Alright, so I have a lot of catching up to do and in my current half-awake state (yes, already), I may forget a few things, so bear with me ("...like a panda", shout out to my boy Weezy). If you just want to read about the films I've seen, I'll make it easy by putting them in bold and italics. Also, for those interested in reading more about certain films or events, the Sundance website can be found at http://festival.sundance.org/2009/.
First off, some words of wisdom that I'm currently learning: getting half as many hours of sleep as mixed drinks the night before can run you down just a bit. Such is my dedication to the art of film.
Thursday, 15th January
You may come to see, if you didn't already know, that I tend to have not-so-normal sleeping habits. I was picked up by my parents at ten in the morning after being up past six watching a movie with friends, then doing laundry, followed by packing, not sleeping and then, finally, sleeping very little. Jeff got gummy bears at the airport - and we all know airport gummy bears are the best kind, though no one knows why - and I slept for part of the flight, watching Bolt on my iPod the rest of the way.
Flying into Salt Lake City is a thing to behold. Gorgeous, snow-covered mountains slowly start to pop up from the flat land until there is nothing to see out your window except peak after peak. Absolutely stunning. The airport in Salt Lake City is the kind where you take a ramp down out of the plane and onto the tarmac before walking into a little hallway that finally reaches something that resembles an actual airport - I've been to another one like this, I think it was San Diego, but I don't quite remember. We didn't stay in Salt Lake City, but instead drove the thirty or so miles to Park City, the home of Sundance, along steep highways that wound between the mountains. Our rented house for the weekend is relatively small and very charming. My mom and brother left Sunday morning, so now my dad's friend and sometimes screenwriting partner Jon has moved in with my dad and I. The house has a fake fireplace that heats up the living room, a 40 inch HDTV for when we aren't watching 35mm prints, three bedrooms and two baths. And it's three blocks from Main Street!
Park City proper is admittedly pretty average looking, but driving past this to the resort area, which is tucked away in a valley surrounded by mountains covered in ski slopes and is where most of the Sundance buildings and theaters are located, you start to get a better sense of the festival atmosphere. Throughout the rest of the year this portion of Park City - which is separated by a few miles of roads and groceries and the like from the city proper - acts as a ski resort, and there are tons of condos, quaint rentable houses and insane mansions to prove it.
Main Street is the, er, main street when it comes to retail, food, and bars/clubs. It stretches for about six blocks, and is somewhat like a Mass Street on a hefty incline. The food offerings, if you pick correctly, can be absolutely stunning - in fact, I have yet to eat a meal I didn't truly like. Mostly, I've eaten sushi (surprise?), Thai food and pizza, along with the tasty breakfast bagels at Java Cow, a local "indie" (their words) coffee/pastry shop where the employees wear shirts that say "Since when is a small 'tall'?" on the back, or something to that effect. Certainly made me feel foolish when I asked for a grande latte, only to see the shirt minutes later.
The festival has a huge fleet of buses that do a great job carrying passengers to and from the theater venues, screening rooms and Main Street. Sam would be proud of these bus drivers, who are all very helpful and informative for all of those people that have no idea where they are going - a group which I am not a part of.
We had sushi for dinner as a family Thursday night before heading out to see everyone else. That night, we went on a long bar crawl down Main Street, starting at the Irish pub Flanagin's; then heading to a long, thin bar that played a lot of Linkin Park for a while; then down to a events area that had artwork hanging, $10 drinks and a number of 3D TVs (yes, 3D TVs are gorgeous) showing everything from movie trailers (one had Wes in it) to Bjork music videos...in 3D. Then we headed up to 412 Bistro to end the night, the same place that we would have our Also, in February, Utah made absinthe legal to purchase at bars, so everywhere you go now
Friday, 16th January
I didn't do a whole lot during the day on Friday except wander around town and up the mountain, taking in the sights and seeing the stores and restaurants the city holds.
Friday night was the world premiere of our film, The Only Good Indian, at the Holiday Cinema Theater. Our cast and crew - or as they called it, our "entourage"! - only had a small number of tickets, so I ended up getting waitlisted. I guess I should explain the waitlist: two hours before a film, they hand out waitlist tickets, numbered 1 through a very large number, depending on the film. Those with the tickets must return 30 minutes before the film (not a second later, and they're not joking when they say that, but they make it very clear) and line up in numerical order. Once all of those with tickets are seated, those with waitlist tickets are sold the remaining seats. I held the eighth ticket in my hand, so it was no problem for me to get in, although only about half of the fifty people in the line were able to make it in. Kristin, who I had classes with at KU but never talked to before, kept me company and we were let in just minutes before the film. I won't get into the film itself, considering my bias, but I will say that it was one of the best feelings of my life to simultatenously get the premiere jitters out of the way and see my dad's name in huge letters in the opening credits, then the names of my coworkers, friends, and I scroll after the film. After premieres, there are Q&A sessions with the filmmakers, so Kevin and Wes took to the stage to answer the various questions. Overall, the showing went exteremely well and the audience seemed to really enjoy it - and told the filmmakers this non-stop afterward in the lobby and outside the theater.
That night...()
After that long day, it was time for bed.
Also, one thing that I feel I must note - and I've put it aside because I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle - but Utah does not allow double-shot mixed drinks. I had one bartender tell me with a smile that at least I was here this year, after Utah changed the liquor guidelines to allow for shots to be 1.5 ounces instead of just one. I was also told that if you go to a sports bar to watch a game, you cannot order just drinks but must order food as well. And just when I thought that Park City was free of the religious fanatics telling me how much and when I should be drinking liquor...
And it's time for me to grab some lunch with Jessica before we go see Adam, which I'll talk about after catching up on Saturday and Sunday.
