DAY 2: KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON

The first movie on our schedule is not until the afternoon, so we decide to use our downtime and go out to have a real sit down meal for a change.  However the snow has finally arrived big time so we need to re-think our clothing and dress sensibly before we can set out. This is the look that  Kareem opts for as he hates to draw attention to himself, but I really don't think that sensible is the first adjective that times to my mind.

Park City has a really fab free bus system that has different routes that seemingly run continuously between all the Festival Venues & the Ski Resorts. That comes as quite a relief as my bike wasn't very usable this morning  

We hop on a bus to Main Street which is the cute town centre which looks like an old movie set itself. The snow has settled and is quite deep but that didnt stop one glamourous under-dressed starlet type trying to negotiate the rather treacherous sidewalk in very high heels.  Damn, where is my camera when I need it? But we did get it out in time to capture me trying to deal with this very un-Miami weather.

We popped into the Sundance Channel Lounge to hang out a while and see if coffee would give us back any sensations in our fingers and toes, and also try and do a wee bit of Star spotting too.  Now the town is overrun with people who think they are celebs and are so convincing that I start to think they are too.  I swear  this man that I am pointing at is someone really big in pictures, but who the hell is he?

Fun over and back on schedule and our first movie is a very tender and realistic story that plots a loving relationship between two very likable guys in Manhattan through all it's highs  and challenges over a decade. There were sadly more of the latter but this well made movie's particular take was both honest and refreshing, and with excellent acting from a relatively unknown cast it deserves to get picked up by a Distributor  so that it can find the audience it deserves. Titled 'Keep The Lights  On' which referred to the preference of the more unstable partner's needs , it did also make me smile and think back to 'The Queen of Versailles yesterday when the obnoxious billionaire and seemingly reluctant father would shout out at his kids 'if  you love me then turn off the lights'. 


We didn't fare so well with our next flick, but that's Sundance for you. It doesn't matter how much one studies all the Program Notes to whittle it down to a manageable viewing schedule, you always make some wrong calls. But then again, if you don't go outside your comfort zone  here sometimes you may miss an unexpected sheer gem.  And 'Filly Brown' a movie about a female Latino hip hop singer with a drug pushing mother in jail easily qualifies as something you wouldn't normally find me in the audience for. Ever.  I was however just following orders. The movie was a pick of Vivian's who had heard good things about it.  Viv is Co-director of O Cinema for whom I am ostensibly acting as Program Consultant (even though they don't need one) and in light of the fact that money doesn't change hands I have taken to introducing her and Kareem as my bosses and that I  am their VERY unpaid  Intern. A somewhat mature one. I am also gravitating to the idea of upgrading my (hon) Consultant title that is on my Badge to that of Film Curator which I think adds more gravitas  to a man of such worldly experience. Lol.

Anyway back to the plot, or rather the movie.  It was a great vehicle for a remarkable young talent Gina Rodriguez who really could 'spit out her rhymes so dope',  but aside from her standout performance the whole thing reeked shamefully of stereotypes.  It was embarrassingly  corny and quite clumsy, and  although the director was aiming at our tear ducts via our hearts he kind of numbed our brains instead. I left the theater somewhat worried that I had found the movie so disappointing simply because I am such a lily white gringo. But in all honesty I couldn't stop thinking that the film was less like a World Premiere and more like a Latino Lifetime TV Special. My (Latino) 'Bosses' actually thought the same, with Viv concluding it was as if the whole movie had been shot 10 years ago when we didn't know better.

If I was too much of a Brit for that movie, then I was possibly not young enough for the last movie of the day 'Indie Games'. It's a new documentary about computer geeks who independently create video games which are very much a staple of daily life for young(er) people these days. (And judging by the film, some not so young too!) A pair of newbie filmmakers followed 4  developers for some months as they tortuously created three new games at the expense of having anything approaching a normal life for years. They were on the whole a bunch or irritating whining nerds who's obsessions were beyond annoying, but however the whole process from germinating an idea and pursuing it through all the slow painful process was totally fascinating. The fact that they all elected to do this on their  own outside of the major games maker was admirable and the potential financial rewards, if they succeed, are enormous. If only they were not such a miserable and unattractive bunch!  


Time for bed, but first another run through Freshmarket for supplies.  And also to commiserate with Levi who's  probably out of sorts as his fellow Mormon Mitt was rejected by the good people of South Carolina today.  That would never happen to Levi in any State. In fact I'm sure he could even swap shelf stacking for a role in the movies any day. I wanted to show him the new membership card that I was sent from Miami International Film Festival that shows the level of my donation and the fact that I made it on my own.  It says Film Producer (Single).  The first part I know may mislead Levi about me, but the second part is very clear.