SAGIndie

Sundance 2010’s festival theme was REBEL: “This is the renewed rebellion. This is the recharged fight against the establishment.” I’m not sure exactly why this theme was chosen, but I imagine it had something to do with the departure of long-time festival director Geoffrey Gilmore and the hiring of his replacement, John Cooper. New leadership, new plan of attack.

Based on this theme it would appear that those in charge were trying to steer the prestigious festival back to a more “independent” mindset. Perhaps, back to its early ‘80s roots-the glory days when Sundance blazed the trail for independent cinema with the likes of BLOOD SIMPLE, STRANGER THAN PARADISE, and PARIS, TEXAS.

So, in 2010 did they achieve what they wanted? Did they get back to their roots and rebrand themselves as reckless, risk taking rebels? My answer: maybe.

To me, it felt as if the films, overall, were a bit riskier, less classical, and more “rebellious” than in years past. There definitely was a much higher percentage of films I was so-so on than ones I went crazy over, but is that because the selections were so bizarre, so brilliant, so avant-garde that I wasn’t prepared for it? Or were they just mediocre films? I’m not sure I’m qualified to make that determination, but I will say that more than once I left a film shaking my head wondering how in the heck a distributor was going to market it.

Maybe they accomplished what they wanted with their selections. A program of non-classical, non-mainstream films that not everyone will accept – with or without a star-studded cast. But that brings me to my next point. The vast majority of the selections – at least the US Dramatic films – had at least one “name” in the cast. Almost every film Q&A I attended, the leads – be it Melissa Leo, Joseph Gordon Levitt or Robert Duvall – were in attendance. Here’s Sundance apparently wanting to get back to its rebel ways, and I’m seeing more celebrities in a two-hour screening than I do in an entire month in Los Angeles. Is this rebellion? Is this getting back to its roots? I’m not sure.

To their credit, they did institute the BEST OF NEXT category this year, which basically highlights a group of films that were made by (essentially) unknowns for (allegedly) little money. I saw one of those films, BASS ACKWARDS, and really enjoyed it. But why can’t they include these films in general competition? Why do they have to be labeled as, essentially, small films made by small people? Why can’t we see if they stack up to the Ryan Gosling/Robert Duvall/Adrien Brody indies?

Don’t answer that. There are a million and one reasons why they shouldn’t compete against these bigger productions, but let’s face it, by segregating them to their own playground Sundance is essentially creating a more polarized film festival and certainly not something that feels like a renewed rebellion.

If Sundance truly wants to get back to its glory days, I think it would need to wipe the slate clean. Maybe they consider making restrictions for submissions like budget caps or major award winner limitations. Or maybe if they also require that past Sundance winners and/or participants can only submit every other year? I won’t pretend to have the right answer, but something more drastic needs to happen if they want to recharge the “fight against the establishment.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love Sundance. The last thing I want to do is sound like I’m bashing it. I love how it started, what it’s become and, most importantly, what it’s done for independent cinema. I only bring all of this up because I hate to see Sundance try and rebrand itself into something it’s not and just accept what it’s become. Own it, love it, and be happy for all of the smaller, “rebellious” festivals that you’ve paved the way for.

At the end of the day, Sundance is still the dream destination of all indie filmmakers, whether they’ll admit it or not. Its level of acceptance is so selective and its reputation is so paramount that just to be included would make any nonconformist die of pure elation.

1.) To be 100 percent surrounded by mountains. Yes, I’ve been to Colorado and rode up to the top of Pike’s Peak, but I’ve never stood in a town and been able to turn 180 degrees and see nothing but a jagged barrier landscape, makes you feel like you’ve been dropped in a teacup where the sides of the cup are gigantic mountains.

2.) Such rustic lodging. There were deer antlers on my wall, ‘nuff said.

3.) To regret forgetting a hat. I know how that sounds but I had gloves, multiple scarves, two winter coats and snow boots; yet, because it snowed nearly every day a hat became paramount. Good thing we had hundreds of awesome SAGIndie hats and I eventually got my hands on one.

