Stewart Copeland has a long list of credits, and \"filmmaker\" turns out to be a new one. His 74 minutes documentary, \"Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out,\" will debut January 22 at the Sundance Film Festival.

The images, including lots of performance footage, are accompanied by a voice-over from Copeland that gives a first-hand view of what it was like to go from nearly empty in-stores to playing 60,000-capacity sold-out stadiums in a few short years.

And, more importantly, it shows how getting everything you wished for can be wonderful and deeply disturbing at the same time.

From 1978 to 1984 Stewart used to film everything: whether on tour or in studio, backstage as well as on stage. The drummer collected tons of videorecording from his own videocamera that remained stocked in the shelves of his private home for quite a long time. With the help of computer softwares and new technologies, all those recordings got alive again. Comments Copeland to Billboard:

\"This Super 8 film sat for 20 years in shoeboxes while I waited for a good medium to download it\".

The project started as a love letter that he intended to share only with his fellow Police-men Sting and Andy Summers, as well as a few close friends. But more people viewed the footage, and Primus mainman Les Claypool helped him submit the film to Sundance.

For Copeland, visiting his past brought many thoughts to mind. He says of the footage:

\"It\'s very cheerful. I could not find shots of us looking pissed off at each other. However I put my camera down the last year or two. I felt like I should be living it instead of shooting it. (...) I wish I\'d enjoyed the ride more. The concerts where I was playing with the best band in the world - we were given the biggest gift in the world - why am I not cracking a smile?\"

While there may never be a new Police album, there are some new interpretations of vintage Police material. \"Everyone Stares\" includes what Copeland calls his \"derangements\" of Police songs, seven mash-ups of sorts that he created using the original multi-track tapes of the material.

Stewart Copeland is in talks with Universal Music & Video Distribution about releasing the soundtrack, which would include the \"derangements\", and the DVD.