In announcing the competition slate for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, its longtime director, said he sees the beginning of a new era in independent filmmaking. "Filmmakers are undergoing a massive expansion in perspective and aesthetic qualities," he said. "Where once independence meant a detachment, a kind of navel-gazing, that doesn't exist right now. Instead, there is engagement and innovation. Filmmakers are going out and engaging the real world in terms of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling."