The Sundance Film Festival opened on Thursday night with four features, including a documentary examining America's housing crisis, the fractured American dream and values humbled by today's lacklustre economy.
          
"I mean it's no secret that times are dark and grim. And in addition to that we're suffering from a government that's in paralysis. And so that makes it all a pretty grim time. But, I think the happy thing that we're pretty proud of is that here for this week we're going to see work from artists that even though we're going to see work that's reflective of these hard times, there's still... There's not paralysis here," festival founder Robert Redford said.
 
The documentary, The Queen of Versailles, follows self-made billionaires Jackie and David Siegel who at first glance may not seem in touch with many Americans who have struggled in the current, downbeat economy.
          
The film opens with the couple constructing their dream house: A 90,000 square foot mansion named "Versailles" inspired by the French palace.

Overall, there are more than 100 fiction and documentary films showing at the festival that runs for the 10 days in the ski resort town of Park City, Utah, east of Salt Lake City.

Other opening night screenings include two fictional tales, Hello I Must Be Going starring Melanie Lynskey as a demoralized, divorced 35-year-old who moves back in with her parents and Wish You Were Here, an Australian film starring Joel Edgerton as a man clinging to a shattered family.
          
Searching For Sugar Man, competing in the world documentary section, completes the opening night lineup. It is one of many films here centred on musicians and shows two fans looking into the mystery of how a would-be 1970s rock icon declined into obscurity.

Coming into the festival, other films on which audiences and buyers are focused include Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer, Red Lights with Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro and Stephen Frears' Lay The Favorite starring Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
          
Bachelorette, with Kirsten Dunst and Isla Fisher tells of a group of young, single women casting aside bitterness at a hedonistic bachelorette party. Numerous other stars are expected to appear including Kate Bosworth, Chris Rock, Julie Delpy and Paul Simon as the tiny, snowy town transforms into promotional suites and film parties.

The Sundance Film Festival has become a staple of the global film scene, with marketers and Hollywood elite descending on the small ski town of Park City for a yearly party celebrating the best in the entertainment business.

It also attracts other festival programmers, who look to Sundance for inspiration when choosing their lineups.

"Sundance has got to be arguably one of the top film festivals in the world if not the top film festival and the quality of the films they bring in year after year after year is always amazing. And so running a film festival we're always coming here hoping to pick off a few of these films and bring them to our festival and have a great time," says Max Naylor, festival planner for the Newport Beach Film Festival.

For some, the festival can be a happy and unplanned surprise.

"Yeah, we didn't know, we went to drive past Park City yesterday and we saw a sign that said festival event and we said 'what's happening?' and they said 'Sundance and like wow so me and my friend decided to come down today and shop and hang out," says Barbara Miller, a tourist from Baltimore.
          
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 19th through the 29th.