The premier festival for independent cinema in the U.S., the Sundance Film Festival has launched the careers of many contemporary auteurs, including the Coen Brothers, David O. Russell, Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and Steven Soderbergh. This course provides the opportunity for advanced film students to hone their own creative and critical visions by viewing and discussing a wide variety of world premiere films, as well as by attending talks by filmmakers, businesspeople, scholars, and critics in the vibrant environment of Sundance. These interactions will be grounded in and stimulate further study in film history, criticism, and practice on campus. The course will explicitly privilege the connection between theory and practice and will help build collaborative relationships among students.