By Sarah Keenlyside

There’s something special about chilling with a group of your countrymen when visiting foreign lands. Saturday night, two swell Canadian gatherings took place, the first at Telefilm’s Canada Lounge in the Marriott Hotel’s Prime Minister’s… er… Presidential suite. The room was packed wall to wall with everyone from government types (I didn’t realize we had a consul in Denver…), to distributors, journalists, and filmmakers – a number of whom had films at Slamdance (and very few of whom had films at Sundance).

Afterward, I rushed off to a press screening of "New York Doll" (more about that later) before heading out to another Canadian fete, this time in honor of Peter Raymont’s film "Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire." I can’t remember what the restaurant was called but they served great appys and I had fun chatting up the likes of fellow Vancouverites Mark A. Lewis who’s film "Ill Fated" plays Slamdance, and Blaine Thurier who will screen his film "Male Fantasy" also at Slamdance. (I saw it at the Vancouver Film Festival earlier this year – it’s totally weird and definitely worth checking out.)

Frankly the evening was a bit of a contrast to the night before’s activities at the "Rize" party, during which I felt a little alienated. I ended up leaving early having been herded into the non-VIP area, which was mainly populated by other members of the press. Maybe it’s because I’m Canadian and, therefore, by birth a bit of a socialist, but I have trouble accepting the presence of a VIP room at a party for a documentary about – as "Rize" filmmaker David LaChapelle told me yesterday – "haves and have nots". Anyway, turns out I should have stuck around because just after I left, the kids from the film put on a performance for everyone and it was (reportedly) really fun.

The film, on the other hand, was extremely compelling and definitely worth a watch. "Rize" documents a group of kids from South Central LA who created a dance movement called Clowning, which they see as an alternative lifestyle to using drugs or joining gangs. At first, I thought it absurd that these kids dress up like clowns and dance to hip hop music, but as the film progresses it makes more and more sense. Clowning is certainly less absurd than gang members shooting an innocent little girl on her way to the 7-11. In fact, one could say that Clowning is really the antithesis of gang banging.

Director Greg Whiteley’s "New York Doll" was another highlight for me – I think it’s my favorite film so far. I fell in love with the New York Dolls as a kid when I found a picture of them in flamboyant garb in my step-dad’s Encyclopedia of Rock. Anyway, the film did so much more than satisfy my curiosity about the fate of the band. It was also a touching portrait of Arthur "Killer" Kane, former bassist for the Dolls and later Mormon convert, whose life after the band’s premature breakup was nothing short of tragic. The film elegantly juxtaposes the two main forces in Arthur’s life – religion and the ghost of rock and roll, and still manages to pay tribute to one of the most seminal punk bands in music history. With cameos from Morrissey, The Pretenders’ Chrissy Hinde, Iggy Pop, Mic Jones of the Clash and The Boomtown Rats’ Sir Bob Geldof, this film is a must see for rock and roll lovers and Mormons alike.