It's been snowing (or icy) for a week now -- which is unheard of for Portland. While I wasn't expecting the kids to be out of school for the entire week, it has made me more ready than ever for Sundance. It has given me a new-found appreciation for Park City's ability to keep the streets and sidewalks free of snow (does Portland even own a snow plow?) and has afforded me plenty of time to study this year's film guide.
I have managed to narrow the 100 films that are screening while we are there to 42 that I really want to see. As 14 movies (in 3 1/2 days) is our record, we will have to narrow our choices further. Scheduling and proximity to other theaters are the next factors. It is almost impossible to see a 9:00am movie at Eccles Theatre and make a 12:00pm movie at The Egyptian (on the other side of town.) It's always great when we can score back-to-back movies in the same venue. There are shuttles running all over town, but they tend to get jammed. Jammed with people and jammed in the city's extra traffic. With parking at a minimum, they are still the way to go, we just know to allow ample time.
Park City has ten "theaters" that show Sundance movies during the festival. I put theater in quotes, because one is a converted hotel conference room and one is housed in an inflatable dome over the Racquet Club's tennis courts. This year, I have noticed there is a new theater in the line-up: The Temple Theatre. In Utah, the word temple is typically associated with the Mormon Church, so I'm very curious about this venue. There are many, many, many, many, many, many Sundance movies that I'm am certain would not garner church approval. No High School Musical or Marley and Me here!
Once the scheduling and venues are worked out, the box office and ticket- availability gods take over. I, being the geek that I am, will develop a spreadsheet with my first through third choices for each time slot, taking into account the preferences of my fellow movie-goers, but once the frenzy of ticket buying begins and movies start to sell out, desperation sets in and all bets are off. So far, we have some great ticket buying time slots, so I'm optimistic this year.
Since it looks like our treacherous weather is going to continue for awhile, I have rented four Sundance films that I haven't yet seen. Provided we continue to have power, I will watch those over the next few days and share my thoughts. If the power goes out, I guess it's back to the Film Guide ... by flashlight.
1 comment:
I read somewhere that the Temple Theater is a Jewish synagogue.
According to Google Maps it looks to be in the Kimball Junction area. I'm going to try to avoid anything outside ground zero to maximize my time.
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