The Good, The Bad, The Musical!

Yesterday we saw our first three films. Here's a recap:

The Good: Documentary Spotlight
This was a collection of seven short documentaries.

Quadrangle -- The film maker interviews her mother and father about their open relationship with another couple that eventually resulted in them trading spouses. It was extremely well made. She used a split screen to show both parents describing this time in their lives, so that it was almost as if they were conversing about it. The director does a nice job of removing herself from the subject, presenting a very honest account of this period in her family's history in a fairly straight forward and non-judgmental manner.

Drunk History: Tesla and Edison -- I'm still trying to imagine the creative meeting where the concept for this film was discussed and agreed upon. The film maker decided to have someone get drunk (yes, he was actually drunk) and recount a piece of history. As he tells the story, well-known actors (in this case, John C. Reilly played Tesla and Crispin Glover played Edison) don cheesy wigs, mustaches and costumes to stage reenactments. Their dialog, however, uses the drunk guy's words, not their own. You are just going to have to trust me when I say it was hilarious. This is one in a series and they ar part of a longer comedy program debuting on HBO next month. Tonight, we are seeing another Drunk History short, this time on Douglass and Lincoln -- I can't wait!

Notes on the Other -- A short look at Hemingway and how he created his own persona. The topic was explored by visiting the son of a man that Hemingway saw fall during the running of the bulls (who  photographs the event every year) and visiting a Hemingway look-alike contest. The film asked us to figure out the link between all these events and I think I failed the test -- it just didn't come together for me.

Bus -- An Israeli film maker explores the difficulties of traveling by bus between Israel and Palestine with images of the checkpoints and recorded phone conversations.

Thompson -- This film hints at the changing friendship of two teenage boys as one graduates from high school and the other doesn't. At least I think that was what it was trying to do -- no clear story line ever actually developed. When the film makers were asked about their inspiration, they said that they were at a party across the street from Matt Thompson's home and he wandered over, so they decided to make a movie about him. Oh... that explains it.

Born Sweet -- My favorite of the collection, this film illuminates the problem of arsenic poisoning in Cambodia (over $2 million people have it) and how one non-profit is using Karaoke to educate the next generation. Focusing on the story of Vinh, a 15-year-old boy, with arsenic poisoning who loves Karaoke, it puts a face on the problem and delivers a message of hope.

Wagah – This film explores the separation of India and Pakistani through the eyes of three young children and the pageantry around the lowering of both flags at the border gate. The children lend an element of honesty and innocence to the story, while the flag ceremony is all about patriotism. Not allowed to cross the border, two film makers were enlisted. One filmed from the Pakistani side and the other from India. Although they did not meet until after the film was complete, they somehow created a seamless story.

The Bad
Lourdes -- This French film by an Austrian film maker focuses on, Christine, a paraplegic woman who travels to Lourdes in hope of a miracle. Even though she is the main character, we never really get to know her. (In fact, I had to look her name up in the film guide.) The pacing of the film is painfully slow and the characters all seem to speak to each other as little as possible. I doubt this film will ever show up in U.S. theaters, but if it does, skip it.

The Musical
Bran Nue Dae -- An adaptation of a popular stage musical from Australia, this film had catchy tunes, loveable characters and all the hokiness you would expect from a musical. I didn't like it as much as Jois and Dede, mainly because I found the ridiculousness of it distracting. It also kept bringing to mind other movies (Grease, Little Miss Sunshine, and just about every Disney Movie made between 1960 and 1980.) That said, it had a great cast: Australian Idol runner-up Jessica Mauboy as the girlfriend, Geoffrey Rush as a shifty and eccentric Priest, and Ernie Dingo (yes, that's really his name) as the pickled, but wise Aboriginal elder. It does entertain, it doesn't offend and you may even catch me singing a few bars of "I’d rather be an Aborigine."

We have three more movies today, finishing up about 11:00pm tonight. It's still snowing like crazy, but with less wine and slower driving, we hope to stay on the road tonight.

Blog Disrupted

I had every intention of blogging about the movies we saw yesterday (the good, the bad and the musical), but forces (some beyond our control and some not) conspired against me.  After an early dinner (that included a bottle of wine, secrets revealed and lots of laughter -- gotta love an all-girl vacation) we went and shared another bottle (or two) with a friend down the road. Time got away from us and the snow kept piling up.

On the way home, I took a corner too fast in our non-snow-worthy rental car and landed in a ditch. See photo. We called our friend to rescue us and he too slipped off the road and got stuck. We were all eventually rescued by my sister and her Big-Ass-Truck! It's great to a have strong women on your side!

