Alicia's Sundance Film Festival Picks: Ice-T and Spike Lee

Editor's note (Jan. 25): PBS will broadcast Slavery By Another Name on Feb. 13. Look for it in your local listings!

InThe Hidden Smile, a 10-year-old orphaned boy in Addis Ababa tries to integrate into a gang that's part of a whole street children's society where daily survival is a major challenge. (Directed by Ventura Durall, shown through Jan. 26)

Slavery By Another Name recounts the many ways in which American slavery persisted as a practice many decades after its supposed abolition. This documentary shows how an American moral failure has been obscured in history. (Directed by Sam Pollard, shown through Jan. 28)

In Red Hook Summer, when Flik's mom deposits him at the Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn to spend the summer with the grandfather he’s never met, young Flik may as well have landed on Mars. Fresh from his cushy life in Atlanta, he’s bored and friendless, and his strict grandfather, Enoch, a firebrand preacher, is bent on getting him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior. (Directed by Spike Lee, shown through Jan. 28)

“Majo” Tonorio, a.k.a. Filly Brown, is a raw, young Los Angeles hip-hop artist who spits from the heart. When a sleazy record producer offers her a crack at stardom, Majo faces some daunting choices. With an incarcerated mother, a record contract could be the ticket out for her struggling family. (Directed by Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos, shown through Jan. 27)

Incorporating break beats, fresh rhythms and freestylin', Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, captures the soul and original genius of some of hip hop's legends, including Chuck D, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, Mos Def, KRS-One, Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg. (Directed by Ice-T (What?) and Andy Baybutt, shown through Jan. 28.)

Click here to get information on times, dates, and purchasing tickets to see Sundance Festival films in Park City, Utah.