4.) To see Robert Duvall in person! Probably the actor I was most moved to see. He came up on stage along with his co-stars Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black after the screening of their film Get Low. He didn’t have too much to say but he did speak fondly of the mule they used in the film.

5.) To meet Amber Benson and Adam Busch. They attended SAGIndie’s Filmmaker’s Lunch and they were representing their Slamdance competition films Cummings Farm and Drones. Yes, I know each of them as an ex-Buffy season 6 cast member and that season’s wannabe supervillian, respectively.

6.) To learn so much about Right to Work states. Utah is one of them, which made for an interesting discussion during our SAGIndie Panel, which included our National Director Darrien Gipson, SAG’s Diversity National Director Rebecca Yee, as well as the New Media National Director Mark Friedlander and National Director of Digital Marketing Steve Graham.

7.) To see John Carroll Lynch at our SAGIndie Actor’s Brunch and have him not talk in a Minnesotan accent.

8.) To have a film that I knew little about end up being my Sundance favorite: Hesher. Obscene and unapologetic, it had some authentic, heartfelt moments.

9.) To be one of the audience members who asked a question during a post-screening Q & A. After I saw Splice, I had to ask director Vincenzo Natali a question: did he mean for his sci-fi horror flick to be so darn funny? Splice had the most audience participation of any film I saw, it scared us, made us grimace, gawf, squirm and most importantly, laugh. His answer: horror and comedy make good bedfellows so yes, absolutely, I was expecting laughs. I was happy to hear this because if you can laugh at the characters and the story a little then this movie has got to be my second favorite.

10.) To have a week in Utah go by so fast.

I’m blogging at Will’s insistence. Clearly, he finds himself unfettered by the concerns with which I am weighed down; matters pecuniary, what on earth is a “super bowl”, was that a real giraffe &c. But I don’t want him to stop loaning me quarters for the meter, SO:

Describing Sundance is like describing space travel, you guys. You can read first hand accounts all you want, and they’re all the same, but it doesn’t do justice to actually going. In light of this, allow me to present you with a highlight reel of Sundance, as described via the easiest way for me to communicate: a Sundance mix!

Beach House – Norway
Will and I saw them play to a curiously half empty (half full?) Star Bar for the Washington Filmworks/Sub Pop party. This song bends in and out of tune, making me light-headed, like when a plane drops suddenly and you drop through a dizzy spell with it. This also happens when you drink a lot, which everyone does in Park City (and I continue to do!) But maybe I should include “Zebra” with this because it’s the one everyone likes more anyway.

Andrew Bird – The Giant of Illinois*
You listen to stuff like this a lot when you’re a girl that likes to listen to weather-appropriate mixes. So clearly, if I’m going to be seasonally relevant, when it’s snowing, I am going to listen to songs that sound like snow. (Does this make sense? Whatever, just go with it.) Are you listening to this? I mean, really listening? The song is really, really beautiful and kind of makes you want to take the whole Park City skyline and all that snow home with you. Try it for yourself! (Next year.) *It should be noted that this song – in my opinion superior to the original by The Handsome Family – is about a real person, Robert Wadlow, who really did die from a blister. However, it wasn’t in the winter, as the song suggests, he actually died in the summertime.

Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
The ASCAP Music Café plucked Richard out of the “whatever happened to ____?” obscurity to perform not once, but twice (!!) at Sundance on Main St this year. Make a Wish Foundation wish fulfillment? ASCAP is under no legal obligation to confirm or deny, but really, what the hell? (PS Darrien Michele Gipson knows every word to this song and don’t even let her tell you that she doesn’t.)

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Buriedfed
Did I exhaust the case for listening to wintry and cold sounding songs when it’s wintry and cold out with the Andrew Bird entry? Did I mention that Park City is really, really cold? And that it snowed the entire time? And that I live in Los Angeles, with it’s temperate climate, and inexplicably and obnoxiously act like that gives me license to talk about the cold like I invented it? Oh well!

