Along with new festival directors, this year the Sundance Film Festival had an entirely new vision. 

Main Street was crowded, people dined and socialized well into the early morning and Sundance just felt more "alive" than it was last year.  This could be partly due to the slight rise claimed in the American economy or it could simply be the better selection of films.

As proof that the festival is doing it's job, many of the films are moving on to be featured in other festivals.  One such film is an indie titled, Bilal's Stand.  Bilal's Stand was written and directed by local Detroit and MTV nominated filmmaker Sultan Sharrief.  The films tells a story based upon Sharrief's own journey through the story of Bilal, a Muslim Detroit High School student who struggles against his family's wishes to continue their taxi stand business while overcoming society's narrow views on sex, race and religion in order to achieve his dream of a higher education. 

“After working on this movie for over four years, I never dreamed the film would have such an impact,” said Sultan Sharrief. 

Bilal's Stand is set to play the Pan African Film Festival, February 10-17 in Los Angeles, after that, it heads to Germany for the Berlin Film Festval.  And it all started with Sundance.

by Dianna Renée