Me with the makers and voices of Marcel the Shell

I’m not sure if any of my fellow Sundancers from Eckerd had the pleasure of sitting through a Shorts Program, but I was lucky enough. I got there with just a few minutes to spare and found a seat inside the Holiday Village Cinema Theater.

Shorts are 3-20 minute films that can be anything from talking snails to ghetto noir films. The shorts are a nice way to break up the Sundance experience and try something different. It doesn’t allow you to get too involved in the plots or the characters, which offers a chance to try something really experimental.

One of my favorite shorts was titled Love Birds. Besides being aesthetically stunning, it managed to have me laughing my ass off. (more…)

They say you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. I hate to say it, but that cliché consumes my mood right now. I’m sitting on the flight from Salt Lake City to Houston right now reflecting on how incredible this experience really was. Anyway, this trip was about a lot of things: the blogging, the Hollywood star sighting, and figuring out the stupid (yet handy) bus system. But for me, what was most important was the personal interaction with admirable artists. (more…)

I still can't stop thinking about "The Green Wave."

“Iran? Wait, that isn’t Iraq. Oh, it’s the big one next to it? I don’t know anything about it,” I thought as I purchased a ticket to The Green Wave. Until this movie, I’ve never seen a person get murdered. And I mean an actual person dying in front of my own eyes.

In early 2009, the youth of Iran (which is a large percentage of its population) organized into a massive movement. Attempting to challenge the political and social systems in place, the Green Wave (as they called themselves) found a unique and liberal candidate who promised change, Mir Hossein Mousavi. As the movement grew, it seemed impossible that his opponent, Islamic fundamentalist, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even stood a chance at winning. When voting day came, something strange was going on. Ballots were almost incomprehensible and very confusing. Voting centers were allegedly running out of ballots early in the day, and many closed down. When the results came in, the numbers were the exact opposite of what the majority of Iranians predicted.

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When I heard that Alex Gibney had a new film premiering at Sundance this year I had to get my hands on a ticket. Luckily I was able to get one early and was eagerly awaiting the screening of his new film Magic Trip. I was a huge fan of his past documentaries including Gonzo: The life and works of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, and also Enron: The smartest guys in the room. Magic Trip was a documentary about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters embarking on a country wide road trip from California to the Worlds fair in New York. Gibney uses original footage in this documentary and it is always entertaining to see these weird acid heads driving across country in their bus, Further. A major theme of this film was the application of LSD. It was very obvious that their use of LSD was in the name of expanding their mind and conscinous and pushing the laws of the universe. As hard of a concept that is to grasp Ken Kesey and the merry pranksters exemplified it gloriously. In order to illustrate the effects of LSD and also better help the viewers who have not taken LSD better understand the drug Gibney has a scene in which the audio tape of Kesey’s first use of LSD playing with the words illustrated and strange images and bright colors flashing. Also it was a monumental task gathering all of this footage and arranging it in an understandable manner. The audio and video taken during the road trip usually were not synched up so Gibney had the challenge of having great footage but with no sound and having to figure out a way to make this dilemma work out in the end. Another issue is that most of the video is out of focus, I can imagine it would be a difficult thing for the merry pranksters to operate a camera while tripping on LSD. Also it was really cool that they brought one of the women on the bus with Kesey to the screening as a special guest to answer questions for the audience. I found Alex Gibney’s newest film was very well done and that he overcame many tough challenges to retell the strange story of Ken Kesey and the merry pranksters, it did not disappoint.

