The Sundance Film Festival is always full of surprises.  Some are snappy like Little Miss Sunshine or silly like Napoleon Dynamite.  Others are serious like An Inconvenient Truth.  A surprising number of Sundance movies are deeply spiritual.   They range from the dark comedy of Adam’s Apples to the heartfelt drama of Save Me.  

For five years, I’ve taken a group of students to Sundance in search of transcendent moments.  We call our gathering the Windrider Forum.   At the 2008 fest, we were surprised by the sublime charms of Henry Poole is Here.  Yet, like many independent films, it experienced a quiet death at the box office.   I kickoff off the 2009 edition of Sundance with a tribute to this overlooked gem, starring Luke Wilson.