The 1998 Sundance Film Festival
Part II - The Trip Diary
Thursday, January 15
As the alarm went off at the Ungodly Hour of 5:30 AM, I slowly came to the realization that this was the earliest time I'd ever willingly gotten out of bed for, let alone the earliest I'd ever set on an alarm. I'm always anxious when taking trips, much more so than when I was younger and it was Christmas morning. Nevertheless, when taking trips, I tend to overcompensate for my usual tardiness, factoring in the delays I'd encounter when realizing I'd forgotten to pack something. The airport taxi arrived later than the agreed upon 6:15, but still enough for me to worry. Then again, I worry about the tiniest of things, like how self indulgent this paragraph is turning out to be.....
When I arrived at the airport, I had forgotten how large of a presence Continental Airlines has at Newark. It is, after all, their biggest Hub. They're big enough that I just heard they were merging with NorthWest Airlines, but retaining the Continental name. They're big enough that they bought the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands and changed its name to theirs. Heck, if 3Com can do it, so can they.
After boarding, I wondered who I'd be sitting with. The I saw a lot of attractive women traveling alone, or in pairs, so I hoped the odds were in my favor. Unfortunately not, as some guy trotted down the aisle with his two kids, and they weren't seated together. I'm not certain it was his, but the guy grabbed the seat next to mine, and initially wondered if he should take the seat across the aisle. I wished he had, because he drove me insane! The flight was bumpy the whole way, and the seat belt light was on constantly for all but 15 minutes of the flight. I think the pilot was being cautious, but he had every right. You may not remember, but our flight was less than a week after a passenger was killed during some turbulence on a flight over the Pacific, which was brought to our attention more than once during the trip. Unfortunately, my aisle mate could not, for the life of him, sit still for more than 30 seconds without fidgeting, getting up, grabbing the common armrest, or arguing with his kids, who played around in the aisle more than once.
I was hoping to talk to someone about Sundance, and I saw a lot of the movie catalogs opened during the flight, so as to improve the trip. It turned out that Mr. Tourette Syndrome's nephew was one of the writers of a movie premiering there called Montana, which was why he grabbed a last minute flight. Fortunately, once we were on the ground, I never saw him until the premiere, and he didn't recognize me one bit.
I collected my overpacked bags and then waited for the shuttle bus to my hotel. I overheard a young woman yelling at someone on the phone about having to share a room. An actress, I thought to myself. It turned out that she rode the same shuttle, but thankfully not to where I was staying. She ended up yelling at the driver not because of something real, but more because she wasn't done yelling from the phone call. Ignoring her, I ended up chatting with two other women who were also going to Sundance, and they were in it for the fun of it. They asked me if I was showing a film there, and for a millisecond, I thought of going along with it. After all, I had the look - long hair in a ponytail, beard, and baseball cap, which turned out to be some sort of standard issue gear for some of the attending filmmakers.
I arrived mid-day. This wouldn't be so bad except that I didn't
realize that the only Sundance event that takes place on the first day
was the premiere of Festival, Sliding Doors. I would have planned
things differently if I'd known this, so for next year, I'll know better.
Instead, I spent the rest of the afternoon doing the tourist thing and
getting the lay of the land. The place I was staying was more of
a residence inn than a hotel, so I ended up having dinner somewhere on
Main Street. I finally found the main ticketing area which was in
the building right above the Bus Stop, and also was the central office
of The Sundance Channel. They had closed right before I arrived,
so I sat down outside and watched a computer screen rattle off what movies
were still available during my stay (nothing much!), and I was determined
to go down when they opened the next morning at 9AM to get tickets to whatever
was still open during my stay.
Friday, January 16
At last, movies. That morning, I got up and headed down to find a long queue of people already in the ticket buying line. The Sundance people say they hold tickets for the day of many screenings, but I saw no evidence of it when it was my turn. Maybe those tickets went before I got up there, but who knows? Anyway, by the time I got to the front of the line, my attitude became "I'll take whatever's left if it fits in to my schedule." This turned out to be a good approach after all, especially because the tickets weren't too expensive.
After choosing everything that wasn't sold out, I wandered up Main Street to have breakfast, and I came across a restaurant that had a sign saying "The Best Breakfast in Utah." Not one to pass up on such an opportunity, I ventured in, and had OK eggs and a mediocre Belgian Waffle topped with Strawberries. Egad, I said to myself. If this was the Best Breakfast in Utah, they're doomed. I eventually found the MountainTop Inn, where they were hosting the SlamDance festival, and bought tickets to several films that would be shown on Saturday.
