Sundance 2.0: Another Fun-filled Day

Our second day at Sundance started bright and early with our viewing of Another Happy Day at Library Theater.  This movie was about the main character, Lynn, and her (played by Ellen Barkin) family dysfunction/interactions during her son’s wedding.  This movie also starred Demi Moore and Kate Bosworth.  N. and I liked this movie a lot because it showed that no matter how perfect a family appears on the outside, we’re all a little f*cked up to a certain extent. 

Library Theater...which was actually in a library/school!

The Q&A afterward featured the emotional screenwriter/director Sam Levinson and Ellen Barkin who not only starred in the movie, but produced it as well.  For being only 25, Sam Levinson is a true genius in his craft.  The Sundance judges took notice of his talent as well because Another Happy Day won the award for the best U.S. Dramatic category. 

Ellen Barkin and Sam Levinson

Next up was Circumstance which was a movie about two Iranian teenage girls exploring their sexuality while growing up under the eye of the morality police.  I liked this movie as well, but there was a tall person (or at least one with a long torso!) in front of me which made viewing the movie and reading the subtitles a little difficult.  This movie won the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic category. 

Since we had a few hours until our next movie, N. and I decided to explore Park City.  We strolled through the shops, restaurants, and bars and even saw the iconic Egyptian Theater (where many of the smaller films, such as The Blair Witch Project, premiered). 

Beautiful Park City



Piles of snow abound...can you see the ski lifts behind us?



The Egyptian Theater...brought to you by Southwest Airlines, lol...

We decided to go back to our hotel room to chill for a bit, but we probably shouldn’t have because the shuttle service was running a little weird and we almost missed our next movie, Perfect Sense.  We literally were running into the theater as the movie already started (and again the running left me gasping for air! Gahh! Darn you altitude!).  Despite our rushed entrance, Perfect Sense was a great movie.  Ewan McGregor was great in it.  It was a nice romantic story mixed in with worldwide epidemics (you have to watch it to know what I mean).

After the movie, we got ready for the Awards Night Party.  It was nice to people watch, but we didn’t want to stay too long because we wanted to catch one more movie before the end of the night.

Par-tay!

Quintessential crowd pic

The cool glowing stage that changed color throughout the night

N. and I with the lead actresses from Circumstance! We had
just seen their movie and I told them, "Congrats on your award!"

Lastly, we watched Meek’s Cutoff starring Michelle Williams.  This movie was about pioneers travelling the Oregon Trail.  I don’t know if it was the fact that the movie was a midnight showing or that the movie was pretty slow, but this was the first time we saw people get up and leave the theater during a Sundance showing.  The movie by far wasn’t my favorite, but it got N. and I talking about themes and director's vision.  That was our second day in a nutshell, making our trip to Sundance nearly over!

Sundance 1.0: We're Here!

Our first official day at Sundance started about two in the afternoon.  We were bummed that that we had missed our first two scheduled screenings, but we vowed to make the best of it.  We went to the box office to pick up my credentials and our passes and I picked up so other freebies such as a hefty Sundance catalog, a magazine and a water bottle.  Needless to say my bag was pretty heavy, which left me catching my breath (or so I thought).  Then, it dawned on me that it was probably the altitude that was giving me my shortness of breath…ah ha!  And to think I was about to doubt my training!

At festival headquarters (aka: the Marriott)

The first movie we watched was Benavides Born which is about a girl powerlifter trying to get out of her Texas border town by any means necessary.  I thought it was pretty good and as our first Sundance film I learned that it was appropriate to clap at the end of the film during the credits (any other time I think it’s corny, lol) and after the credits there are usually Q&A sessions with the director, screenwriter, actors, etc. 

Since we had a time gap between our two scheduled films we decided we would attempt to get some tickets through the waitlist and the movie we chose was called Flypaper starring Patrick Dempsey, Ashley Judd, just to name a few.  It as directed by Rob Minkoff who also directed The Lion King and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the guys who wrote The Hangover.  How cool is that?

As the Sundance website suggests, getting tickets on the waitlist is a Festival tradition, a rite of passage of sorts.  Basically what you do is two hours before the scheduled screening you pick up a waitlist number.  They you come back about thirty minutes before the movie starts to see if you can get in.  Imagine that—getting numbers simply for the chance of getting into a movie!  But it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, we didn’t have to stay out in the cold for too long (they have heated waiting areas) and we got to know the people waiting around in line around which included film students, housewives, and people from L.A.

