[originally posted: 1/26/2017]
Rejuvenate an old interest…Reconnect with the things that once brought unparalleled excitement and captivating intrigue…
Video is such a spectacular medium–to not only capture a moment in time, but to preserve the personality and emotion of an event is thoroughly incredible.
For a complete stranger to laugh and cry with you, gasp in shock or awe…to have a physical or emotional reaction to your story, whether that story is factual or fabricated, is quite wonderful.
Alright, part of my enthusiasm is due to being high on my own sentiment–watching my old hi8 tapes was very enjoyable and invigorated me. I have so many pictures, but seeing myself and my ideas on film takes me back in a way that photographs can’t. That was my mentality going into the Sundance Film Festival- ready to be inspired by the creativity, originality, and energy.
Most of Sundance takes place in Park City, but as of the last few years, there’s been a second circuit of theaters in Salt Lake City, which is where I was. I had a pass to the Grand Theater, so I could see any and all of the movies shown there, but only those, so even with all the films that were premiering, I didn’t have much choice in what to see. But, that also meant I didn’t have to get bogged down with selecting and planning my shows either.
On Saturday and Sunday, a new movie started every 3 hours starting at noon. My day went like this: wake up, walk the two miles to the theater to get there by 11:15am, wait in line until pass holders are allowed in at 11:30am, chill in the theater until the movie starts at 12pm, watch movie, exit theater, get back in line for the next showing–rinse and repeat with really no time in between to go anywhere or do anything but sit in line. It was fun and all, but with 4 movies a day that took all day until after 11pm, it got to be a bit much. Of the 10 movies I could have seen, I saw 7.
For most of 
the films, the director and sometimes members of the staff came on stage for an audience Q and A. One movie I saw was An Inconvenient Sequel, and Al Gore made a surprise appearance.
I thought that the people attending would be film students and film geeks that would be spouting technical jargon and referencing the great directors–more of the smells-their-own-farts haughty-taughty art freaks that I knew in college, but I didn’t experience that much at all. Mostly just people wanting to be entertained and wanting the chance to see a famous person. There was a designated ‘Festival Cafe’ a couple miles away where perhaps that environment existed, but unfortunately, I never made it there…
Almost all of the movies at the Grand Theater were mainstream and missing the bold drive to push the envelope to create a truly new experience. The real place to find that is in the short films. Filmmakers really need to do some crazy shit in order to make 10 minutes count. But the short film program was exclusively in Park City, as were the film panels and Filmmaker Lodge discussions…
So, on Monday, I decided to drive out to Park City in search of some real film freaks…plus, I couldn’t come all the way out to Utah for Sundance and not go to the hub of it all.
Continued…
