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The Sundance Film Festival is going on through Saturday in Park City, Ut. Sundance has been widely credited with bringing independent films to mainstream audiences. Commentator Jake Tapper is in Park City this week, covering the festival for the Sundance Channel's nightly show. He says that one thing that distinguishes an independent film is that it is highly personal -- about the filmmaker's own revelation or catharsis. But just because an idea or subject is important to a filmmaker does not mean that the rest of the world will be moved by it.

Trombone star Fred Wesley, Jr. is best known for his work as a sideman with James Brown in the 1960s and 70s, but Wesley is also a legendary R&B, soul and funk veteran, whose musical career spans five decades. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Wesley about the twists and turns of a long and storied career, which he explores in an autobiography called Hit Me, Fred, and subtitled "Recollections of a Sideman."

He supervised and conducted the music for the film adaptation of Chicago. His previous credits include the Broadway musicals Aida, Sunset Boulevard and Aspects of Love.

The 108th Congress has barely opened but freshman Rep. Max Burns is already running for re-election. The 54-year-old former professor and Fulbright Scholar figures he'll have to work early and hard to keep his seat. NPR's Juan Williams reports on the Georgia Republican's first days on Capitol Hill.

NPR's Michele Norris talks with Whitney Dow and Marco Williams, producers/directors of the POV documentary Two Towns of Jasper airing on PBS stations next Wednesday. Dow and Williams talk about how they each directed a separate film crew in Jasper, Tex., during the trials of three white men for the murder of a black man, James Byrd, Jr. He was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to death in 1998. Dow's crew of white filmmakers only interviewed white residents of the town. Williams' crew of black filmmakers only interviewed black residents of the town. The deliberate segregation of the film crews allowed residents to speak with a candor seldom seen on camera.

He directed and choreographed the new film adaptation of Chicago. It stars Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Queen Latifah. Previously, Marshall won an Emmy for Best Choreography for his work on the movie-musical Annie. He also directed and choreographed the acclaimed revival of Cabaret.

The U.S. government offered former Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega exile in Spain before his 1990 surrender to U.S. authorities and arrest on drug trafficking charges, a former high-ranking State Department official tells NPR. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to former Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson, who reveals that Noriega rejected the offer.

It's often hard to tell where Nicholson Baker ends, and the characters of his novels begin. NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr profiles the author, who has a reputation for finding magic in the everyday moments of ordinary lives. Listen to Baker read two excerpts from his latest novel, A Box of Matches.

Next year, 2,500 contemporary artworks owned by multimillionaire Friedrich Christian Flick will go on display in Berlin. The collection was rejected as "Nazi blood art" in Flick's native Switzerland.

Bruce Kluger and David Slavin poke a bit of musical fun at the six announced candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. TV's Friends has six fun folks -- could this be the start of something big?