Here’s our take on Sundance with some pictures to follow

5 Sundancers hit the slopes of Park City to enjoy a day of skiing and snowboarding.

Here is our day. <-click to view the movie

Featuring:

Hannah Feigin, Chris Werre, Frank Arcuri Jr, Lindsay Comins, and Travis Tyler

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…)

I am here to apologize and thank you all at the same time. In many ways I wish we met in different conditions or better yet had more days together. Like a great friend you introduced me to great food, people and places to shop. Yet I want to thank you for allowing me to have the days I did have with you, and for providing me with another town that feels like home. I will miss you but you will have provided with the backdrop for some of my greatest memories.

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Usually when one goes to films at Sundance, the director and sometimes the crew introduce themselves before the film starts. They give details about themselves or little tidbits about the movie to come. Normally, I find the meet and greet really pointless. Yet when I went to Indigenous Shorts I was struck by a small cluster of members for Rocket Boy as they introduced themselves. These people lived and breathed the definition of indie film. They shared TV dinners on set and only had one microphone for the entire short. This crew is one to watch out for because they are determined. So let me play the crew’s introduction for you!

View of Main Street

It is the end of Sundance for us: technically the festival still has another day but we’re leaving in the afternoon so we will be missing out. Now that it’s over for me I suppose I should write a reaction to the time I spent here and all that I experienced. What an experience. Aside from just being able to attend Sundance, I got to attend Sundance for course credit! How awesome is that? Super awesome. (more…)

Main Street, Park City

Being in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival (and all of the stuff going on around it, like Slamdance) was definitely an exciting and memorable experience. It was amazing to see the US premieres (and in several cases the world premieres) of the newest indie films and not knowing if you just saw a movie that will be the next big thing or a movie that will never be seen again by anyone who didn’t see it here. I found myself genuinely hoping for all of the movies I saw to receive the highly sought after distribution deals, especially after the Q&A sessions with the directors, casts, and crews. They all put so much passion, heart, and effort into an endeavor that may be their big break, but could also come to nothing. I have even more respect now for the amount of work that goes into making a film and especially into making one that makes it to this level. I also feel like I have a slightly better grasp now on the ever-elusive term “independent film.” (more…)

Sundance 2011 has been an incredible and interesting experience. As one of the few people who did not run into a single celebrity while being here, I found my experience to be solely based on the films I saw. Here is a review of the films I saw and the experiences I had here in Park City, Utah. (more…)

One of my favorite experiences here has been the short films that are occasionally shown before the feature films here at Sundance and Slamdance. A short film is exactly that, a film that is not feature length. Usually shorts are shown in programs appropriately titled shorts programs, where many shorts are shown one after another. The beautiful thing about these shorts is that some of them that have premiered here in Park City have eventually returned fully blossomed into feature lengths. This independent film festival held each year presents filmmakers old and new, with feature length and shorts opportunities they wouldn’t have had other wise. (more…)

Receiving a standing ovation at Sundance is a pretty big deal. In fact, receiving a standing ovation at Eccles Theater (which seats about a 1,000 plus) is about as epic as it gets for a filmmaker. The goofy, brilliant, and lovable Mike Cahill wowed the audience with his first feature film Another Earth.

Another Earth offers a unique blend of drama and science fiction. On the night that a twin planet earth is discovered, John Burroughs (William Mapother), loses his family when the recently M.I.T. accepted Rhoda (Brit Marling), slams into his car. Four years later, after John wakes from his coma, and Rhoda is released from prison, their story begins to unravel.

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