Sundance 2011

Thursday, January 20, 2011.

Wecome to our 2011 Sundance Blog! Kristine and I flew in on Thursday afternoon and met up at the Salt Lake City airport. It was a beautiful day in Utah, cold and crisp but not uncomfortably so. We arrived at the Hampton Inn in Park City to find a member of Snoop Dogg's posse, Tha Dogg Pound, at the front desk checking in. His name was MacShawn100 and he was wearing some impressive bling. We chatted with Mr. Shawn and tried to score tickets to the sold out Snoop Dogg and Lil' Jon show at Harry O's. He said he would ask his manager Pam for some tickets for us, but we had to leave for a movie before Pam arrived back at the Hampton. You can see MacShawn100 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaVIBRteG9M

Turns out that Snoop Dogg himself, Lil' Jon, and their respective posses roll Hampton Inn-style, yo.

We arrived in our room to find another fabulous gift basket from the Ryneska family.


As usual, we were starving and tore into it with glee. We then left to go to the Eccles Theatre to check out the opening night premiere of Pariah by director Dee Rees. We saw the short film version of Pariah at Sundance a couple of years ago, so it was good to see how it evolved into a feature. Dee Rees is a Spike Lee protege and very impressive young woman. Pariah is a semi-autobiographical film about a teenager named Alike living in New York City with her family and trying to figure out her identity. She is gay but doesn't fit into the lesbian community or the straight community around her. Ultimately, she finds freedom through her writing and figures out that she can just be herself. Dee Rees said during Q&A that she dealt with many of the same issues growing up and that her parents stopped having anything to do with her after she came out as gay. She said that recently she has been back in contact with her mother, but her father still refuses to acknowledge her or the film.

We'll post some video of the Pariah Q&A here soon.

After the film, we headed down to Main Street for a post-midnight dinner at Main Street Pizza and Noodles. Apparently, a lot of people had the same idea because we saw Ben Lyons from E! Entertainment News (son of movie critic Jeffrey Lyons), Lake Bell from the Meryl Streep film It's Complicated (she has a short at the festival this year), Cisco Adler, and Michael Rapaport. I have had a special dislike for Michael Rapaport ever since I read a really mean article he wrote about Natasha Lyonne in the May, 2005 issue of Jane Magazine. You can check out a copy of "Evicting Natasha" online if you want to see what a jerk he is. He also apparently stalked and harrassed the fabulous Lili Taylor a few years ago when she broke up with him. I had told Matt that I might have to hit him if I ran into him at Sundance, but I was able to restrain myself. He directed a doc about A Tribe Called Quest that is at the festival this year. He and his lady friend walked out at the same time we did, so we eavesdropped on their conversation as they walked down the street behind us. He sounded pretty friendly and was talking about how he didn't need to go shopping while he was in Park City because he had enough winter clothes. Hopefully he has reformed his jerky ways, but I still don't trust the guy.

We arrived back at the Hampton Inn to the overwhelming pungent smell of smoke, thanks to the Snoop Dogg and Lil' Jon posses. Kristine realized that when she had complained to the front desk about the odd herbal smell in our hallway earlier in the evening ("it smells like a fragrant cleaning agent or something"), MacShawn100 was sitting at the lobby computer right behind her and must have gotten pretty nervous. Kristine pressed the front desk hard enough to get a bottle of Febreze, but it occurred to us later that if she had pressed any harder she could have single-handedly brought down the whole Dogg Pound par-tay. Holla!

QUIZ EXTRA: Can you name that celebrity?

So...while wandering down Main St. after dinner on Saturday, we ran into this kind gentleman--a rather famous and prolific actor (mostly TV, I think). He gladly let us snap a photo with him. Sadly, for the life of us, neither Kathy nor I could remember his name.
Still can't.
Any guesses?

Saturday, January 23rd - Part 1

We started Saturday morning back at the Library Theater to see Shorts Program #1. There are four different short film programs at Sundance this year, but Shorts Program #1 has had the most buzz. The Sundance programmers even decided to show it on opening night, which is usually reserved for just one feature film. The four films in the program were: I'm Here by Spike Jonze, Seeds of the Fall by Patrik Eklund, The Fence by Rory Kennedy, and Logorama by Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy, and Ludovic Houplain. All four films were excellent.

My clear favorite was Spike Jonze's film I'm Here. It was a brilliant, emotionally poignant story of a world inhabited by human beings and robots. The story revolves around the relationship between a male robot immersed in a humdrum existence and a female robot who introduces him to a more spontaneous and creative life. It was absolutely amazing that the filmmakers were able to capture such intense emotion through the eyes and interactions of creatures that basically looked like phone booths.

Kristine here: Honestly, I liked them all. But Logorama rose to the top for me. It broke through the other three with a bang--visually and aurally. It's basically a 15 min. animation where the world is made of logos, including the people. In fact, I've read they represented anywhere from 2,500-3,000 logos in the short (according to a Google study, the same number of logos we're exposed to each day). The look of the film is stunning. They combined very clean, simple lines and solid, bold colors with an animation style that gave the 2-D logos a very 3-D feel.