Penny & the Quarters – You and Me
This song was neatly slipped in the middle of a load of Grizzly Bear in Blue Valentine. Will kept poking my arm every time a new song started, like I don’t own the album and recognize the songs. Moving on! I first discovered this song when parsing through old soul compilations looking a couple years ago, and was immediately struck by a desire to find it a home in a soundtrack. Clearly, Joe Rudge beat me to it. I should probably be happy that such a charming song is getting out there for people to hear, but I’m not. This is your warning, Rudge. Stop snatching my obscure songs!

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes – Home
Just something to listen to when you’re far away from wherever you come from, which I am a bit, with all the film festivals SAGIndie travels to. If you see me wandering around, listening to my iPod between screenings, you can probably bet your friend $10 that this is the song I’m listening to. Even if it’s not, I’ll play along. It’s the least I can do for someone who would read my blog all the way to the end.

The thing is, as beautiful as snowflakes can be, once you’ve seen like a MILLION of them, that specialness goes out the window and you’re just left with cold balls of sludge falling from the sky.  Movies as Sundance can sometimes feel like a million pieces of sludge coming at you.

Maybe sludge is too harsh a word.  Eh, maybe not.  The point is, I saw a lot of movies this Sundance – more than I’ve seen collectively in many years, and none of them felt “special” to me.  To be fair, I didn’t see some of the favorites, like CYRUS, which I heard was really great.  But I did see many that came to the festival with big buzz, and I was left feeling underwhelmed.  Many were perfectly well done (THE RUNAWAYS; THE COMPANY MEN), but none gave me that “this is going to be big” feeling.  There have been times when I’ve sat in a movie at Sundance and actually felt like I was seeing something that was either 1) just plain great, 2) marked the beginning of a great career, or 3) would be talked about for a long time to come.  There have been movies that I just thoroughly enjoyed the fact that “I was there” – bearing witness to a moment so special in a filmmaker’s life that you enjoy it almost as much as the filmmaker.  Sundance is the dream – but sometimes, you wake up, unable to remember what the dream was about and with an awful case of cottonmouth.  Of course, that might have been due to my choice in hydration.

So here is my list of films that I saw at Sundance that gave me “that” feeling.  They aren’t all the BIG ones to come out of the festival, and they certainly are not all “high brow” efforts.  But in all of them, I came out either having enjoyed myself thoroughly, or feeling like the filmmaker/actor was going to be someone to watch in the future.  In no particular order:

1)    Whale Rider
2)    Half Nelson
3)    Four Weddings and a Funeral
4)    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5)    Bend It Like Beckham
6)    Muriel’s Wedding
7)    Hustle & Flow (single best premiere screening ever!  The director and cast sang Proud Mary!)
8)    Little Miss Sunshine
9)    Seducing Dr. Lewis
10)  The Station Agent

Again, I’m not saying that these are the best movies to come out of Sundance or anywhere.  I just remember walking out and being totally charmed, loving the performances, and just feeling happy about seeing the movie.  There were others that I’ve loved from Sundance, I just didn’t see them AT Sundance.  Movies like MEMENTO, THE USUAL SUSPECTS; SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE all were memorable to me, but I had to catch them at other festivals or (gasp!) in an actual PAYING venue.

There were a couple of films, to be fair, that captured my attention this year.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt in HESHER was certainly notable, as was Dakota Fanning in THE RUNAWAYS.  But the film that left me the most intrigued, the one I couldn’t forget, was SPLICE with Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley.  I saw it at a midnight showing, certain that I’d fall asleep, and when it ended 2 hours later, I was awake and just…..enthralled.  I can’t tell you what I liked because it might ruin the surprise of it, but I really enjoyed that movie.

And come to think of it, while we were standing in line, in the snow, waiting to see some movie or another, I WAS amazed every time a singularly perfect, “looks like you cut it out of construction paper”, stellar shaped snowflake landed on me.  When it happens, you learn to ignore the sludge and just concentrate on the miracle before you.