PARK CITY, Utah — The competition to get noticed at Sundance can be steep. Taking on a big topic, or a big name, can provide much-needed attention, but with the documentaries on offer here this year, it was usually the smaller projects that impressed. One of the most anticipated documentaries was Morgan Spurlock’s “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” With “Super Size Me,” Mr. Spurlock’s personal anatomy of an all-McDonald’s diet, the director rocketed to fame as someone willing to put his body at risk to prove a point. But in “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” Mr. Spurlock plans for danger in the Middle East without much purpose. Positioning himself as a video-game hero hoping to search out and destroy the man working to kill “the American Dream,” Mr. Spurlock sets himself up as a rogue, solo (and thereby qualified) investigator hoping to solve the problem that has thwarted so many world leaders, armies, and countries before him.

But where Mr. Spurlock’s ingénue approach raked in $20 million for “Super Size Me,” here his inexperience with the subject matter often comes off as boasting, naïve, and trite. With his plot to catch Bin Laden clearly out of reach, Mr. Spurlock spends the length of his film in search of a plot to justify his larger budget and newfound spotlight.

Christopher Bell uses a similar approach to much more success in his film “Bigger, Stronger, Faster*.” A lifelong weight lifter, Mr. Bell struggles with the temptations of steroids, especially with both of his brothers championing the positive effects of the drugs. Through the now distorted lens of his childhood heroes — Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger — Mr. Bell places himself in the center of the debate over steroid use and how it affects the American ideals of physical domination and fair play.

Various approaches to American artistic cult figures were on display in documentaries playing Park City last week. Alex Gibney’s Hunter S. Thompson biopic, “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson,” often veers into hagiography, but Steven Sebring’s “Patti Smith: Dream of Life” avoids similar problems with 10 years of access to the singer and a stream-of-consciousness approach to her words and music. Another, Marina Zenovich’s “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” an often sympathetic look at the expatriate director convicted of statutory rape in 1977, was a decided crowd pleaser and eventually sold to the Weinstein Co. and HBO for international and American rights.

Turning away from celebrity, Nanette Burstein’s “American Teen” aims its lens at how teens behave in our country when among their peers. The film, which follows the lives of four high school seniors in a small Indiana town for one year, won Sundance’s documentary directing award. Elsewhere, director Sacha Gervasi’s story of a few Canadian rockers who have been devoted since their teens to breaking into the American market might finally have a happy ending. “Anvil!: The Real Story of Anvil” is an often raucous portrayal of a 1980s hair metal band who never quite hit the big time. Toiling away in the obscurity of Ontario, the two original members still manage to keep the dream alive despite myriad setbacks and reality checks. The jovial, aged rockers lend both tragedy and humor to the film. With varied references to “This Is Spinal Tap,” it’s often difficult to remember that the humorous but well-meaning film is not a mockumentary.

Many more serious films dominated the documentary category by refracting some of our nation’s major political events in various ways. Margaret Brown’s “The Order of Myths” follows race relations at the Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile, Ala., while Carl Deal and Tia Lessin’s “Trouble the Water” examines the effects of Hurricane Katrina from the point of view of a local rap artist and her husband.

But the festival’s most interesting approach to an American tragedy was accomplished in a highly indirect way. “Man on Wire,” director James Marsh’s story of Philippe Petit, follows the highwire artist and his friends as they retrace their “coup” to break into the World Trade Center in the summer of 1979 to perform a routine for passersby below. The film, which took home the documentary audience award, manages to retell this light romp of whimsy with the twin towers playing a central role. As the films trails Mr. Petit’s jovial gang, video images depicting the towers under construction at the time take on new meaning. As one watches this nimble band of French and American men plot their lighthearted espionage in and around shadows and office floors that no longer exist, it’s hard to ignore the similar events that would lead, two decades later, to wholly unamusing results.

mkeane@nysun.com