And then there's the story line, which read like a parody of any blockbuster action flick (think "Die Hard" or "Lethal Weapon" on steroids), with no shortage of sex, profanity and violence. Actually, the press write-up says it best:

"Logorama is...rife with car chases, natural disasters, and hostage-taking, but created entirely out of real world logotypes and brand characters. In it, you'll see the Michelin Man, the Haribo kid, Bob's Big Boy, Mr. Pringle and Ronald McDonald, but in some very unfamiliar roles playing the classic movie archetypes of good guys, bad guys and foils.”

What I found interesting was how some logos/brands were used literally (e.g., Hotwheels was actually a car) and some completely out of context (e.g., the MGM lion was just another animal in the zoo and not related to the film industry). Also, Kathy and I were both curious to know how the film-makers could've possibly gotten permission from the various corporate brands to use and manipulate the 3,000 trademarked logos. Hmmmm...maybe they didn't. (Unfortunately neither the producers nor directors attended the screening, otherwise we would've asked.)

And then, of course, there's the question of a bigger commentary the movie is likely trying to make-- about how brands have completely saturated our daily lives, or, perhaps, how Hollywood, specifically, has become a slave to the brand master.

Even if you don't get a bigger message out of the movie, it's worth at least one (or several viewings) simply for the entertainment value--and to see how many brands you can actually identify.

Kathy again: Rory Kennedy's film was a documentary about the so-called "fence to nowhere" the U.S. has built on the Mexico/Arizona border. The film illustrated the literal and figurative holes in our border with Mexico. Rory Kennedy was present at the screening and participated in the Q&A afterwards. She looks just like her dad, Bobby Kennedy. While she was speaking, it was hard not to think about all the tragedy she has experienced as a Kennedy. In addition to all the obvious losses, it was her wedding that JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy were headed to when their plane crashed. Such a sad history, but she seems like a resilient person. It is impressive that she has continued to make challenging documentaries that shed light on important social issues.

Seeds of the Fall was a sweet and quirky Scandinavian film about an older couple whose house is shaken off of its foundation when an ice cream truck crashes into it. In the aftermath of the crash, they meet their mysterious neighbors and end up getting a new lease on life.

After the Shorts Program, we headed down to the Egyptian Theater on Main Street to see the film All That I Love. The Egyptian is the quintessential Sundance venue: small, historic, and lots of character. As an added bonus, Cafe Bustelo had a stand set up inside the Egyptian where they were giving out free toboggan hats, espresso, and cafe con leche. All That I Love is a Polish film about teenagers living in Poland and coming of age in the early eighties. The main protagonist forms a punk band and falls in love in the midst of the political revolution taking place in the country. His father is a Communist general, and he falls in love with the daughter of a Socialist. His band, All That I Love, play songs that are critical of the status quo. The cinematography was stunning, with muted tones that suggested the dreariness of the times and damp, chilly weather of Poland. At the Q&A after the screening, the director said the film was basically autobiographical and that he drew directly from his memory of those times in his country. He said that fortunately, Poland is a much better country today and the dreams of the revolution have mostly been realized. The lead actors were all present for the Q&A. Kristine said the lead actor reminded her of a young Leonardo DiCaprio. They all seemed very excited to be at Sundance.

After the film, we headed over to one of our favorite Park City restaurants, The Eating Establishment, for an early lunch--and to fuel up for the the Joan Jett & the Heartbreakers show that night.

More about the Joan Jett show to come in a separate post. In the interim, here's a video extra.

VIDEO EXTRA:
Here's a bit of video Kathy captured of Paris Hilton and her BF at Harry O's during the Nas show. You'll see Paris in between the Cuervo signs towards the left of the screen during the first :20. Her head is above the crowd. (NOTE: Shots of the Harry O's go-go dancers during the last part of the video are bonus--no charge).

Friday: Video Extra

Main Street in the snow

The Fray at the ASCAP Music Cafe

Hoochie go-go dancers at the Nas show

Nas at Harry O's

Friday, January 22nd

Friday morning was brisk, snowy, and beautiful. We headed to the Library Theater in the morning to see the documentary Catfish. As we were walking in, we saw Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me, who is also one of the Sundance judges this year.

I would encourage everyone to see Catfish as soon as possible. I don't want to go into too many details about the film because the twists and turns are what made it so great. I'll just say it delves into the complexities of internet relationships and is a touching testament to the bonds of friendship and brotherhood. The filmmakers were present, as was the subject of the film, Nev Schulman. It was absolutely riveting. The audience gave it a very long standing ovation--the only one of all the movies we attended. It has also been getting some of the best buzz among the folks here at Sundance.

