Here we are, the glorious Sundance Film Festival 09′ in Park City Utah has come to an end! Man, it has been one awesome / exhausting trip. I just want to start by saying I am so grateful that I was given this opportunity to go on such an enriching journey that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Ever since I can remember, which is pretty much back to my terrible twos, I can remember having a deep interest which blossomed into full on love for film. I have always been the person who gets overly emotional during a film and will start tearing up or straight out bawling. Or I will be on the floor laughing uncontrollably, preferrably the latter. Although, I do like a good cry every now and then, it’s therapeutic.

I have been lucky to indulge in this interest and study film at Eckerd, taking some extremely interesting and fun courses where I have actually worked on the making of short films. I hope to pursue a career which can be like a creative outlet for me, like tv and film!

I made various connections both business wise and friend wise! I climbed the never ending staircase to heaven (our beautiful condo, situated perfectly on Empire Avenue, looking over mainstreet.) I walked wide-eyed up the infamous main street, taking in all the people and places. I shmoozed with the rich and famous, (mostly extremely friendly and talented filmmakers I met at slamdance) which was an experience in it of itself. I feel as though I soaked up as much as I could, although I do wish I took the time to watch a few more movies, since the whole point of the trip was watching film! I have taken away a new understanding and appreciation of independent films and I definitely hope to be able to attend the Sundance Film Festival again, and bombard my brain with more films that will leave me questioning and anticipating more.

I also want to note the great experience I had volunteering at Slamdance, Slamdance might be (according to some) a smaller festival formed by the “reject” films from Sundance, but to me it is right up there with Sundance if not cooler! All the people I met / worked with were super friendly and made my time there quite pleasant. I also saw most of the films that Real Ideas Studio worked on with Slamdance in the aspiring filmmakers film competition, all of these films were quite good and inspiring! 

Here is a quick review of all the films I saw and what they were each about: (more…)

Ashley Judd as HELEN

 
Ashley Judd performs brilliantly in the extremely dramatic and touching film, HELEN. Written and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck, Helen examines a woman who seemingly has the “perfect life” (a successful teacher, married, has a beautiful daughter) but is actually struggling with serious mental illness that is deteriorating her mentally  as well as physically. We watch Helen being eaten away from inside out by her bipolar disorder and depression. We also witness the powerful and inspiring bond that arises between her and another woman through their struggles. The breakdown Helen undergoes is extraordinarily realistic as well as heart wrenching.

Talk about, depressing, dark and emotion driven, this film is not for the faint of heart. The cinematography compliments the story to a T. The muted and monochrome like colors juxtaposed with Helen’s descent into mental illness are genius. 

What I really liked about this film was that it was not your cliche film what with predictability and a happy ending. I loved the elusiveness that existed within the story and how there was not always easy answers or any answers at all, and things didn’t always work themselves out. I also loved the message of never giving up no matter how hard it is and even when you want to give up more than anything. I am  a big believer in the saying, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” and this message definitely emanates from the film. (more…)

I will never in a million years forget the experience of my first (and hopefully not my last) visit to the Sundance Film Festival. In all honesty, it wasn’t quite what I expected, but it never let me down. Each and every little thing contributed to the experience: the 200+ stairs that MUST be climbed several times a day, the theater loop shuttle that exceeded maximum capacity almost every time, duplicating that sardines-in-a-can feeling. Even paying $20 for a sandwich and a soda (!!!) had its own special influence.

Park City is an iconic mountain town. Surrounded by snowy mountainous terrain, the bitter cold demanded layers upon layers of clothing.

Sundance is what you make it to be, and I don’t know if I could write enough in one blog to convey how much fun I had… I enjoyed most of the films I saw, and I can only hope now that some of these great works are picked up and distributed so one day I can say “I was there for the premiere!”

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Main Street

There is a little bit of everything for everyone in Park City, that is during the Sundance Film Festival.  Where It is common for companies to take over various places on Main Street just for the festival. Main Street is a charming and unique street that although has some length to it is worth walking. During NON-festival hours the street is home to many a lovely restaurants, clothing shops, and various art galleries, etc. But when the big ol’ festival comes to town many of these little art galleries get turned into well, something a bit… louder.  Some one has to talk about and critique the nightlife! so I will take on that responsibility and let everyone know that the nightlife in my personal opinion is worth commenting on.

Queer Lounge Entrance

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Humpday was a film by Lynn Shelton about two old college friends. Ben (Mark Duplass) is married to a wife he loves, and the two are attempting to have kids. Everything gets thrown up in the air when Andy (Joshua Leonard), Ben’s old friend from school shows up on his doorstep at two in the morning. Ben is an artist, he travels, and lives a very “Kerouac-esque” life. After a drunken dinner party and subsequent night (while Ben’s wife sits at home with cold pork chops) the two entertain an idea that two straight guys having sex would be a perfect addition to Humpfest, a porn competition. This becomes a sort of macho challenge between the two old friends, each maintaining his commitment to this idea and each trying simultaneously to let the other know that its “okay” to back out. Eventually, Ben must tell his wife what his plans for Andy’s “art project” are, and things just go downhill from there. Deadset on facing the thing that makes both men most uncomfortable, simply to prove themselves, the situation is unmistakably funny yet also telling.

