2008 Sundance Report

For my fellow cinema aficionados...

My girlfriend jumped me a few months ago. She called while I was out of town and exclaimed "HEY! I am about to buy us a travel package to go to the Sundance Film Festival! You in?" This is not how I like to plan vacations. But I did not want to be a stick-in-the-mud so I muttered "yes".

It turned out to be good times.

Quick overview:

- The weather hovered around 20-25 degrees but we dressed well
- While cold, the air was crisp and the sun was usually out
- It had snowed hard the week before and the leftovers were piled high on the sidewalks
- Public transportation was free and efficient - we went everywhere by bus
- Not as many Hollywood types (snobbish-looking people with phones attached to ears) as I anticipated
- It was easy to get in to bars and coffee shops and restaurants (though we did not go to the fancy places and were not privy to the cool parties)
- Movies were showing in 4 places - Salt Lake City, Park City, Ogden and the Sundance Resort
- Park City (home of Sundance) had the most theatres, with 8 (we saw films in 6 of the 8 venues)
- Advanced tickets for all screenings were $15

We only had tickets to around 3 movies before we got to Sundance. To get tickets, there were 3 options:
- Visit the box office (preferably in the AM) to see if any tickets were re-released (we traded in a few of our previously purchased tickets for other shows - they let you do this for a $2 fee per ticket)
- Wait List - All movies had an available wait list. This is how it worked: arrive 2 hours before the screening of the film and get a wait list # (for a hot movie, you needed to get there 2.5 hours before screening...). Return 30 minutes before screening and arrange yourself in line according to your wait list #. 15 minutes before screening, the Sundance Program operators will begin to determine how many wait list people can get into the movie. Wait list tickets were $10. We had mixed results (I got into 2 of the 4 movies I attempted to wait list)
- Scalpers - Some people overbought and would try to sell their extras at the box office or at venues. It was an unspoken rule that all tickets sold in this manner should not be pushed for over face value

Quick aside:

Lizi has a friend who is the manager for a musician from Cincinnati. The muscisian is a Iraqi war veteran who sings anti-war songs. He was featured in a documentary about the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY) 2006 tour. Trying to build off the buzz of the movie (which was playing at Sundance), the musician (Josh Heisel) traveled to Utah to play some gigs. Lizi agreed to video tape one of these shows (therefore, she had to drag her video equipment across the country… which meant I had to drag her video equipment across the country… good times). So, we hung out with this crew a couple nights. That was interesting.

Ok, here we go with the movies:

5 oinks - classic
4 oinks - great, could watch it again anytime
3 oinks - good
2 oinks - decent but I was checking my watch waiting for it to end
1 oink - blech

Frozen River - oink, oink, oink, half-oink

Drama about a poor woman trying to bring up her two boys in rural upstate New York. Her husband has ran off to gamble away their savings and her only wish is to buy a double wide and move her boys out of their pitiful trailer. She collides with a Indian woman living on a reservation. This woman is trying to get her son back, who is being held by her mother-in-law. She is also a smuggler, and her cargo is people. She helps illegals cross over the USA-CAN border through the reservation. They form a partnership in order to make the cash they desperately need. This movie was raw, real, sad and great. They did a nice job building suspense and I cared for the characters.

Good Dick - oink, oink, oink, oink

Terrible title, great movie. This was about a depressed, hermit of a young woman who has a penchant for watching bad pornography. A clerk at the movie store she frequents falls in love with her and decides to save her from her dark hole of a life. They form a unique friendship. Though the backdrop of porn was a bit crude, the movie did not get sloppy with easy jokes and raunchy dialogue. Great movie.

Pretty Bird - oink, oink, oink

A wannabe business man cons his friend into bank rolling his idea of building a "rocket belt" (like a rocket back pack a single man can fly around in). He finds an unemployed engineer to build his belt. It started off as a clever comedy and got quite dark. By the end, I hated the con man so much that I could barely see straight. Which is the mark of good film making.