By the time we got home it was almost midnight. With an early movie this morning, it was right to bed for us. I'll provide a more thorough update later today.

It Wasn't Easy, But We Have Tickets in Hand

I went to pick up our tickets today. As none of them were purchased under my name, I had to jump through a few hoops to do it. First, I posed as my sister and presented her driver's license to pick up her tickets. The woman looked up the order and told me those tickets had already been printed. After a great deal of back and forth (where I often forgot I was supposed to be Jenn) we finally found a note on the account that said, "OK to reprint. Fed-Ex delivery cancelled." Whew!

Then I had to go to another area to pick-up the tickets purchased as part of a local's pass under a friend's name. I had a signed note with a photocopy of his driver's license giving me permission to pick them up. The first person I talked to said they are not releasing tickets to people with notes until tomorrow and that I needed two more pieces of documentation in order to pick them up. I left dejected and called my sister. She said she could produce one of the documents, but not the other.

I decided to go back and find out what my options were without that third piece of documentation. I waited in line (again) and talked to another representative. She looked at my note, said everything was in order and got me the tickets. The passes also came with two creditial passes (access to the music venues, panel discussions and other non-movie events), a keepsake film guide and a water bottle. I am so glad I decided to go back!

I'm watching the news as I type this and they are predicting lots of snow in the mountains over the next three days. It sounds like the worst of it will hit Southern and Eastern Utah, so I'm hoping Jois and Dede have no trouble getting over the pass tomorrow night. On a positive note, this is the warmest I have ever been in Park City in January.

Travel Day

• Laptop, iPod, Blackberry, camera – check!
• Boots, hat, scarf, and mittens – check!
• Lip Balm, sunscreen and plenty-o-moisturizer – check!
• Festival.Sundance.org/2010, blogspot, Facebook and imdb.com bookmarked on Internet Browser – check!
• Twitter account set-up (SDOutsider) and synced to Blackberry so I can rate one movie as I walk to the next and post my ratings on Sundance.org – check!
• Low-fat bran muffins baked and packed – crap (no pun intended) I forgot the muffins!

While we might be missing our fiber, we won't be missing any fiber optics.

I’m feeling very techy this year as I gather all my portable electronic devices (as they say in airplane-speak), the appropriate charging and power cords for each, and my passwords/user names for the various social networking programs. I'm wondering if I will feel chained to all this technology or if it will make me feel more “dialed in?” We shall see.

Several Sundance Firsts

Every year, ticket buying is an adventure, but this year was just plain weird. Yesterday was our first opportunity to purchase tickets on line. We had a morning time slot on the first day and were optimistic about our chances. That optimism quickly turned to frustration when we saw the number of sold-out movies.

We wanted tickets to four more movies and had identified 40 options. Of those 40, we got three -- two Shorts Programs and one early morning movie. We bought tickets to another early morning movie that wasn't on our list of 40 to fill out our schedule.

I'm not sure why tickets were so hard to come by this year, but because of that we are looking forward to several "Sundance Firsts:"

• First time seeing the Documentary Short Film Program,
• First time seeing a musical at Sundance,
• First time seeing a movie in the Temple Theater (a new venue, added last year),
• And the first time we won't be seeing any movies at Eccles (the high school auditorium, which is the largest venue and where most of the "big name" films premiere.)

Here are the newest films in our line-up:

Bran Nue Dae -- The film mentioned above that was not on our preferred list and represents our first Sundance musical. An Australian film that adapts the stage production to film. I have to admit this is not my favorite genre, but Geoffrey Rush is in it, so it can't be all bad. (I'm also trying to overlook the fact that the title reminds me of high fiber cereal and is in desperate need of spellcheck.)

Documentary Showcase -- A collection of seven documentary short films from the U.S., Israel, Spain and Germany. It's hard to tell what they are about, but the description hints at drunken history, wife swapping and karaoke.

Shorts Program IV -- A collection of seven short films from the U.S., Poland, the U.K. and Canada. I have no idea what they are about, but there are few opportunities to see short films here in Portland and short programs always give us something to talk about.

(I'm fully expecting both of these shorts programs to give me a leg-up at Academy Awards parties.)

Abel -- Tuesday morning, before we fly home, we are going to squeeze in this family drama directed by Diego Luna (he also directed Rudo y Cursi which we saw last year.) It looks like a touching film about a unique little boy and how he changes the family dynamic.

