘s film, to go by the various descriptions, isn’t the kind of thing Sundance programmers usually pick for the opening-night attraction. Not to my recollection, at least.

Sundance programmers have always chosen to begin the festival with a film with a thoughtful but moderate pulse — every major film festival (Cannes, Toronto) tends to do this. Totally par for the course. This makes me concerned, of course, that Morgen’s film may be thoughtfully moderate…let’s hope not.
Chicago 10 “is a film that I think at one level is really basically about risk-taking, about people who want to change the world, so in that sense, it’s inspiring,” Sundance director Geoffrey Gilmore told AP. “It speaks to what goes into the struggle for social change, which is not unlike what goes into the personal vision of independent film.”