After Catfish, we stayed at the Library and saw Life 2.0, a documentary about the video game/alternate reality site Second Life. The filmmaker made his own documentary filmmaker avatar and went throughout Second Life following certain characters both in and out of the game. Three main characters were featured: a man and woman who started a relationship in Second Life and left their respective spouses, only to find that real life is not as idyllic as a video game; a woman who lives in her parents' basement and makes a six figure salary as a Second Life merchant selling luxury houses, clothing, and skin care products to avatars; and a man who became addicted to Second Life after creating an avatar of an 11 year old girl, which ultimately cost him his relationship with his fiance and completely consumed his life. It was a fascinating concept for a documentary, but was not edited as well as we felt it could have been. It dragged in parts, but I was still glad I saw it because I didn't realize how detailed Second Life has become. It is fascinating that SL has its own economy that can be transferred to real money. The film also addressed the emerging legal issues related to new media. I would recommend that you see Life 2.0 before you decide to log on to Second Life, because SL can apparently change your life in ways you never expected.

After Life 2.0, we went to the ASCAP Music Cafe at Main Street to see The Fray. While we were waiting in line to get in, we made some new friends, Harry and Keegan. Harry and Keegan have a production company. Harry has been producing films for quite a few years, and Keegan recently got his MBA and now works with Harry at the production company. Harry produced The Eyes of Tammy Faye, one of my all-time favorite documentaries. He also produced Werner Herzog's recent film Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale. Harry and Keegan were very down to earth and funny. We enjoyed talking with them about the LA scene and the ups and downs of living and working with celebrities. Kristine also had a good time bantering with them about sports as she is wont to do.

The Fray gave a great show. As we were leaving the show, we were invited (read: hustled) into this room above the Music Cafe. We were plied with the promise of food and drinks, but it turned out that the only drinks were a variety of flavors of Vita Coco, one of the most disgusting drinks of all times. There are quite a few Vita Coco reps running around Sundance giving out samples of this nasty stuff. But the Vita Coco was far from the most surreal thing in the room. I asked Kristine how I should describe the reception, and she aptly pointed out that it was like a timeshare for Pieta molds. The folks hosting the reception have a license from the Vatican to recreate sculputures of the Pieta, the famous Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding Jesus. So they have started producing 800 pound bright white resin sculptures of the Pieta. I guess they figured "what better place to sell resin Pietas than the Sundance Film Festival?" One of these sculptures was prominently displayed in the room, and we were informed that for a mere $250,000 we could have our very own. I am dying to know if they have actually unloaded any Pietas.

After the Pieta reception, Harry and Keegan offered to use their fabulous connections to get us in to Harry O's to see Nas. We all went out to 350 Main for dinner and then on to Harry O's. A little while after we arrived at Harry O's, Paris Hilton arrived with her entourage. Paris sashayed up to the very front next to the stage, spilling her drink on Kristine as she passed. Paris sat on someone's shoulders next to her boyfriend Doug Reinhardt, who was also sitting on someone's shoulders. Thinking back on this, it strikes me as odd that some guy let Doug Reinhardt, who is not a small man, sit on his shoulders all night. I wonder if there are people who get paid to let celebrities sit on their shoulders, sort of like those personal umbrella carriers. Nas gave a great show and there was much dancing and merriment at Harry O's.

After the Nas show, we split up with Harry and Keegan and went down Main Street to say hi to our friend and fellow Sundance enthusiast from Nashville, Clayton Cummings, and Clayton's friends from St. Louis, Charles and Abbie. We were tired by that point, so we pretty quickly got into a cab driven by the grumpiest cabbie in the world and headed back to the Hampton Inn. We are planning to get together with Charles and Abbie next time they come to visit Clayton in Nashville. We are going to take them to the Belcourt to prove that we have independent film in Tennessee, too.

Through all the excitement at Sundance, I am on pins and needles awaiting the impending arrival of my new niece/nephew, currently known as Purvis.

Sundance 2010, Day One

Sundance 2010 is here! Kristine and I met up in Denver and flew together to Salt Lake City. We took the shuttle into Park City with a guy who is going to write about his experiences at Sundance for a piece in the New York Observer. After we checked into our hotel, we went into town to pick up our tickets and have dinner. Today is the official opening day of Sundance. It looks like attendance is going to be up this year, and there is a definite buzz of excitement in the air. In addition to the film festival, the skiers are all excited because of the excellent snow. It was snowing tonight, and we are supposed to get another foot of snow tomorrow. As we were walking down Main Street, we passed Catherine Keener. Kristine and I recognized her at the same time, even though she was wearing a nondescript black jacket with the hood up and was walking by herself. I saw this as clear proof that our celebrity-spotting skills have been honed to perfection. Kristine and I are Catherine Keener fans, but we fought the urge to say "Catherine, we love you!" You may know her from Your Friends and Neighbors, Lovely & Amazing, Being John Malkovich, or the 40 Year Old Virgin, among many other fine films.

We are looking forward to a full day tomorrow of watching films and taking in the scene.

**Huge thanks to the Ryneska family for another fabulous Sundance goodie basket. Cheese, chocolate, fruit, wine, prosecco...mmmmmmm. And even truffled popcorn!

Gearing up for Sundance 2010!

Hi everyone! Kristine and I will be blogging again from Sundance 2010, from Thursday 1/21 to Sunday 1/24. Hope you will join us virtually to share in our celebrity sightings, movie reviews (we promise to do more this year) and general merriment in Park City, Utah. See you soon!