I Always Wanted to be a Gangsta - oink, oink

French with subtitles. I really thought this was going to be great. Not so much. 4 overlapping (but not intertwining) stories that are all connected by a cafeteria off the interstate in France. Shot in black and white, in an effort to be artsy. It was cute, and some of the dialogue was clever, but I was bored in a hurry. This was also the last movie I saw for the week so maybe I was worn out.

Mermaid - oink, oink, oink, oink, half-oink

Russian with subtitles. Story about a young girl's evolution from child to young woman. From rural beach-side Russia (yes, they have a beach) to Moscow. This movie is hard to describe but it was fantastic. The music was great. It was funny. It moved well. It was almost perfect. Something happened at the end that was absurd, but other than that, big oinks.

CSNY Deja Vu - oink, oink, half oink

Documentary about the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 2006 tour. Nothing better than watching 60-year old men rock out on stage. It turns out that the tour was more of traveling anti-war rally than a rock concert. I felt bad for the people who shelled out $150 to watch 90 minutes of Bush hate spewed by old hippies. I have seen rock documentaries before, so whatever. I guess some of the anti-war commentary was good, but nothing new.

Animation Spotlight - oink, oink

Collection of animated shorts. Some where good, some weren't. Different animation styles in each that made it interesting but on a whole I was disappointed.

If you look real close you can see that the screen says "Sundance '08' - trust me.

Dark days in NOLA

As distance grows from last weekend, nostalgia will take over and I will reflect back with a smile. But right now I am licking fresh wounds.

I traveled to New Orleans to watch Ohio State play in the BCS Championship game. I was a deep second alternate to go, but somehow two men in front dropped out and I was presented with a ticket at face value (well, it was damn close) and a ride down. I took both.

The positives of wandering, wild days in New Orleans are plenty. The food, music, energy and pervasive vibe of this old and loud town are unmatched. Or at least unique. There was a lot of laughter, camaraderie and loud talking. Our hosts in the Bayou were gracious and proud.

But. I was under a cloud from the start. I thought traveling to the college football championship was a good thing. A once in a lifetime thing. I was corrected. My girlfriend was not happy, feeling my decision to go down was selfish and over-indulgent. My parents thought it ridiculous and stupid, and showered me with shame. And my work was apathetic - they are Chicago boys. They don't care about college football or even knew the game was being played. All they knew was that it was Monday and time to work.

I went anyway. There was defiance in my travels. I was determined to do New Orleans THE RIGHT WAY. I was not going to be another chump at a touristy bar, swaying in a puddle of urine. I was going to swap stories with true creoles and argue with a gypsy. And it was not a bad performance. We ate alligator, rabbit, craw fish and all sorts of bowls filled with Cajun delights. We hit a swamp tour. We toured the city. We went to local jazz bars that did not have a Bourbon St. address.

But. I have reached a point in my life where comfort is more important than partying. A 12-hour car drive is too long. Sharing a stale, dinky hotel room with 3 other men is too gross. Partying anywhere, let alone New Orleans, for 4 straight days is too much. I was stressed and stretched and manic. My mood swings were distinct and violent - in the morning I was unreachable and full of venom. By mid day, I was relaxed, introspective and shy. In the evening, I was the mayor of smile town. And in the morning, back again.

The game was a blur. High energy at the beginning. And then the slow slide to doom. Until the Big 10 gets much, much better, Ohio State (or any team from that conference) will always lose these games. They just are not battle-tested. LSU plays in nasty scuffles against tough opponents every single week. They can handle adversity and playing from behind. Not OSU. The second things started going bad, it was over. And there it is.

The day after the question was why. Why do I funnel so much of my energies towards a silly football team filled with over-sized college boys that I don't know? Why do I subject myself to such a debilitating physical and financial assault?

When you lose, it all seems folly. And maybe it is. And I tell myself that I will never again, ever, subject myself to such a trip as long as I live. And if the Buckeyes make it to Miami next year for the 'ship (they could, because they are young and their schedule will still be weak... except for a trip to USC in September)... you can count me out. I'll catch it on the television.

But nostalgia is a funny thing. By next month, all I will remember from NOLA will be horns and jambalaya and large rum drinks under the sweet southern sky. Another trip to the 'ship? Hmmmmmm... maybe THIS time it will be different...