What do you get when renowned portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell decide to collaborate on a film on black culture, inspired by the idea of a coffee table book? You get The Black List (recently bought by HBO Documentaries and retitled The Black List: Volume One), a portrait of black America that is at once intimate and larger than life. Picture a gorgeous coffee table book filled with portraits of famous African-American men and women, brought to life and saying the most erudite and occasionally unexpected things, and you have an inkling of what's been captured in this film.

Born over a lunch date between Greefield-Sanders and Mitchell, The Black List, the title of which is a deliberate play on the negative connotation often given to the word "black," was initially conceived as a book, but Greenfield-Sanders quickly realized that it needed to be a film, done as a series of interviews with prominent African-Americans. Mitchell also has a book in the works that will flesh on the snippets of interviews in the film into longer stories.

We have an unofficial motto around here: as fast as they're dealing at Sundance, we're typing to tell you about it! Of course, we're all benefiting from the great coverage already being provided by indieWIRE. In the third deal announcement of the day -- and remember, the festival doesn't officially begin until Thursday night -- HBO Documentary Films has picked up The Black List: Volume One.

The doc, directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, "presents a fascinating series of mini-portraits of 20 influential African Americans." Elvis Mitchell (pictured), former film critic for The New York Times, interviews names like Lou Gossett Jr., Chris Rock and Keenan Ivory Wayans. Mitchell, an affable interviewer, also served as one of the producers. The Black List: Volume One is part of a project that will include "a traveling exhibit, portrait book and a user-generated campaign designed for multiple platforms," and no, I have no idea what that last phrase means.

The reason for the portrait book --director Greenfield-Sanders had originally intended to become a filmmaker, but became fascinated by portraiture and switched to photography full-time. (He is currently a contributing photographer to Vanity Fair.) He then dipped back into filmmaking with Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart, a 1998 Sundance premiere. More recently, he made Thinking XXX, a brisk, entertaining doc for HBO based on his best-selling book of porn star portraits. FYI: The porn stars were more comfortable posing for pictures nude, rather than dressed.

A source told indieWIRE that HBO is planning a theatrical run later this year to quality the film for Academy Award consideration. At some point, of course, it will show up on the pay cable channel, but a separate deal is also planned for the DVD.