Festive Films

For many years I was one of the faces you got to yell at if you didn't get into the movie you wanted, the line was moving too slow, the wait line "system" wasn't working to your advantage or you jest felt like since everyone else was yelling at me, you should too.

All I have to say is this: "It is just a movie, pipe down and get your priorities in order. I don't think your leggings, unnecessarily large fur snow boots or uncombed hair make you any more important than the person in line behind you. Threatening me and throwing names of obscure directors at me isn't going to grow more seats in the theater so go wait in the cold like everyone else who is really dedicated to the art and stop trying to ruin my day!"

I no longer work for Sundance and I think that is best for everyone. The last year I worked for them I wrote a seething letter to the upper management about my supervisor that got him fired (sorry Sausage, it was best for all of us) and since that experience I have not stepped foot in a Sundance Box office.

The long days of angry people complaining to me about unimportant things that were out of my control I don't miss but I do miss the festivities. We attended a movie on Saturday night called Push that won both the audience and Grand Jury Prize and sitting there in that theater I caught a little Sundance bug. It is powerful to be crowded into a space with people who have sacrificed to be there. I don't pretend that anyone sacrificed anything earth shattering but I recognize that attending the festival is not easy or for the weak, you have to want to be there and that chemistry is clear during the screenings.

How many times have you wanted to applaud at the end of a movie but the forum wasn't right? Maybe the people next to you were texting during the movie and didn't absorb quite as much as you did or all you could hear was the rattling of popcorn bags and you missed the exchange that tied the whole story together. Things don't happen that way at Sundance. I dare say you would be lynched if you pulled something like that at one of their "films".

During Push the theater felt more like a small room and the emotion of the audience was very raw. At one point during the movie someone drops a baby and a community gasp rose into the air. It is not often you get to audibly express emotion other than laughter in a movie and it changes the whole experience. At the end of the movie this theater full of people got on their feet and applauded because there was no other way to release this weight of emotion we felt as a screening community.

I should say that I liked the movie but I didn't love it. I had a hard time identifying with any of the characters and that kept me a little distant but the art of the movie making was effective and very powerful. The cast was there at the end of the movie for the Q&A and I gained a much deeper appreciation for what I had just seen after hearing from the cast and director about the motivation and their journey while making the movie. Another great thing about the festival.

Sundance can be a world of self-important people with self-important films who think that shaky cameras, gay porn and disjointed story lines makes art, but it is also a place where great things happen and you can be so sweetly surprised by these nuggets of art that are projected on the screen.

I miss living in a community driven by art.