The Slamdance Film Festival announced its program for the 2011 edition Tuesday morning.

The 17th annual fest, which takes place in Park City, Utah, simultaneous to the Sundance Film Festival, 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 Not Lost” — Slamdance will donate ten% of ticket proceeds back to the filmmakers.

“The quality and breadth of independent film has increased exponentially over the past few years,” said Slamdance president and co-founder Peter Baxter. “However, even as audience dissatisfaction with the standard studio fare grows, independent film continues to be squeezed out at the box office. Slamdance to the rescue!”
Here’s the full list of films:

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 his friends in a drunk driving accident. ?Cast: Colin Janson, Melanie May, Eric Eastman, Mike Bash, Abby Austin, Sarah Newhouse

Drama – directed by Matias Lira. (Chile) World Premiere, 80 min.?Three kids thinking that life is theatre.?Cast: Benjamin Vicnna, Diego Ruiz, Eusebio Arenas, Fernanda Urrejola, Isidora Urrejola
Fred and Vinnie – directed by Steve Skrovan. 89 min.?Lonely guy Fred Stoller is thrilled when his good buddy, Vinnie D’Angelo, the world’s happiest agoraphobic and fattest vegetarian, comes to live with him, until Vinnie also proves to be the world’s most maddening roommate.?Cast: Fred Stoller, Angelo Tsarouches, Scott Chernoff, Bill Rutkoski, John Asher, Harriet Rose, Sarah Rush, Lee Reherman

Pleasant People – directed by David Bonawits. World Premiere, 69 min.?When a frustrated singer songwriter finds herself at odds with friends and coworkers, she pushes through it the only way she knows how – faking a smile.?Cast: Jiyoung Lee, Josh Hall, Dave Marder, Sarah Atchison, Paula Trude

Silver Tongues – directed by Simon Arthur. World Premiere, 87 min.?Two lovers travel from town to town playing a dark game of deceit that soon spirals out of control, threatening their very relationship.?Cast: Lee Tergesen, Enid Graham, Tate Ellington, Emily Meade, Harvey Evans, Portia, Rosa Arrendondo, Adam Lefevre

Snow On Tha Bluff – directed by Damon Russell. World Premiere, 79 min.?Snow On Tha Bluffis the story of Atlanta robbery boy and crack dealer, Curtis Snow who stole a camera from some college kids in a dope deal and made a documentary about his life.? Cast: Curtis Snow, Frank Ringer, Curtis Lockett, Adrienne Lockett, D’Angelo Snow, Brandon Snow, Kita Snow

Stranger Things – directed by Eleanor Burke andRon Eyal. (United Kingdom, U.S.) 77 min.?An unusual and touching bond develops when grieving Oona reaches out to a mysterious homeless man, offering him a place to stay in her garden shed.?Cast: Bridget Collins, Adeel Akhtar

The Beast Pageant – directed by Albert Birney andJon Moses. 74 min.?The Beast Pageant is about a man who goes on an adventure.?Cast: Jon Moses, Ted Greenway, Emily Osinski, S. Michael Smith, Sam Hughes, Jon Eaton, Ron Bauerle, and Tigran Vardanyan

Without – directed by Mark Jackson. World Premiere, 88 min.?On a remote wooded island, a young woman becomes caretaker to an old man in a vegetative state. Her isolated routine devolves into a struggle with sexuality, guilt and loss.?Cast: Joslyn Jensen, Ron Carrier

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION (all films are from the U.S. unless otherwise noted)
Bhopali – directed by Van Maximilian Carlson. (India, U.S.) World Premiere, 84 min.?In 1984, the world’s worst industrial disaster devastated and contaminated Bhopal, India. Today the suffering continues, prompting victims to fight for justice and corporate responsibility, which has long been ignored.

Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football – directed by Rashid Ghazi. World Premiere, 93 min.?Fordsonfollows a predominately Arab-American high school football team from Dearborn, Michigan during the last ten days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and unearths the story of a community desperately holding onto its Islamic faith while struggling to gain acceptance in post 9-11 America

Last Fast Ride – The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess – directed by Lilly Scourtis Ayers. World Premiere, 86 min.?Last Fast Rideis a documentary film about the infamous bay-area punk rock performer Marian Anderson. Marian died all too young, and this is her story.

Road Dogs – directed by Shane Aquino. World Premiere, 83 min.?Road Dogsfollows three of Hollywood’s most visually vibrant and heavily psychotic bands across the U.S. on a D.I.Y. tour occasionally having disastrous results.

Scrapper – directed by Stephan Wassmann. World Premiere, 81 min.?As the global war on terror takes a heavy toll on some local economies, a defiant group of desert outlaws turn an active US military bombing range near the Mexican border into their own free-enterprise zone of extreme survival. Driven by adrenaline and hunger, Crystal Meth and even scripture, they risk their lives to scavenge lucrative debris from exploded and unexploded ordnance in the kill zones.

Shunka – directed by CJ Gardella. U.S. Premiere, 75 min. ?Shunka is a vision of the material and spiritual worlds, and their coalescence; and of finding stark poetry in the haze of the every day in a small community in the Badlands.

Superheroes – directed by Michael Barnett. World Premiere, 90 min.? Superheroes is a journey inside the world of real life caped crusaders. From all over America, these self-proclaimed crime fighters, don masks, homemade costumes and elaborate utility belts in an attempt to bring justice to evildoers everywhere.

Zielinski – directed by Chase Thompson and Ryan Walker. World Premiere, 65 min.?The rise and fall of John Zielinski – the most blacklisted author in the history of Iowa.

Source: THR

Charles-Olivier Michaud’s Snow & Ashes was recently crowned the festival’s Grand Jury Prize Winner for Feature Narrative Fiction Film category at the 2010 Slamdance Film Festival. It tell the story of Blaise Dumas, a war correspondent wakes from a temporary coma to discover that his collaborator and photographer has disappeared and not come back with him after an assignment in Eastern Europe. He then sets out a journey to recapture the tragic event and to find the explanation behind his friend’s disappearance.

Here’s the nice-work-of-art portraits of the main casts of Snow & Ashes.

And the Snow & Ashes trailer.