What was the controversy surrounding the movie Hounddog at the Sundance festival 18 months ago?”
In 2007, “Hounddog” went to the Sundance Film Festival carrying a controversy that made it the hottest ticket in town, but it left that January after getting a cold shoulder from film distributors and critics. But now, “Hounddog,” starring young Dakota Fanning, is howling again with Friday’s debut in U.S. theatres roughly 18 months after its difficult Sundance premiere, and few people are as happy as its writer and director Deborah Kampmeier. The girlhood drama kicked up a fuss even before it premiered at Sundance, the top festival for U.S. independent cinema, because religious and conservative groups objected to Kampmeier’s use of then 12-year-old Fanning to depict a child rape. There was no body double. The outcry, coupled with some negative reviews, sent distributors scurrying for the doors instead of ponying up the cash for the right to release a coming-of-age drama starring a top child actor who captured hearts in films such as Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds.” “It was painf
