Sundance From the Comforts of Home

The Sundance Film Festival – the world's preeminent launch pad for new American independent film -- kicks off tonight in Park City, Utah with Brett Morgan's "Chicago 10." While the festival is best experienced in the freezing-cold flesh (temperatures are particularly low this year), Sundance has increased its online presence in 2007, so those without tickets can enjoy the event without ever setting foot in the snow.

Some of the festival's 71 shorts are available starting today here on Sundance's website. A total of 46 films will be shown as Flash-based videos for free, while 32 shorts, as TDR previously reported, will be available for purchase on iTunes for $1.99

If you want to get to know the feature filmmakers behind the next Little Miss Sunshine or Half Nelson, Sundance also has a "Meet the Artists" section, which includes interviews with this year's directors waxing pretentiously and/or humbly about their labor-of-loves. With the help of YouTube and the Sundance Channel, Four Eyed Monsters filmmakers Arin Crumley and Susan Buice will also be vlogging the fest.

The fest also announced a partnership with Moviefone, which will host a Sundance Film "digital hub" that will offer exclusive interviews with filmmakers, as well as celebrities asking questions posed by the general public.

The Wall Street Journal Online also has movie clips from some of the higher profile films here.

And while this particular video called "Second Coming," currently making the rounds on many a video site, is not a part of this year's festival, the short mock-trailer -- for an indie road-movie comedy pairing Hitler and Jesus -- is an apt send-up of what we can expect during the next ten days of Sundance.