FILMS ABOUT PRISONERS TAKE TOP SUNDANCE AWARDS

PARK CITY, Utah -- The filmmakers took their cameras behind bars, and the
two movies that resulted won the Sundance Film Festival's top awards
Saturday night.

``Slam,'' documentarian Marc Levin's gritty fictional tale of a black poet
jailed for marijuana possession in Washington, D.C., received the dramatic
category Grand Jury Prize. Liz Garbus' and Jonathan Stack's ``The Farm,''
an intimate look at five inmates inside one of America's largest maximum
security prisons, shared the documentary Grand Jury Prize with ``Frat
House,'' which follows filmmakers Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland as they
join a fraternity and secretly record the brutal hazing rituals they endure.

All three films had built excellent word of mouth throughout the festival,
and last week Trimark Pictures bought the worldwide rights to ``Slam'' for
a reported $2.5 million.

``Slam'' also became the second award-winner in two years to depict the
lively form of poetry performance known as poetry slam. Last year's
Audience Award co-winner ``love jones'' was set amid Chicago's black
underground poetry scene.

``Slam'' screening audiences erupted in applause at the self-affirming raps
by actors Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn, who reprised their verses at
post-film question-and-answer sessions and parties.

The dramatic category Audience Award, voted on by festivalgoers, went to
Chris Eyre's ``Smoke Signals,'' which also collected the Filmmakers Trophy,
awarded by filmmakers at the festival. Sherman Alexie adapted ``Smoke
Signals'' from his own novel about a young American Indian coming to terms
with his father's death.

It is being called the first movie written, directed, produced by and
starring Native Americans to get wide distribution; Miramax plans to
release it later this year.

``This is more than just a movie for Indian people,'' Alexie said after the
awards. ``This is social, cultural, economic and political history.''

``Smoke Signals'' also represents a coup for the Sundance Institute, which
gave the movie's screenplay an award two years ago and assisted in its
development.

The Audience Award winner for documentaries was ``Out of the Past,'' Jeff
Dupre's exploration of how history has marginalized gays and lesbians.
``Divine Trash,'' Steve Yeager's profile of filmmaker John Waters set
during the making of his gross-out classic ``Pink Flamingos,'' received the
documentary Filmmakers Trophy.

Penelope Spheeris' ``The Decline of Western Civilization, Part III'' won
the Freedom of Expression Award, which goes to a documentary that
investigates and informs the public about a pressing social issue. Unlike
Spheeris' first two ``Decline'' movies, which focused on the musicians in
Los Angeles' punk and metal music scenes, this one explores the sad lives
of young punk fans who tend to be alcoholic, homeless drug-users who had
been abused by their parents.

In the directing category, Darren Aronofsky won the dramatic feature prize
for ``Pi,'' a hallucinogenic depiction of a brilliant, haunted
mathematician working toward a staggering breakthrough. Its title actually
is the mathematical symbol for pi, meaning that it may do for movies what
the symbol for the Artist Formerly Known as Prince has done for music.

``We've got that in our contract to keep (the symbol),'' Aronofsky said,
referring to the movie's reported $1 million-plus distribution deal with
Live Entertainment.

Julia Loktev won the documentary directing award for ``Moment of Impact,''
her examination of the car accident that incapacitated her father.

Columbia College graduate Declan Quinn won the Cinematography Award for his
work on ``2by4'', Jimmy Smallhorne's tale of an Irish construction worker
in New York City. On the documentary side, cinematographer Tom Hurwitz was
honored for ``Wild Man Blues,'' Barbara Kopple's chronicle of Woody Allen's
recent jazz-band tour through Europe.

Andrea Hart received a Special Jury Prize for Achievement by an Actor for
her fearless performance in ``Miss Monday.'' She plays a high-strung
British business executive who engages in a horrific display of binging and
purging.

Lisa Cholodenko won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for ``High Art,'' a
grim love story between a heroin-snorting lesbian photographer and her
female neighbor.

The Special Recognition in Latin American Cinema Award went to Carlos
Marcovich's ``Who the Hell Is Juliette,'' from Mexico.

The awards were presented before a crowd of filmmakers, actors, sponsors
and reporters at the Park City Racquet Club. For the second year in a row,
Sundance Institute President Robert Redford was a no-show.

Last year an avalanche near the Sundance Institute kept him away. This year
he sent word that he was too busy finishing work on his upcoming film ``The
Horse Whisperer.''