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.

DAY 1 : ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH

We are the very first people to arrive for the 9.30 am movie.  It's only 8.30 am but we need to get in line to ensure we get a seat.  There are more Passes than there are Seats because not every single accredited Industry person sees every movie at these special Press & Industry Shows. Consequently some movies play to packed houses where latecomers don't make the cut, and others have a mere handful in their audience. Hence we never take a chance and are in the Marquee which serves as the Holding Area for the Holiday Village Complex Theaters really early.  We get herded into one of the many lines between barriers which is a tad too reminiscent of pens at cattle market, although we are a much more attractive crowd.  I'm clutching my first Starbucks of the day and a muffin i.e. my  breakfast.  

Our first pick is 'CORPO CELESTE' : a very weird Italian cold fish of a movie about  a poor girl going to catechism class in preparation for her Confirmation. The priest however is more concerned with badgering his poor parishioners to vote for the far Right Forza Party Candidate in the upcoming Elections. And meanwhile the church cat gave birth to kittens which they put in a plastic bag and ......!  Did I mention it was Catholic? That should say it all!   

'THE AMBASSADOR' on the other hand is the work of Mads Brugger a Danish documentarian setting himself up as a 'African Diplomat'  and under the pretense of representing Liberia he settles in Central African Republic ostensibly to expose widespread corruption but at the same time becoming a diamond drug smuggler.  This hilarious and completely compelling movie is about being a con man trying to outplay a whole series of local con-men in this latest 'Mickey Mouse' Regime that are now in power in this desperately poor Third World Country.  But on reflection there is also a distinct possibility that the filmmaker has set this whole thing up and is actually conning us too.  Regardless of who is being taken for a ride it is an immensely funny film that takes aim at the farcical machinations in this African State where no-one is technically bribed but they all expect to be given a bulging 'envelope of happiness'.

Poor day for Celeb sighting we just caught a glimpse of William H Macy sporting a band aid across his nose. He was actually born in Miami or so IMDB claims, but it also says that Bill is 5 '9" tall and we swear he seemed no taller than hobbit Elijah Wood from where we were standing.

The next movie on our schedule this day was THE best.  'THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES' is a documentary that followed obnoxious billionaire timeshare mogul David Segal and his pampered blonde trophy wife Jackie as their life of sheer excess starts to crumble around them. The story starts pre 2008 when everything in their Florida mansion was so rosy for them and their seven small spoilt-to-death children and whole menagerie of animals that including countless yapping dogs who pooped everywhere.  However they, and their 19 staff, have outgrown the place so the Segals are now building the largest single house in the US.  Planned to be over 90000 sq feet with some 38 bathrooms alone. It was inspired styled by French Palais, but actually they copied the top three floors of the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.

Their lives are reeling with such outrageous bad bad taste, that they actually make those wretched Kardashians look like a Class Act. Imagine that!  Jackie's breasts also match the size of her house , and she is also The Queen of Fur Coat & No Knickers Brigade (she actually wears one in the Florida heat ... a fur coat that is!). Then when the 'crash' happens and the unfinished 'Versailles' is facing foreclosure, they only have 4 house staff, and Mr. Siegel is fighting hard to hang on to his business, but Jackie is still out shopping.  Not Chanel this time, but actually Walmart where she still manages to fill four shopping carts with more toys that the kids really do not need.  The hilarious film is compulsive viewing and is peppered with some priceless quotes .... like when Jackie is talking about her annoyance that the Stimulus Money that Obama gave to the Banks was intended to pass on to the common people like them without a hint of irony.  And on that basis she would deserve a lot, because she is dead common!  We loved every single minute of it

Movie number four sobered us up sharply as it was another in-depth look at where US Healthcare is going wrong. Then the last movie of the day was 'ABOUT PINK  SKIES'.  It seemed to have been about a japanese schoolgirl who finds a loaded wallet in the streets and then spends her day squalling in a high pitched voice with her school chums.  Forty minutes  later we decide that this movie is going nowhere, but we are.  Home.  It's almost 11 pm.  An early night after our first 15 hour day at the movies.  Can't wait for tomorrow.

WE ARE ALMOST THERE

We've just arrived from Miami by way of Dallas ... where I resisted the temptation too lash out $60 on a Dallas Cowboys T-Shirt (even though it said "Cowboys Are My Weakness). And now we are waiting at the baggage carousel at Salt Lake City Airport when we have our first Celeb Sighting.  'OMG'  screams Kareem, 'look over there, its Tobey Maquire!'  'Where?'  'Over there?' 'Where's there exactly?' I add looking around frantically. 'He's the man in the green plaid jacket'   'Nah. that's nothing like Tobey'  'Goddamit of course it's him!'   'Well go over and tell him how much we liked him in 'Superman'.  'Was he in that?'  'Duh!  He WAS Superman'  'Then  that's not Tobey Maguire at all?'  'Then who is he then?'  Oh it's  Elijah Woods who we loved in  'The Lord of the Rings'.  (We did?  That's news to me). Kareem is confused at the best of times and obviously can't distinguish one pint-sized leading man from another.  Elijah looks nothing like our Tobey ...check these pics out and see for your self.

Elijah flashing by...

Anyway a Celeb is a Celeb so I shouted out his name and rushed over to kiss him and for some totally unknown reason he dashed straight past me in a great hurry.  Strange eh?

There's another sighting of sorts soon afterwards as a Cab Driver comes over to where we are all milling around waiting for our rides to Park City and he shouts at 'I'm looking for Amanda Knox!'   And so were the entire Italian Police Force at one time.  Can it really be the same one here perhaps to get a movie deal on how she got away with murder?  Just to be sure we decide to hide all the sharp knives when we get to the Condo later.


There are two groups of visitors in snowy Park City, Utah. Firstly the intrepid skiers, and you can usually spot them by their loud clothes (maybe it's something to do with being seen on the slopes).  Then there are the Sundancers who have ditched all pretense at sartorial elegance so they can just keep warm. The movie crowd are just loud!   They use cellphones like megaphones so that every one can know how very important they think they are.  And so just as the baggage finally appears one particular gentleman (and I use the term loosely) is screaming at some poor sap at the other end of his phone ' You're not even a Name!  You should just be grateful to be here!'


I know what he means.  I'm no name, and I count my stars that I am here.

Tomorrow we start 'work' : a mere 5 movies to see and so we'll be there on line at 8.30 am sharp clutching the first Starbucks on the day. ......... watch this space to find out what I see.