We had another buying time slot this morning, so I logged on to see if the Box Office released more tickets today. No such luck. All that was left are shorts programs, midnight showings and films playing outside Park City. Bad news for anyone with a buying time slot after yesterday morning who wants to see a weekend movie. There was, however, a pretty good selection of movies midweek. Hmmm, maybe this needs to be a longer trip next year.

We Now Have Tickets to Nine Movies!

My sister had an opportunity to purchase tickets at the box office yesterday and was able to get tickets for six movies. As it stands right now, we will be seeing five documentaries, four dramatic films and five foreign films (two documentaries and three dramatic.)

You can read more about these films at http://sundance.bside.com/2010/. In the meantime, here's a brief synopsis of each:

Lourdes - The filmmaker is described as "nestling Lourdes between religious satire and redemption story." The subject of miracles is explored.

Waiting for Superman- An American-made documentary that explores all aspects of the public school system by following some promising students through their academic life.

New Low - A comedic love triangle -- yay, a comedy! It was written and directed by 25-year-old, Adam Bowers (who also stars in it) and shot on borrowed equipment by whichever friends happened to be available at the time.

Last Train Home - A Canadian filmmaker made this documentary about the exodus that happens in China every New Year's Holiday. While this is considered the world's largest human migration, the focus is on one couple's story and it sounds like it ends up being a much broader story about China the plight of its people.

12th and Delaware - An exploration of the abortion debate by turning the cameras on an intersection in Florida where an abortion clinic and a pro-life office sit right across the street from each other.

Waste Land - A documentary about a Brazilian artist who creates realistic images of people out of materials found where they live. The film documents his latest project, using garbage to portray the people who live around the largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro.

We will be buying more tickets on Tuesday and I'm confident we will be seeing no less than 13 movies during Sundance 2010. Woo Hoo -- we are on our way!

SUNDANCE TWENTYTEN -- The Adventure Continues

After a long break from blogging, I'm back to record my experiences at what will be my seventh trip to the Sundance Film Festival. Two weeks from now, myself and two movie-loving friends will trade our rain boots for snow boots and rendezvous with my sister in Park City, Utah. In the meantime, we have been preparing by registering to buy tickets, studying the Film Guide, and mapping out a game plan that lets us see at least 12 movies in four days.

We asked 10 friends and family members to enter the lottery to help us score an early ticket buying time slot. This strategy paid off, resulting in one pass (good for 12 tickets), one box office buying time (hopefully resulting in 20 more tickets), and three first day time slots for on-line buying (potentially good for 20 tickets each.) We won't need that many tickets (we're only there for three days after all), but it's good to know that we will mostly certainly arrive in Utah with tickets in hand.

Our strategy in buying tickets is complicated, but works. It goes like this:

1) Identify those films that are playing while we are there (the actual Festival is 10 days long -- we go for the first weekend.)

2) Of the films that are playing while we are there, identify the films we want to see. Sundance provides an on-line catalog once the films are announced. Over the years, we have learned a great deal about how to interpret the film guide descriptions in order to avoid the stinkers. Here's a good example from this year's guide regarding a film called Armless: "For years, John ... has secretly wanted to have his arms chopped off." Yikes, big red flag!

3) Identify any time and distance constraints. Movies play from 8:30am until midnight at eight theaters around town. The town is completely clogged with people and vehicles, so you really need to understand where a movie is showing, when it ends and how long it takes to get to the next place before you buy.

4) Map out your first through third choices for movies for every time slot and every day.

5) Stick with that plan until movies start selling out -- then throw the whole plan out the window and buy whatever you can.

Today we were able to select the 12 tickets that make up our pass. Already, one of the films we wanted was sold out and one had only two tickets remaining. Other than that, we were able to grab four tickets each to the following movies:

Women without Men - Adapted from an Iranian novel, this film tells the story of the 1953 removal of Iran's democratically elected government through the individual stories of five women. I'm hoping for a visually arresting film that alters my perceptions of Iran.

I Am Love - An Italian film (in Italian and Russian with subtitles) starring Tilda Swinton, hmmm, what's that about? That's enough to get me interested right there, but it is also described as "a feast for the senses." We'll see ...

8: The Mormon Proposition - A documentary about the Mormon church's involvement in the passage of Proposition 8 in California. I know it will make me mad, but sometimes it's good to be a little angry.

My sister, Jenn, will be hitting the Park City Box Office this Saturday to try to score 20 more tickets and we will do our best to fill in any holes through on-line ticket sales on Tuesday. For us, it's all about the movies!