It is easy to see why people come to Sundance for three specific reasons. The first is just plain movie going. You can see these people, arriving in Park City, searching to get tickets and waiting in line. The second is to see the celebrities and be seen with the new directors who might just be the next big thing. Lastly, there are the party goers who just want to rock the crazy scenes that pop up because of Sundance. I appear to be one of the few people who fit into a fourth group: people who just want to be a local for a week (I call us the semi-locals). Okay we want to see the films too, but we see something special beyond the celebrities, crowds and parties. We see real people.
As anyone could have guessed Slamdance, the smaller independent film festival held here in Park City every year, definitely had a more intimate vibe to it than Sundance.There really isn’t such a thing as a wait list line and as far as getting tickets goes we were able to buy tickets just an hour before the film was shown.My first Slamdance experience took place a one of larger ‘theatres’ here and my guess was the occupancy was roughly around 60 people, and couldn’t be much more than that.The only aspect that took away from casualty of the atmosphere was the amount of time they dedicated to the directors of the works to do some Q & A, where literally one of the directors had less than three minutes to speak and field questions and comments. (more…)
Last night a bunch of us (Hannah, David, Will, Chris, Cassia, and I) went to the Library Theater to catch the midnight premiere of Hobo With A Shotgun. The movie, starring Rutger Hauer as the hobo, was ridiculous and awesome. It’s gotten a distribution deal with Magnet Releasing, so if you get a chance to see it I definitely recommend it (as long as you’re not easily offended by blood, guts, profanity, or nudity). After the film and the Q & A session with the director and cast, I got lucky enough to catch Rutger Hauer by himself just outside the theater and he was nice enough to let me get a video of him saying “Hi” to Eckerd College. He also gave me a hug, which pretty much made my year. He’s definitely the coolest, nicest celebrity I’ve ever met. So here he is, Rutger Hauer, in all his awesomeness, saying hi to everyone back at Eckerd:
With a movie titled Martha Marcy May Marlene you would think it would be an upbeat film with an uplifting score involving four sisters who share a pair of jeans in order to stay in touch. Wrong, wrong. This psychological thriller is one of the more disturbing films I’ve seen in my life, and for no other reason that the idea that something like this movie could happen. There’s minimal violence or actual footage of gory, coarse scenes. However it still had this profound effect on me that in the end I didn’t even bother to wait once the credits began to roll, I needed to get out of the theatre and back out into beautiful sunny Park City.
Martha (left) and her sister
The premise is about a woman who is brainwashed and convinced into living with and becoming a slave to this bum, redneck cult who specialize in womanizing, subtle rape, and abuse. Often referred to as Marcy May, and Marlene (Elizabeth Olsen) by this cult there are disturbing scenes involving the cult leader having nonconsensual sex with all of the 10-15 women who live there at some point as an semi-initiation. Other scenes include some members of the “family,” as they refer to themselves, participating in home invasion, theft, and sometimes murder. (more…)
She may not be a Quentin Tarantino, or a Steven Soderbergh, but director Dee Rees did not disappoint with her first Sundance Film Festival premiere Pariah. Nor was my first impression of Sundance Film Festival disappointed either.Pariah, which began as a short 3 years ago also played at Sundance, and was backed by Dee Rees NYU film professor, Spike Lee.Pariah defined as one that is despised or reject; an outcast opened with a powerful quote by Audre Lorde“Wherever the bird with no feet flew she found trees with no limbs. (more…)
Kimberly Peirce is a passionate American feature film director. She was born in Pennsylvania is 1967 and since then has been all over the globe. While attending the University of Chicago she traveled to Japan for two years to work as an English teacher and photographer. After college she attended Columbia University as a graduate film student. It was here that she put her name on the map as a promising aspiring director after making a short film that was nominated for the Princess Grace Award by the Columbia Faculty. The film was her thesis project inspired by the life and death of Brandon Teena, a transgender from Nebraska who was raped and murdered. (more…)
To all us film buffs, or wanna be film buffs, or filmmakers in the beginnings: We did it. We did the Sundance Thing. How awesome is that, really? I know whenever I meet new people, that has been a conversation starter, even my dental technician called me up the other night asking how the trip was. Sundance is a way bigger deal than we can ever believe. I don’t think I’ve spent so much money before going to see movies. Normally, I wait to get Hollywood movies for around 5 bucks on Amazon, even if I do get them six or seven years later. Sundance is a big deal. We got lucky and had a trip pretty well paid for so that we could go and watch quality films, and then schmooze with the director and the entire cast. (more…)
Sundance is over, and it’s kind of a kick in the butt to get back into reality. I loved this false world I was living in, at the same time that it was real life. It was one man’s livelyhood on the line for his film, and another woman’s family backing her entire production costs. Real life and great worlds blended together to create a phenominal experience, and I want to share it with you now.
Friday Jan 16th
“Before Tomorrow” Sundance
Probably one of the most amazing films I have ever seen, it told the story of a family, and later a grandson and his grandmother. It definitely was amazing as my first film, and so beautifully shot. It had me and my seat neighbors in tears at the finale. (more…)
My ten day stay in Park City was an experience I won’t soon forget. Though I have no other winter terms to compare it to - yes, God help me I’m a freshman - it was the perfect blend of an exciting and relaxing trip. I dedicated myself to doing nothing but movie hopping, and the result was a (to me) staggering 25 films viewed during the trip. Thinking them all over there were definite front runners. Movies that resounded to me as a viewer for their original plot lines, jokes, filmmaking and informative q and a. For my own amusement, I tried to rate my 25 films from favorite to least, for there were also some movies that completely missed the mark! (more…)