One of the most impressive aspects of the Sundance film festival to me was the accessibility of meeting the filmmakers and actors and also their friendliness to their viewers. During a screening of a film the director and usually some of the other people involved in the film such as actors, producers, editors and so on are at the screening and give an introduction and also a question and answer session after the film. I thought it was really interesting to hear what the directors have to say about their films. Also being given the opportunity to ask questions to the director is a rare and important opportunity. It was an awesome thing to me that at every screening that I attended while at the festival I was able to meet and shake the director’s hand. Also it seemed to me that the directors and actors really cared about what their viewers had to say and also were happy that we enjoyed their films. On multiple occasions I met the director and actors at the question and answer session and then on a completely separate occasion they would recognize me and say hello, which really struck me. When I met the director of the woods for the second time he was excited that I enjoyed his film and happy to meet me again. However he was disappointed because they had already given out most of their swag and he really wanted to have something. He ended up finding one last sticker and also gave me his button off of his shirt because they didn’t have anything left. I wasn’t asking for these things but it was still neat that they wanted me give me some type of memorabilia from their film. This struck me as someone who really cares about his viewers, and I am glad that this type of spirit is exemplified at Sundance.

“We were promised change, but it never came. Our cities crumbled around us. Our streets ran red with Hawaiian Punch.” The Woods was an interesting film which was one of my favorite films I’ve seen at Sundance. The premise of The Woods is that a few grown up children retreat to the woods in order to bring about change for themselves. However the group doesn’t really know how to survive in the woods naturally. They hook up electrical outlets into the trees, they bring washers, dryers televisions, and a refrigerator to their base camp. They try and revert back to nature and political simplicity but no one in the group really cares other than the leader Daniel. They eat only brand name foods like hot pockets, kool-aid jammers, and cheez-its. I found it slightly ironic that they go out into the woods and eat these types of foods and take televisions and such with them. The film was also kind of a play on the counter-culture films of the 70s. Some of the cinematography was amazing with the mix of shots of nature, the strange outfits the characters were wearing, and also the body paint they wore. One of the best scenes was when the characters were spraying each other with water guns filled with different colored paint. All the different colors flying around, everyone laughing covered in paint really made for an amazingly overwhelmingly happy aesthetic. A major theme in this film is the idea of realizing things in the world are messed up but not really knowing what one can or could do to change that. This is an important theme in my opinion because I agree with the director and feel that many people our age also agree and struggle with the same dilemma. One of the cool aspects of Sundance is that you are able to meet the director and actors and such. It was amazing to me to meet and talk with the director and actors that I had just seen on film. They were all really cool people and I saw them again later and told them how much I enjoyed the film and the director gave me a button of his off his shirt because they didn’t have any swag left. This had an awesome impact on me and showed me that he actually cared about his viewers. This film really struck me personally and I found it right up my alley for types of films I enjoy watching. I really hope it gets distribution so that others can see this film and connect with it the way that I did.

Hell and back again is a truly moving documentary that follows a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan and makes the viewer wonder what effects war has the soldiers. The director Danfung Dennis was embedded with the marines in Afghanistan for about 7 months on three separate occasions. Dennis was able to gather an impressive 500 hours of footage from his time overseas. This is Dennis’ first film, he is actually a photojournalist for the New York Times. During the question and answer session Dennis said that he chose to use film instead of photos because we have seen so many photos of war that we have become numb to photos, so he decided to use film to convey his message. Personally I found this film to be very moving, and it really made me wonder about what this war is doing to the youth of our country. I found it very interesting that the most moving images were the scenes that were filmed back in the states. A major issue that is raised in this documentary is how the soldiers deal with problems when they get back to the states. The soldier that Dennis follows was shot in Afghanistan right before his last mission. The film shows how his whole life is thrown off kilter from doing what he loves, being completely dependent on his wife after his injury, and also how his mind is affected from all the pain pills he has to take because of his injury. One of the most impressive aspects of the documentary was the use of sound layering. When there would be a scene where the soldier would be dealing with memories of the war there would be audio of gunshots and screaming from the footage Dennis captured in Afghanistan. This really helped add another moving layer to the scene and also helped the viewer better understand the weight of what the soldiers are dealing with. All in all I found this documentary to be very moving and really made me wonder and care about what our soldiers are dealing with. This really was one of my favorite films that I have seen while at sundance.