Later, I went to the first of the screenings that I had pre ordered, which was Who the Hell is Juliet? For a while, I really couldn't tell what sort of movie it was. It was a documentary, but then again, some of it was apparently made-up. It told the story of a young Cuban girl, named Yuliet (sic) whose mother had died after her father fled to the US (and ended up in New Brunswick, NJ!). Later, she appeared in a music video as the sister of the video's star's love interest. Since it mixed fiction with documentary , and I didn't know where which ended and the other began, I ended up calling it a Focumendary. Maybe that term will become a new buzzword if enough people use it.
At all the concession stands (well, more impromptu concession stations), they sold various coffees, candy, the occasionally decent sandwich, and $2 bottles of water, however, I don't recall seeing any popcorn for sale. The horror, the HORROR!
After that film, I found a drugstore where I bought a notebook so I could take notes. I didn't realize beforehand, but after each screening, the Director and/or the Producer, and/or the cast would say a few words about their involvement on the project. While walking to my next screening, an Italian film called We All Fall Down, a car pulled over next to me and the passenger, apparently the driver's wife, asked for directions to the Park City Library. I gave them, and remarked that I was going there. The wife must've said something, because they were about to pull away, but instead they offered me a ride. We chatted about a thing or two regarding the Festival, but we really didn't say much because we were only a few blocks distant at that time. After the screening, the person who drove me there got up, and the Director, Davide Ferrario, said a few words, and I believe that someone there was about to offer to distribute the film right then and there. I was a little surprised to discover that the director was the one who drove me to the theater. I was smacking myself in the head because I was too oblivious to notice his Italian accent while we talked during the short ride to the theater.
As the evening progressed, I ended up seeing Under The Skin, which was shown instead of Kurt and Courtney as I mentioned on the previous page. It was pretty much a cookie cutter film that I've seen many times before, but this time it was an English film. Oooo.
That evening was the premiere of Montana and it seemed to be the hot ticket of the day. I ate dinner, and thought I'd have enough time to get into the standby ticket line, which is where you go if you don't have a real ticket, and hope to be let in to the theater if everyone with tickets doesn't show. They only sold 50 standby tickets, which really pissed me off, considering that I was number 53 in the standby line. I ended up outside the theater, begging for a ticket, and eventually got one! That happened right after I almost asked Kyra Sedgewick if she had one ( I stopped short of actually asking when I saw that it was her). In the end, I sat right in front of her in the theater, and got two great photos out of the night, one of which was taken by the aforementioned Mr. Tourette's in between yelps at his kids to stop acting like kids. One beings to wonder what sort of childhood he had. Overall, I'd say I was extremely fortunate, considering that only a handful of the standby ticket holders were let in.
Feeling rather triumphant, I felt that the evening wasn't over, so I wandered back to Main Street in search of drink, only to find that most everything was closed or hosting a private party. I wandered in to a screening of 2 by 4 at the Egyptian, but left soon thereafter because I missed the beginning (which I hate), missed the point of the movie, AND, the soundtrack broke into that ChumbaWumba song.
Saturday, January 17
When I was planning my trip, I had toyed with the idea of taking snowboard lessons, since I'm not all that great a skier. I was considering blowing off my movies on Saturday, and just going for it. Unfortunately, that morning it rained instead of snowed, like it would for most of my stay. I realized that that the snow gods were telling me something, so I stuck with the movies. I grabbed breakfast at another restaurant that was much busier than the one from the previous day. The popularity was a good sign, but I almost missed my next screening because of the crowd. I bumped into the two women I met on the shuttle van, and they were off having their own brand of fun.
Still raining, I was satisfied that I'd made the right choice to stay in, but that was probably just the couch Potatoe in me. I wandered into the Hotel where SlamDance was, bought a SlamDance toque, and sat down in the theater. It was more of a meeting room with a screen. They actually offered up some couch space and floor cushions as well as generic seating, but it was definitely a more cozy and relaxed atmosphere. The day's films started with an entertaining short called Urbana, which was basically someone walking around interesting buildings and artwork in San Francisco. It was only a few moments long, and used a reverse negative which turns the final screen image into a weird melange of colors. I loved it. This was immediately followed by a documentary called Goreville, USA. After then, I saw another SlamDance film called Every Dog Has His Day.
