WIP Talk: Sundance Days 3 (Part 2) and 4

• Bike racks at my number one hang out – the transit center! Photograph by Jessica Mosby. •

As I am writing this blog entry, I have seen 10.5 films. Over the next two days I will see at least another 10 films, if all goes according to plan. And by “plan,” I mean, my daily ritual of pulling out my manila folder (which contains the official Sundance film guide and updated Press/Industry screening schedule), grabbing my highlighter, and obsessively reviewing my carefully timed screening schedule. All of the film screenings have been very crowded this year, so one must be prepared! And really there are just too many films to see – couple that with bus schedules, and you barely have time to sleep or eat. Every morning, after too little sleep, I tell myself that I can sleep when I’m at home, because today I have movies to see!

Serious documentary films have the power to bring attention to important issues – that’s why I love them! During this morning’s [previously mentioned] panel discussion, Samantha Power talked about how films can be a “Trojan horse” to get people interested in serious topics. But seeing too many depressing films in a single day is not a good idea. Trust me.

Having a good time at any film festival requires a balance. You must mix heady documentaries with laugh-out-loud comedies and fictional dramas, if you’re going to have a good time and stay enthused. I am capable of seeing five movies in a single day and staying interested in every single one, but I need some diversity.

• With such fierce competition, some films find original ways to stand out. End of the Line employed a mascot. It worked, at least on me, since I will be seeing the film before I leave Park City. Photograph by Jessica Mosby. •

But how to choose which films to see when the selection is so vast? I listen to conversations on buses, in the press room at festival headquarters, before and after screenings – really everywhere. It might be rude to listen to private conversations, but how private can something said on a bus really be. Last year I saw I.O.U.S.A. because the director’s mom told my boyfriend about it in the airport shuttle. And yet, you can’t see every film; I already have regrets about films I didn’t see last week.

I started the festival with the opening night selection: Mary and Max. The Australian claymation animation film is about two very different pen pals (an 8 year old Australian girl and a 44 year old autistic man living in New York) who send letters and chocolate across the globe for 20 years. I have no feelings, positive or negative, regarding claymation; I did like how the twee of claymation was contrasted by a rather serious and mature story. At times I got so caught up in the characters that I completely forgot that I wasn’t watching real people.

Since I review documentaries for The WIP, I have seen at least two a day. While I don’t want to reveal too much about films that I will be reviewing, I will say that biopics about crazy people (or people going crazy) seem to be big this year. Today I saw The Carter about the rapper Lil’ Wayne, who is downright bizarre, and yet surprisingly committed to his art. Big River Man is like a real life version of Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God, expect this time the protagonist is swimming, not rafting, down the Amazon river. But the insanity part rings very true. An interesting subject doesn’t make for an interesting film, as I learned this evening at When You’re Strange, which makes the madcap life of Jim Morrison relatively dull.

Tonight on the bus ride back to my hotel, I heard some other people saying that they might see Spring Breakdown tomorrow. I quickly interrupted, “You MUST see it! It’s so funny!” The comedy features many Saturday Night Live stars at their best! I know that it is not an award-winning piece of cinema; however, that 90 minutes of fun rejuvenated me for another four documentaries about the world’s worst problems.