Born out of the idea that the Sundance Film Festival has gotten a bit too cozy with big studios and slumming celebrities rather than independent filmmakers, The Slamdance Festival — which goes on in Utah simultaneously with its Paris Hilton-attracting counterpart — aims to rectify that. The Slamdance on the Road festival presents all ten of last year’s award-winning films. They include Shunka, a visceral meditation on the material and spiritual worlds with scenes of ghosts, insects and cowboys; Snow and Ashes, a drama about a war correspondent in Eastern Europe; and the documentary Bhopali, which chronicles the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in India. 2 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. 14 Pews, 800 Aurora. For informa-tion, call 281-888-9677 or www.14pews.org. $5 to $10.

Sat., May 14; Sun., May 15, 2011

This article appears in May 12-18, 2011.

Bob Ruggiero has been writing about music, books, visual arts and entertainment for the Houston Press since 1997, with an emphasis on Classic Rock. He used to have an incredible and luxurious mullet in...