Sundance Film Festival

Where there are celebrities, there is swag, and the Sundance Film Festival is no exception. Nearly a dozen gift suites opened their doors Friday afternoon along the city's Main Street. Kate Bosworth, Andy Samberg, Emma Roberts and Rashida Jones are among the famous folks who stopped by the VEVO PowerStation SOREL Suite, where they could indulge in moisturizing facials and lip treatments from Fresh cosmetics and outfit their feet in snow-ready footwear. "I think we belong here," said Kimberly Barta, global brand director for SOREL snow boots.

The Robbins Library will host a free showing of the award-winning documentary "Gasland" at 7 p.m. Thursday as part of its ongoing independent film series. The documentary by filmmaker Josh Fox is about "fracking," a hydraulic process that releases natural gas from underground rock formations. When Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country road trip find out more about the process. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

The Sundance Institute and Women In Film are working together to track female filmmakers who are showing their work at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and plan to use the data to increase women's presence in all areas of filmmaking. The aim of the joint effort, announced Monday, is to "initiate a real hard look at why this constant lack of parity seems to exist in terms of the amount of women working in film and media and the amount of men," said Cathy Shulman, president of Women in Film.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff has abruptly resigned amid news stories examining his job performance and handling of contracts. Steve MacNamara wrote in a resignation letter Saturday that he would step down July 1. He wrote that "recent media attention I have been receiving has begun to interfere with the day-to-day operations of this office. " The Associated Press recently reported that while working for the state Senate, MacNamara helped steer a $360,000 no-bid consulting contract to a friend who now leads a task force rooting out state government waste.

Ethel Kennedy prefers coming to the Sundance Film Festival when she's not the star of a movie. She has been to Sundance in the past to see films by her daughter, documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy. This time, the widow of U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy is the focus of her daughter's film, the Sundance premiere "Ethel. " Ethel Kennedy said she likes it better coming to Sundance "just to see Rory's films. " Though initially reluctant when her daughter proposed the documentary, Ethel Kennedy opens up on screen with candid recollections about the family, including falling...

The crew working on "In Your Eyes" gathered at Mike's Auto Service in Amherst, N.H., Thursday for their last day of filming on the East Coast. The movie - written and executive produced by "The Avengers" director Joss Whedon, creator of television's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - has been filming in the Granite State for three weeks. The Brookline-bred coproducer of the film, Michael Roiff, told us the film will now move to Los Angeles for the other half of the shoot. Roiff was recently quoted in a New Hampshire Film & Television Office press release saying that...

Richard Gere once saw Utah from horseback while moving cattle, but his trip to the Sundance Film Festival to premiere "Arbitrage" is his first actual visit to the state. The 62-year-old actor says "it sounds ridiculous," but he was moving cattle through Nevada with some friends and "we rode up to a ridgeline and they pointed up, 'That's Utah there. "' Gere says it was a seven-day cattle-moving trip on horseback. He was in Park City Saturday to promote "Arbitrage," a thriller about the lure of money and power and how it affects one's...

The Robbins Library will host a free showing of the award-winning documentary "Gasland" at 7 p.m. Thursday as part of its ongoing independent film series. The documentary by filmmaker Josh Fox is about "fracking," a hydraulic process that releases natural gas from underground rock formations. When Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country road trip find out more about the process. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

One of the many Bay State stars at this week's Sundance Film Festival is Eric Mabius, an Amherst resident, who's promoting the movie "Price Check," in which he stars with indie queen Parker Posey. Mabius, who's best known for his role on "Ugly Betty," told the Globe before heading to Park City, Utah, that he shot "Price Check" last winter and that, as we might expect, "Parker's just too much fun to work with. " Mabius said he has a TV project in the works. He'll star with Kathy Najimy and Brooke D'Orsay in "Love's Playing Our Song," a Hallmark Channel movie that airs in July.

Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Eminem, Nas and Kanye West are coming to a theater near you. The Indomina Group said Friday it will release Ice-T's rap documentary, which features all those artists, in North America on June 8. Ice-T's directorial debut, "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month. The film shows classic rappers from across the country discussing how they write songs. The 53-year-old entertainer says "music and movie lovers alike will really get into it. "

The crew working on "In Your Eyes" gathered at Mike's Auto Service in Amherst, N.H., Thursday for their last day of filming on the East Coast. The movie - written and executive produced by "The Avengers" director Joss Whedon, creator of television's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - has been filming in the Granite State for three weeks. The Brookline-bred coproducer of the film, Michael Roiff, told us the film will now move to Los Angeles for the other half of the shoot. Roiff was recently quoted in a New Hampshire Film & Television Office press release saying that "there are a lot of states that...

Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Eminem, Nas and Kanye West are coming to a theater near you. The Indomina Group said Friday it will release Ice-T's rap documentary, which features all those artists, in North America on June 8. Ice-T's directorial debut, "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month. The film shows classic rappers from across the country discussing how they write songs. The 53-year-old entertainer says "music and movie lovers alike will really get into it. "

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "The House I Live In" won the top awards at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend, making them likely favorites for independent movie audiences in 2012. Directed by Benh Zeitlin and set in impoverished Louisiana, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" picked up the jury prize for best drama as well as best cinematography with its poetic tale of the bond between a father and a daughter. The documentary winner, "The House I Live In," was one of many documentaries at Sundance 2012 that looked at a...

PARK CITY, Utah - Is Sundance still relevant? Granted, this question gets asked every January; doubt is part of the festival's institutional DNA. Either corporate visigoths and glitzy stars have poisoned the spirit of independent film, or the movies unveiled in any given year are too small, too depressing, too uncommercial to survive outside the nest. And every year, the festival's resident godhead, Robert Redford, reminds us that it's all about the films and the singular visions contained therein.

A mythical film starring an 8-year-old girl and a documentary about the war on drugs took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" won the grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, and "The House I Live In" won the same honor in the U.S. documentary category Saturday at the independent film festival's awards ceremony. Directed and co-written by 29-year-old first-time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" follows a girl named Hushpuppy who lives with her father in the southern Delta.

Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana came to the Sundance Film Festival to promote their closing-night film, "The Words. " The two actors play a married couple in the movie, which follows an aspiring writer who gains fame when he finds an old manuscript and passes it off as his own. The pair avoided any appearance of their reported off-screen romance by staying apart from one another while posing for photos and giving interviews to support the...

Massachusetts-bred stars continue to parade around the Sundance Film Festival. On Sunday, Newton guy John Krasinski fielded questions about his new film, "Nobody Walks," a family drama co-written by Lena Dunham of "Tiny Furniture" fame. One day before the Pats big win, Medford's own Maria Menounos was spotted on the red carpet for the movie "Lay the Favorite," based on Beth Raymer's gambling memoir. The films stars Bruce Willis, Joshua Jackson, and Rebecca Hall, of "The Town. "

Mary J. Blige is lending her support — and her voice — to a documentary showing at the Sundance Film Festival about sexual assault in the U.S. military. Blige attended the Friday world premiere of "The Invisible War. " Producer Amy Ziering says the multiple Grammy winner would write an original song for the film after the Sundance festival. Blige's song, "Need Someone," plays over the closing credits of the film. Written and directed by Kirby Dick, "The Invisible War" examines the trauma suffered by female and male victims of...

Eugene Jarecki's documentary at the Sundance Film Festival looks at the cost of America's war on drugs — its social and human as well as financial cost. With "The House I Live In," the filmmaker takes a close-up look at the results of U.S. drug policy. Jarecki said he was moved to explore the issue because, while his parents escaped persecution in Nazi Germany, he sees another kind of Holocaust taking place in poor communities hit by harsh drug laws and mandatory minimum sentences.

Regardless of the outcome of the presidential primaries, Ice-T already has his mind made up about the forthcoming election. The rapper and actor, who is making his directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival with the documentary "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," says he expects President Barack Obama to be re-elected. After that, he predicts Hillary Clinton will be the next president. The 53-year-old entertainer said, "She did the Secretary of State job, she was a G, she held it down, she didn't cry," referring to the former New...