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DIRECTOR
Craig Brewer, 36

WHO HE IS: Hirsute helmer of passionate, sweaty, soulful, booty-shakin' Southern dramas like Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan.

WHY HE'S RADICAL: After every studio in town declined to produce Hustle, the tale of a rapping pimp suffering through a midlife crisis, the film seduced Sundance. Even more provocative was Brewer's follow-up, the heartwarming story of a wild-eyed nymphomaniac who gets chained to a radiator for her own damn good. Brewer describes himself as the cinematic equivalent of a bat—"neither bird nor beast. I've got people back home going, 'You're such a sellout making all these big Hollywood movies.' God, if they really knew ... it's a struggle just to get these films going."

WHERE YOU'LL SEE HIM NEXT: Back in Park City, premiering Maggie Lynn, a picture about "what all good country music is about: cheatin'."

ON HIS HOMETOWN INFLUENCE: "I still live in Memphis, a place where men get in fights over girls in parking lots. It is a very passionate place that quickly can turn violent and sexual. Add a little bit of rock and roll and alcohol and streetlamps above you, and that's the world that permeates my films."

Photo: Emily Shur