Can't Get To Sundance? Bring Sundance To YouCan't Get To Sundance? Bring Sundance To You

If you've always wanted to attend the Sundance Film Festival but the double whammy of economic doldrums and travel fears have rendered a trip to Park City, Utah, impossible this year, don't despair. The second-annual Sundance Online Film Festival lets the deskbound digitally experience the event.

Granted, you won't run into the likes of Jacqueline Bisset or Julianne Moore sitting at your PC, nor can you view any of the full-length features screening at the independent film festival, which runs Jan. 10-20. But until the close of the real event, you can check out nearly two dozen short subject films--provided you've got a fast enough connection. Visitors to the online festival site (www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org) can rate the films they watch, and that viewer feedback will determine the winner of the online festival viewer's award, to be announced during one of the legendary festival parties.

Be forewarned, however: The online version of Sundance isn't without the same problems plaguing other multimedia sites. A recent visit to the site couldn't be enjoyed without downloading an updated version of Microsoft Media Player as well as Shockwave's flash plug-in. And once all the tools are in place, several of the films--even accessed via a high-speed local area network connection--still are interrupted frequently for the dreaded buffering process. One short, "Twin Killing," an animated homage to the events of Sept. 11, couldn't be viewed with sound. A second attempt to visit the site via a 56k dial-up connection was more torture than pleasure.

But two films stood out during the abridged high-speed visit. The 3-D animated "Gone Bad--Episode 2" offers a surprising level of suspense during its five-and-a-half minutes, telling the tale of a lone fisherman who unwittingly catches a zombie in search of company. In the live-action category, anyone who's followed the dot-com collapse will appreciate "Behind the Startup: IceVan.com." Reminiscent of the feature-length documentary "Startup.com," which debuted at Sundance last year, the six-minute mockumentary follows the rise and fall of an E-commerce site that specializes in one-hour delivery of ice and ice-related accessories. Former Webvan employees who watch the short should brace themselves, though: It takes numerous not-so-subtle jabs at the failed online grocer.