Stars, 7 align at Sundance
Editor’s note: Staff writer Dan Webster recently returned from seven days at the Sundance and Slamdance film festivals in Utah. These postings are excerpts from his exhaustive blog. Stay connected to www.spokane7.com/ moviesandmore as he blogs Spokane’s International Film Festival this week.
People watching in Park City: It’s a job
When you walk down Park City’s Main Street on the first Saturday night of the Sundance Film Festival, you’re likely to see pretty much anything. Cowboy wannabes, for example. Or suburban gangstas, white boys with their oversize jackets and hoodies. Movie-exec types with their diamond pinky rings and black overcoats and omnipresent cell phones. Pretty people, whether they be tall GQ hunks or ubiquitous wispy blondes in need of a PB sandwich or two.
(E)veryone is looking for someone famous, some celebrity who just happens to be walking down the street trying to be inconspicuous. But it seems as if that happens less and less. The celebs are usually at one of the dozens of private parties that are held all over Park City … The real celebs come in for their films and then leave. The rest of us stick around, watching the movies and then spending the rest of our time looking at each other, hoping to find the elusive glow of celebrity that we think will give us our own piece of fame.
Today is Monday, you know what that means …
Got up an hour ago and I’ve already been out on Park City’s Main Street … (T)here is ice on the sidewalk, so you have to be careful where you walk, but the sun is shining brighter than the glow of Brad Pitt’s star.
Yesterday was a killer. Following the panel discussion with Romeo Dallaire, Eugene Jarecki et al., we watched five – count ‘em – five films, four of them documentaries. … This morning up at 9 for another day of moviegoing. And we just keep going, onward into the world of alternative cinema.
One star, two stars, three stars a movie
“Nine Lives” is a fascinating experiment in cinema, rather than being “experimental” cinema … and as such is just the kind of film that Sundance should be about.
That’s exactly what Jeff Gilmore, the festival director, says before the film starts. But Gilmore, who is still wearing the same black-leather jacket that I’ve seen on him for the past eight years, has said exactly this before.
And many of the films that he has bragged about ended up sucking.
Not this time. … Afterward, it’s an all-star list of stars in attendance: Robin Wright Penn, Jason Isaacs, Amy Brenneman, William Fichtner, Holly Hunter, Stephen Dillane, Molly Parker, Glenn Close, Aidan Quinn and more.
It’s our first full night of celebrity watching, and it ends up being a good one.
And a final three makes it a cool 30
And just that fast, we’re back at the Salt Lake City airport, waiting for our flight back to Spokane. We squeezed in three final films … watching up to the moment that the shuttle appeared at our condo door at 3:55 p.m. …
Final film count: 30. That’s a record.
And then they gave out the toys
Mary Pat and I ended up seeing several of the award-winners at both Sundance and Slamdance, leading off with “Why We Fight,” which was named Sundance’s best documentary. We also saw the audience award-winners, “Hustle & Flow” for feature and “Shake Hands with the Devil” for documentary. … Up the street at Slamdance, which dubs its prizes “Sparkies,” we saw both documentary winners: grand jury winner “Abel Raises Cain” and honorable mention “La Sierra.” … Slamdance director Kathleen McKnnis, a former longtime programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival, oversaw a festival that has developed into one of the best in the country.
And I think that’s the final word that I’ll have about my Park City sojourn of 2005. Unless, of course, I change my mind.