The Waitlist!

N. demonstrating things to do while waiting in line!

Anyway, when we got back to the waitlist line to see if we would get in one of the volunteers came out and said that they would be admitting numbers 1-20 in the waitlist.  Being numbers 21 and 22, N. and I were crushed! Fortunately, the guy in front of N. said that two people ahead of him didn’t show up so we were actually in! Yay! We hurried in and caught the introductory remarks by the director, writers, and McDreamy himself!

Patrick Dempsey (not sure if you could tell, but it's him!)

Unfortunately for us, the exhaustion from our travel and lack of sleep got the best of us as we nodded off a couple times during the movie. L I was able to get the gist of it, but I’d like to give the film another shot when I’m not as sleepy/tired.

Inside Eccles Theater (one of our most frequented movie theaters during Sundance)

We finished our day with the Swedish movie Happy, Happy about a lonely housewife who is envious of the “glamorous” neighbors who move in next door, but discovers that her neighbors’ life isn’t all that it is cracked up to be either.  N. and I thoroughly enjoyed it and it ended up winning the award for its category.  After such an exhausting day, we hit the sack…literally!  As soon as we got back to the hotel N. plopped on her bed and passed out. I couldn’t blame her we needed a ton of rest for another long day!

Sundance 0.5: Are We There Yet?!

After Thundersnow 2011, I was worried that that my Sundance plans might be negatively impacted.  The good news was that N. and I made it to Sundance (which I promise to give you a full update on my experience in my posts to follow).  The bad news was that we got there on Friday afternoon, instead of Thursday night, which was originally planned.  That threw a wrench in our plans because we had planned on watching some movies Friday morning and of course we had already paid for our Thursday night hotel room non-refundable fee.  Oh, well.  Let me tell you what happened…

The day after the snowstorm, our flight was noted as “On Time”; however, upon our arrival at Dulles, we learned that that our flight was delayed.  To make matters worse, we had a connection in Detroit that was scheduled to leave on time.  We asked why our flight to Detroit was delayed and we were told that it was snowing in Detroit (where our plane was coming from).  Our plane to Detroit was a small commuter jet, causing it to have the last priority amongst planes in the de-icing queue.  That explains why our flight from Detroit to Salt Lake City was scheduled to leave on time (bigger plane).  Boo hiss!  Since there weren’t any flights leaving for Salt Lake from D.C. until 5:00pm the next day, we made the executive decision to fly to Detroit, whether we made our connection or not…and we didn’t. L

Again, there were lessons to be learned in this situation as well.

Layovers in Detroit should be avoided at all costs.  Did I tell you that I have been stranded in Detroit twice already? This trip made it three.  Something about me and that city don’t work out quite right and I always manage getting left behind. L

The chairs in the Detroit Airport are not comfortable to sleep on.  Yes, yes I know that airport chairs aren’t meant to be slept on in the first place; however, they should know that there would be some instances where passengers might have to sleep there for the night.

Me:  Fake "sleeping" demonstrating one of our many sleeping techniques

N: Real sleeping! Shhh! 

It always pays to have a backup plan.  Since we missed our connection, we were able to secure two tickets on the first flight out of Detroit the next day.  Since we were going to be missing some movies, we sought out movies where we could squeeze in the time we had available.  Luckily, these movies included a Sundance premiere! Basically, we made the best out of a hairy situation and in some ways the backup plan (besides the sleep deprivation) was better than the original plan. J

Sundance Selections

Yesterday I chose the movies N. and I will be watching at Sundance.  Of course it wasn’t without its problems.  At exactly 6:00pm (my designated time), I tried to log onto the system and it gave me an error message.  It was obviously overloaded and I was getting flashbacks of when I tried to get tickets for the last Virgin FreeFest (which required using different browsers, websites, etc.).  Now that was a shenanigan!  However, this time around the lovely people at Sundance provided us with a number to call in these types of situations.  Time was of the essence and I didn’t want to miss out on selecting our films, so I promptly dialed the number and was able to select our films through the operator.  She was nice and even offered suggestions when films we wanted were already booked.  After all of that, here is what we’ll be watching during our time at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival:

HERE

(Director: Braden King; Written By: Braden King and Dani Valent) - On assignment to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia, an American cartographer forms a powerful bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer.