I grabbed some lunch, and wandered back to Sundance, and caught a film called Martin (Hache). It was a tad long, but fortunately it held my interest, mainly because the lead actress reminded me of Solveig Dommartin, who's starred in quote a few Wim Wenders films.
I ended up having dinner at Ichiban Sushi on Main Street, and had this humongous portion of Chicken Tempura that was to die for. It was sweet and yet sour in a tantalizingly unique way. My table was close to the entrance, and started to feel sorry for the gorgeous greeter who had to keep repeating the "we can't give you a table if everyone's not here" speech. If you're ever in Park City, go eat there.
Back at SlamDance, I was surprised to see a lot of people waiting for Central Standard Time, so I jumped in line somewhere in the middle. SlamDance has a lot of other activities going on, and I heard that they hosted a breakfast for their festival's filmmakers that was all based around their horror stories about the making of their films. The only thing I picked up about that was that the filmmaker for Urbana didn't really have any horror stories because he shot his film in two days with no editing, aside from when he turned the camera on and off. Anyway, they showed a parody of Forrest Gump called Bowl of Pork, which starred David Chappelle that was rather funny. I ended up hating the followup film Central Standard Time, mainly because of the story, but also because someone who was seated with the writer/ producer/ directors kept laughing at very inappropriate times. I suspect that she remembered various things completely irrelevant to the movie but were related somehow to the production of it. I guess you had to be there, because she really ruined the atmosphere the movie was trying to set. Rather than wait for the Q&A Session that followed, I left as soon as the movie was over.
The evening wasn't a total waste. I then walked down Main to the Egyptian Theater, and sat down for Once We Were Strangers. It was an entertaining film, and I was surprised to learn that the male lead, Vincenzo Amato, got the part because he was neighbors with the writer/ producer/ director.
Sunday, January 18
There were some great days at Sundance, and this was one of them. It started as a great day with a clear sky, but later in the day it snowed like crazy. I love it. It was the first time in several years that I've been in a true snowstorm. During the afternoon, and on into the evening, while I was outdoors I had to keep fluffing the snow off of my down coat. We don't get snow that often in NJ, and people were probably looking at me funny because I remember smiling, which is something I don't generally do in public.
So, I had been hearing great things about a movie called Pi (the symbol, actually), and since it was playing at the 1,300 seat Eccles Theater, I figured that people would be skiing on such a day, so I felt I could get in on standby (everything was pretty much sold out at this point). I didn't know exactly where the theater was, but I knew the shuttle busses went there, and I figured I could get there rather easily. HAH! For some reason, all the busses that had previously stopped in front of the hotel where I was staying had decided to divert themselves completely around my street. I decided to walk to the theater, which turned out to be a lot further away than I thought. Of course, no busses appeared on the route I took, except if they were going in the opposite direction. I kept reminding myself that everyone I heard talking about the movie raved about it, so I plodded on. Fortunately, the Eccles theater was not packed, and the standby line was indoors. Visions of hypothermia danced in my head on the way over, but all the walking kept me warm until I got there. Once inside the theater, the organizers announced that there'd be a sneak peek of The Big Leibowski after Pi, but it was sold out. I'll be reviewing it when it opens in March (OK, so I'm writing this in March, but who's counting besides me?). Pi is an intense film and my favorite of the films I saw at Sundance.
This turned out to be the day of standby tickets. After this, I intended to travel back to the Egyptian Theater to see Bill Plympton's animated film I Married a Strange Person, which was also sold out. I ended up getting on the standby ticket line rather early, determined not to have a repeat of the Montana near-disaster. I ended up talking to a fellow standby ticket hopeful whose name escapes me, but he mentioned that he was a writer for the Sci-Fi Channel's Mystery Science Theater 3000. He was there checking out things, because he and some of the other writers from the show were considering writing a movie about the Sundance Film Festival Scene in general. Since I knew the show, we talked about its history, and its current state. We ended up sitting together and discussing the film as it progressed ( very quietly, of course!). One bit of trivia that surprised me was that Bill Plympton, the film's creator, had been approached by Disney before they had done Aladdin, and almost accepted the job of animating the Genie, but he backed out of the deal because of their method of contract negotiation ("we own everything"). Anyway, I got a photo with Bill, and found out that his production company has a Web Site. Please feel free to visit it.
