Monday, December 15, 2008

Sundance 2009 - The Anticipation is Killing Me

While my kids are eagerly anticipating Christmas, I'm just trying to get through the Holidays and on to my favorite time of year -- the Sundance Film Festival. This year I am returning with my friend Jois and we have invited our friend, Dede. I am so looking forward to a long weekend with three incredible women (my sister, Jenn, is our host, so we hook up with her in Park City.) I'm anticipating lots of intellectual discussions, many interrupted trains of thought, solving of world (and minor) problems and laughing off of butts.

In the meantime forget stockings hung with care, our preparations include the following:

1) We have purchased our airline tickets (and are saving our pennies so our bags can also go with us.) Of course Delta dropped their dropped their fares a week after we bought our tickets, sigh ...

2) We were able to secure one "Locals Pass" (love those Park City connections). With a good buying time slot, we should be able to purchase our first 12 movie tickets on December 29 or 30.

3) We (and all our friends and family) have registered to buy advance tickets on line. That registration ensures you a ticket-buying time-slot, but does not guarantee that they won't be sold out by the time you get there. We have learned to maximize our chances for an early time-slot by having as many people as possible register.

4) We will be notified of our on-line buying dates and times on December 23rd. It's a lottery and if you don't get a time slot early in the week, chances are good you won't get any tickets.

5) The Film Guide has been posted on-line, so now we can spend the next several weeks developing a target list of movies. This is one of my new favorite Holiday traditions and it involves several colors of highlighters and a the development of a formidable Excel Spreadsheet.

There are over 225 films in this year's guide, each of which shows multiple times in multiple locations. So, in the weeks to come, we will be identifying which ones play while we are there. We will be there the 16-20, but the festival continues on until January 25. We also need to eliminate any films screening in Salt Lake, Ogden and at the Sundance Resort -- we don't want to go there.

We also read the film descriptions carefully -- it's always good to see words like "comedy", "humor" (although "dark humor" can be a red flag) and "uplifting", as so many Sundance films are a little too close to real life. Independent directors love to dramatize degenerate lifestyles and the downtrodden. That's fine every once in while, but when you go to three movies in one day, you need a break. We have also learned (the hard way -- no pun intended) to avoid movies with the word "pornographic" in their title.

And finally, we read the cast listing carefully. If there are big stars, it's harder to get those tickets and the audience will be made up of star-struck fans. (Who, by the way, seem to be the type to text during the film or loudly repeat the dialog for Aunt Mabel throughout the film. Arghh!) Also, if there is no cast listed, this means there are no people in the film -- we also learned this experientially and now there are two hours of my life that I can never get back.

So, in the weeks to come, look for the trials and tribulations of ticket buying, the films that are catching our attention and our actual viewing schedule.

No comments: