It may be cold in Park City, Utah during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, but there are plenty of interesting documentaries to keep audiences warm. From rock stars to exiled directors to semi-obscure Canadian metal bands, the subjects of this year’s crop of documentaries are varied and ambitious. And with the ongoing writer’s strike putting a dent in next year’s schedule, movie studios will need to snap up not just scripted fair at the festival, but less expensive non-fiction material too. Studios will likely be looking to their independent arms to help bolster their bottom lines. Here are ten films from the festival we’re most excited about.

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures
Sort of a real-life “High Fidelity,” in which UK filmmaker Chris Waitt sets out to talk to all of his former flames after his current girlfriend dumps him.

American Teen
In hopes of documenting the teenage experience, Nanette Burnstein filmed a group of small-town Indiana high school students for ten months through their senior year of high school, capturing the insecurities, the heartbreaks, and the parental pressures of being a 17-year old girl. Michael Penn provides the music.
Slash Film says: “The best film of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.”

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
What may seem at first like a mockumentary, is in fact the true story of Candian metal band Anvil, who influenced the likes of Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, all of whom went on to sell millions of records. Anvil, meanwhile, has toiled in relative obscurity for the past 25 years. For the film, filmmaker Sacha Gervasi joins the band as a roadie during a Canadian tour, which is far from glamorous, and frequently hilarious.
Cinematical says: “Not just better than you’d think that a documentary about a 30-year-old Canadian metal band led by two lifelong friends in their 50s to be. It’s better than most music documentaries. It’s better than most documentaries, period.”

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
From Alex Gibney, director of “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “Taxi to the Dark Side,” comes this look at the life and work of Hunter S. Thomspon, one of the great outlaws of American literature. The film is narrated by Johnny Depp, who played the author in the film version of his “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

Made In America
Stacy Peralta, who has previously turned his cameras on the histories of skateboarding (“Dogtown and Z-Boys”) and surfing (“Riding Giants”), next focuses on South Central Los Angeles in this examination of an important African-American neighborhood.

Man on Wire
Unfolding like a good heist film, “Man on Wire” details the 1974 “artistic crime of the century,” in which Frenchman Philippe Petit strung a wire between the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers and danced for nearly an hour – with no safety net beneath him – before finally being arrested.

Patti Smith: Dream of Life
First-time filmmaker Steven Sebring followed the punk pioneer for 11 years putting together the footage that would make up this film. Lacking a traditional narrative, the film is a languid collage of Smith’s life both on and off the stage.
Hollywood Elsewhere says: “The movie is a pleasure, a journey, an attic sift-through, a huge charge.”

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Filmmaker Marina Zenovich casts an eye on the legal woes of Roman Polanski, acclaimed director, who’s work will be forever marred by his dalliance with a minor and his subsequent flight from the U.S. to avoid prison time. The film examines his decision to flee, and the court case that preceded it. The film is executive produced by Steven Soderburgh.
Variety says: “A mesmerizing portrait of the director as acclaimed artist and tortured human being.”

Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
Portrayed in Frank Marshall’s 1993 film “Alive,” the 1972 plane crash that stranded a team of Uruguayan soccer players in the Andes for 72 days, is revisited in a new documentary. Comprised of interviews with the real-life survivors, plus re-enactments of the events, the film eventually take the survivors and their children back to the actual crash site where memories of those incredible months flow freely.
Cinematical says: “Gripping, moving, and superbly-crafted.”

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?
Morgan Spurlock follows up “Super Size Me” with a travelogue of some of the world’s most dangerous terrain as he sets out to do what the U.S. government has thus far been unable to do: Find elusive Osama Bin Laden. Early rumors suggested Spurlock had actually found him, but those rumors appear to have been just that.
Slash Film says: “A film that every American needs to see.”

Related: Docs on Parade