Mark and Lynn

With mostly unscripted dialgoue, the director says “the writing happened in the editing room”. Throughout the filming, neither the director nor the characters knew if both men were going to eventually follow through and enter the competition. This style of filming lent an air of sponteneity and realism that adds a lot to the film, with original dialogue such as “You know, you aren’t as Kerouac as you think you are, and I’m not as white-picket-fence as you think I am. These black and whites!” The film was shot in order, and over the course of ten days and was built entirely around the actors. It raised a certain philosophical question: should you do what scares you most, or makes you least comfortable, just for the sake of doing it? A funny, light comedy. Not ground-breaking or exceptional, but good.

I had a great experience at the Sundance Film Festival. Not only did I see many interesting and unique films but I was also able to see the filmmakers and actors in person. I was able to ask questions during the Q and A section after the films in order to better understand what inspired the directors and or writers to create the film. I was also able to better understand the struggles they went through in order to make the film. for instance Antoine Fuqua filming in the projects of Brooklyn for Brooklyn’s Finest.

Brooklyn Project

 Or Jean-Stephane Sauvaire finding children soldiers to play the parts of children soldiers in Johnny Mad Dog. It gave me a very personal view on the filmmaking process that I could have gotten nowhere else.

Aside from the terrific films I saw there were other upsides to sundance. I was pleasantly surprised with most of the restaurants I ate at. Bandits was one of my favorite spots. A bar-b-q restaurant with an old western cowboy theme that had some of the best nachos I have ever laid my hands on. Another favorite of mine was Good Karma a Indian restaurant that had great lamb curry and holla bread. (more…)

 Kimjongilia, a new film playing in the 2009 Sundance World Documentary Competition by NC Heiken, is not designed merely to inform audiences about the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, but to enrage and inspire the world community to do what it takes to overthrow his regime and overcome the suffering he inflicts upon the North Korean citizenry.  

The documentary takes its name from the symbolic flower of Kim Jong Il, created to celebrate his birthday and alleged to represent wisdom, peace, justice and love.  The film opens with a montage of propagandist images and music from communist North Korea, smiling workers protected by the original “Great Leader” Kim Il Sung.  The film ends on a similar montage, but with new music suggesting liberation and new images drawn from the many interviewees, who tell their own personal tales of struggle and oppression.   (more…)

We Live in Public

It’s Saturday night in Park City and another festival is winding down. The first weekend of the festival is always the most chaotic and crowded. I find the second weekend more pleasant even if it is a bit sad to see things coming to a close. Shuttle buses are less frequent, people more relaxed. For the first time in ten days it is snowing, and with the weather everyone seems to be mellowing out, finding some place to stay warm.

I had a ticket to the Grand Jury Prize Documentary Award winning film - and had settled down into a cozy seat in the Library theater, waiting for the announcement as to which film it would be. I was slightly disappointed to hear it was something I’d seen just yesterday - I’d been hoping to catch something I’d missed - but in hindsight the award makes complete sense: Ondi Timoner’s We Live in Public was disturbing but brilliant, a powerful portrait of an internet pioneer with a remarkable vision of the future we are living now. Unlike many of the documentaries that played at Sundance this year, this one (by the director of Dig!) makes inventive and entertaining use of the possibilities of the medium, and was definitely not made for a PBS audience.

I’ve seen just over 30 films here in Park City, at both Sundance and Slamdance, and in my opinion this is the strongest lineup I’ve encountered in the years I’ve been coming to the festival. As usual, the documentaries tend to be among the best that Sundance has to offer. While I was laughing out loud at Black Dynamite, amused and entertained by Larry Fessenden and Ron Perlman’s performances in We Sell the Dead, intrigued by the ideas in Moon and in the even more profound The Clone Returns Home and even brought to tears by Slamdance’s Mississippi Damned, it was the documentary films that will have a lasting impact on my thoughts and attitudes and actions. (more…)

My friend Matt Went is here at Sundance, although not with our Eckerd College program. He is part of a program called Real Ideas Studios. This program puts a group of aspiring student filmmakers together for the ten days of the festival, and each group produces a final film in one week to be screened at Slamdance on the last day of the fest. There were eight groups, and after the screening I think its safe to say they all put a tremendous amount of effort into their films. Each film was a documentary about various topics in or around Park City, and all were intriguing. Having spent quite a few days in Park City now, I recognized many aspects in their films, or had experienced some of the things their documentaries were about. 

The Real Idea Studios program is open to any filmmaker, or aspiring filmmaker, to compete for best documentary. The program seeks to redefine “real world experience” as a global collaborative and cultural immersion within mentoring creative arts programs. They also have an emerging filmmaker program at Cannes Film Festival. Contact Info: info@realideasstudios.org

Click here to watch them! (more…)

I really enjoyed this unique film, written and directed by Robert Siegel who wrote The Wrestler. This film is about a stereotypical loser Paul Aufiero played by the hilarious Patton Oswalt. Paul works at a dead end job as a parking garage attendant and lives with is Mom at the veteran age of 36. Kevin Corrigan adds to the comedic cast as he plays Paul’s best and only friend Sal. Having nothing in common other than being underachievers and diehard Giants fans they still remain close friends throughout the film. (more…)