Preceded by short:Heavy Metal Parking Lot (Jeff Krulik, John Heyn, U.S., 1986): A demonstration of America's limitless vocabulary and cultural insight, as mediamakers Krulik and Heyn cruise the crowd awaiting Judas Priest at a Baltimore arena. (16 mins, Color, Betacam, From the artists)By day, Dan Cleveland is a courier for a delivery service, his hair pulled back in a presentable ponytail. But at night he lets his hair down and haunts the makeshift recording studio in the dank basement of his home. Cleveland, a wannabe rockster, has spent years struggling to compose a heavy-metal CD for his faltering band Dark Horse. Driven to succeed, he has triumphed over most obstacles-departing band members, faulty equipment, deteriorating health-but one obstacle proves too formidable: his utter lack of talent. Still, with crazed ingenuity, Cleveland persists, popping Prozac and Zoloft to keep the fires in his head quenched, mending everything else with duct tape. He is the Horatio Alger of the metal set, a diligent worker, powered by equal shares of heavy mettle and light fantasy. "It's like hitting a dead end, but, see, that's where people sometimes screw up," Cleveland offers. "They see a dead end in front of them but it's not really a dead end, it just looks like one." Wildly detailed and strangely melodramatic, Belgum's Driver 23 strikes a dark, noisy chord.-Steve Seid