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Beneath Contempt, written and directed by Benjamin Brewer, opens with a tragic car crash, then chronicles a slow, but engrossing, moral collision.

After staying out all night drinking and partying, Sean Beckett (Colin Janson) lights up his pipe for one last toke on the way home and ends up crashing his car, killing his three passengers, but leaving him alive. Flash forward four years later and Sean is released from prison with time off for good behavior.

Before the accident, we don’t know much about Sean. The film’s early scenes focus more on Mason Barnes (Mark Nimar), one of Sean’s victims. Mason is a nice, good kid who is comfortable having long talks with his mother. His last moments on Earth are spent happily in the backseat of Sean’s car, joking around with a girl.

Have You Seen This Movie?(Leave Your Own Review)

Post-prison, the film tracks two parallel storylines.

[1] Slamdance has officially announced the 2011 Feature Competition slate for the 17th Annual Slamdance Film Festival taking place January 21-27, 2011 in Park City, Utah. For those of you who don't know, the festival was founded in 1995 by filmmakers whose movies didn't get into Sundance, and has since become a yearly film festival spotlighting "emerging filmmaking talent and their new work." Slamdance touts that their festival is "programmed by filmmakers for filmmakers." While Sundance is still the big show in Park City, big filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (Memento), Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) are often mentioned as Slamdance discoveries. Hit the jump to read the full press release which includes the full line-up for the 2011 Festival. For Immediate Release Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2011 Feature Film Competition “All Is Not Lost” for Filmmakers in Park City and Commercially Year-Round Los Angeles - December 7, 2010 – Slamdance today announced the 2011 Feature Competition...

The lineup for the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival has been announced. The festival runs concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival and usually has its own gems. Recent films that have played at Slamdance include The Slammin’ Salmon and Steven Soderbergh’s Spalding Gray documentary And Everything Is Going Fine. This year looks to have its share of interesting titles including Beneath Contempt, Snow On Tha Bluff, and the documentaries Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football and Superheroes.

Hit the jump for the full line-up. The 2011 Slamdance Film Festival runs from January 21 – 27th.

Lineup via THR:

Narrative Competition (all films are from the U.S. unless otherwise noted)

Atrocious – directed by Fernando Barreda Luna. (Mexico, Spain) World Premiere, 75 min. Recorded evidence of the “Quintanilla Murder Investigation.” Cast: July Quintanilla, Cristian Quintanilla

Beneath Contempt – directed by Benjamin Brewer. World Premiere, 101 min. A young man returns to his hometown after serving a prison sentence for killing...

The Slamdance Film Festival wasn't that far behind The Sundance Film Festival in releasing their film line-up, and it's a compelling mix of titles. For those of you who don't know, Slamdance is another film festival that is going on at the exact same time, and in the exact same place as Sundance, and that's in Park City Ut, from January 21-28th. Slamdance focuses more on genre type indie films.

Check out the list below and tell us what you think! Do any of you plan on attending? I always try to catch a few of these films while up up in Park City.

Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2011 Feature Film Competition

"All Is Not Lost" for Filmmakers in Park City and Commercially Year-Round

Los Angeles - December 7, 2010 - Slamdance today announced the 2011 Feature Competition slate for the 17th Annual Slamdance Film Festival taking place January 21-27, 2011 in Park City,...

With the complete Sundance lineup now out in public you had to know that Slamdance couldn't be far behind. And it wasn't. The complete list of competition selections for Slamdance 2011 was announced today and it's a compelling mix of titles.

On the genre front Fernando Barreda Luna's found footage shocker Atrocious is the festival's one true horror entry while Simon Arthur's Silver Tongues also sounds like it could delve into dark thriller territory. Experimental effort The Beast Pageant is probably worth a look as well and I've been hearing growing buzz about inner city crime moc doc Snow On The Bluff as well.

On the real documentary side of things there are a couple music themed pieces - Road Dogs and Last Fast Ride - cranked up to 11. Stephan Wassman's Scrapper - the story of a group of men who collect scrap from a Us military bombing...

The Slamdance Film Festival which takes place each year in Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival has just announced its program for the 2011 edition. The festival was founded in 1995 by Dan Mirvish, Jon Fitzgerald, Shane Kuhn and Peter Baxter and has since become a year-round organization championing emerging filmmaking talent and their new work. The aim is to provide what its supporters consider a truer representation of independent filmmaking).

The fest has earned a solid reputation for premiering films by first-time writers and directors working within the creative confines of limited budgets. Festival discoveries have included directors such as Christopher Nolan (Memento), Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite).

The 17th annual fest will screen 10 narrative films and eight documentary features in competition from Jan. 21-27. Fourteen of the movies are world premieres. As part of this year’s festival theme — “All Is...