When that was over, and I had purchased a Plymptoons tape, I wandered down the hill to visit the headquarters of The Sundance Channel. I was immediately struck by how small the main office was, considering that half of it hosted a souvenir store and coffee stand. What intrigued me more, however, was a small group of people who were demonstrating some DVD-based magazines focused on independent filmmaking. It was amusing because the demonstrator was all set to explain what DVD it, but I had already started nodding along, while fiddling with the DVD's menu controls. I noticed that the DVD had a full copy of the French short film La Jetee, which was the basis of the Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys. If you're interested in finding out more, you can visit their Web Site. While this was going on, I noticed a crowd of people sitting down at the next couch, which was already lit for a taping. The cast of a film called Relax, It's Just Sex were being interviewed for The Sundance Channel. Among the cast and director were Jennifer Tilly and Lori Petty. Yowza! After watching the entire interview, there's one observation I can clearly state - Lori Petty is Tank Girl (the part she played in the movie of the same name). I wanted to get a picture with Jennifer Tilly, but she had already graciously stopped for photos with some little kids, and she indicated that she was on her way to a party at Bob's place (referring to Mr. Redford, of course). Oh well, maybe next time.
After the morning's mess with getting to the theater, I decided to go and find out how to get to the Inn at Prospector Square for tomorrow. After finding it, rather easily, I ventured back to the Yarrow Hotel to see if I could attend some screening there (which I missed), and ended up sitting down in the hotel's bar amidst a crowd of people watching the Golden Globes and cheering for their favorites. That was definitely interesting, because some of the people there worked closely with some of the award winners, and I noticed the two female leads of Once We Were Strangers, so I chased after them with my camera as they were leaving. Not only had I found them, but I bumped into the entire cast, who were there enjoying the Festival. The male lead Vincenzo Amato offered to take a photo of me with the female leads Jessica Whitney Gould and Anjalee Jeshpande, and I complimented them on a their work.
After that minor victory, I went to see The Well, a slow potboiler of an Australian film. I was grateful that they kept the theater cold, because I would have otherwise dozed off during the slow, but compelling drama. Once I returned to my hotel, I couldn't get to sleep initially because some people were talking loudly in the hall, but fortunately someone else yelled at them to quiet down before I got too annoyed.
Monday, January 19
Monday was sort of a wrap-up day, where I attended a panel discussion of digital effects in Independent film. Amusingly enough, one of panel members was the coordinator for all of the digital effects for Titanic, which is definitely not the sort of person one would expect at an independent film festival like Sundance. The rest of the panel was comprised of people who have done digital effects for film, and each showed a brief clip of their work. Not too surprisingly, the panel agreed that some of the more high-performance home computers can create digital effects that look as good as the effects that were done in high-profile films from years ago. One of the panelists discussed the effects used for Conceiving Ada, one of the movies showing at Sundance. I wish I'd seen it (as well as another previous-ly released film Love God). In general, the panelists reminded the audience that they shouldn't be too concerned with the digital effects, but that "You should focus more on making a movie that comes as close to your vision, and not to let the effects overwhelm or overshadow the overall work."
A bit later, I wandered back to the Yarrow Hotel to catch the German film Obsessions, which had two American character actors that I've seen in many minor parts but never know who they are. They definitely helped an otherwise ordinary film.
The last film I saw was a documentary about techno music and its composers called Modulations. The one thing that surprised me the most about the film was the complete and total lack of any women making this sort of music, which I happen to like. Amusingly enough, the film was directed by Iara Lee, a woman. There were a lot of questions during the Q&A Session that followed, so I didn't get a chance to ask about the apparent lack.
I honestly don't remember much about the rest of the day, except that I packed.
Tuesday, January 20
Definitely this was an anti-climax. The flight back was without incident, but I do remember that while I was waiting to get on the plan that I ended up giving a group of people some indication as to which directions from Newark Airport would be best for getting to Midtown Manhattan. My friend Doug gave me a lift home, and he grilled me about the trip. This allowed him an excuse to leave work early, and saved me cabfare from the airport. The least I could do was sit and relate the trip details to him over a dinner, which I gladly paid for. It was the least I could do.
Epilogue
Since I am so fanatical about movies and moviegoing, I will look forward to attending future Festivals There are a few things I'd do differently, like coming up with a better trip schedule, but overall I look forward to next year.