Can you say hot and steamy romance?

Pariah

(Director and screenwriter: Dee Rees) - When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Bronx teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Benavides Born

(Director: Amy Wendel; Screenwriters: Daniel Meisel and Amy Wendel) - A high school senior in a forgotten town has earned admission to the University of Texas at Austin but can't afford to go. Her one shot is a scholarship for winning the State Powerlifting Championship.

Happy, Happy

Norway (Director: Anne Sewitsky; Screenwriter: Ragnhild Tronvoll) - A perfect housewife, who just happens to be sex-starved, struggles to keep her emotions in check when an attractive family moves in next door.

Another Happy Day

A wedding at her parents’ Annapolis estate hurls high-strung Lynn into the fire of primal, Byzantine family dynamics. It’s the wedding of Lynn’s son, whom she was deprived of raising because of her acrimonious divorce, and a feud still rages between Lynn and her ex-husband’s hot-tempered wife.  Cast:  Ellen Barkin, Ezra Miller, Kate Bosworth, Demi Moore, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Haden Church, George Kennedy

Hello Star Studded Cast!

Circumstance

U.S.A., Iran (Director and screenwriter: Maryam Keshavarz) - A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's dangerous obsession.

Perfect Sense

When Susan (Eva Green), an epidemiologist, reemerges from an affair gone sour, she encounters a peculiar patient—a Glasgow truck driver who experienced a sudden, uncontrollable crying fit. Now he is calm, but he has lost his sense of smell.  Although Susan’s encounter with Michael (Ewan McGregor), a local restaurant chef, holds the promise of new love, the world is about to change dramatically. People across the globe begin to suffer strange symptoms, affecting the emotions, then the senses.  Cast:  Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Ewen Bremner, Stephen Dillane, Denis Lawson, Connie Nielsen

And how can you say no to Ewan McGregor?!

So, what do you think? How do you like our selections so far? Any of them pique your interest?


Film blurbs provided by the Sundance Film Festival website here and here.

Sundance Bound!

Girls’ weekends are a time to bond with your girls and to take a break from ordinary day-to-day activities.  I’ve never been on a girls’ weekend before (unless you count bachelorette parties).  So, when my friend, N*, asked me if I wanted to go on a girls’ weekend this winter, I thought, “Why not?” After all, three of Justin’s friends are getting married next year and you know what that means. He’ll be going to three bachelor parties in 2011.  While he’s off “gala-banting” (said with best Filipino accent) I could squeeze in a trip with my girls’ right?

In my mind, I was thinking she would want to do something a little closer to home. Perhaps we could go on a trip to Atlantic City (unless you gamble, probably not a whole lot of fun in the dead of winter) or an antiquing trip to Charlottesville or St. Michaels (uuhhhmm, maybe not so much). But then she said something that totally took me by surprise,

N: “How about Sundance?”

Me:  “As in the film festival?”

N: “Yes.”

I started thinking about what I actually I knew about it.  I knew it was a film festival in Utah where all the big movies get screened, before they hit the general public.  A lot of celebrities go to it…basically it's an event full of swag tents and schmoozing. Hmmm…why not?  I’ve never been one to turn down an adventure and this looks like it could be my latest adventure (for the grown and sexy sort). Hahaha…I laugh because in my younger days, I was always on the hunt for the next party.   Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Cancun College Spring Break, Winter Music Conference (twice), Kentucky Derby (several times), and the ultimate in partying locales, Ibiza—I’ve done them all.  This trip sparked something that I had always loved to do, but thought maybe I had to give it  up after I had gotten older or married.  I’m still on the hunt for a new adventure, but hopefully with less recklessness and hangovers, LOL…and it looks like this trip to Sundance is it.

A few days later, we booked our flights/lodging/passes.  It’s exciting to know that I have a chance to view the next summer blockbuster or Oscar-winning movie, before the general public gets a shot at it.

With all that has been going on, I’m excited that I have another fabulous thing to look forward to!

*Names have been withheld since, “Heck, I don’t know if they want to be in my blog or not! LOL…”

Image from here