I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.
Posted by Josh G. on February 11, 2011 – 3 CommentsSo this blog doesn’t really have anything to do with Hopkins. But it’s the most interesting thing that’s happened to me in a while.
*******
I was recently invited by my friend Clare to go to the Sundance Film Festival. Her dad works in the film exhibition business and has gone for many years now. She, herself, has gone for seven years. It was an amazing experience and I’ll try and rehash the best I can.
Wednesday:
Woke up at 9:30 AM to finish packing. Left for BWI at 11 with my friend Alexandra who also came on the trip. Parked at the Long Term Parking Lot and took a long bus ride to the Southwest terminal. Check our bags. Got food at California Tortilla (not recommended). Waited at the terminal for a while. Learned the day before that my joint Hopkins/MICA class would be meeting the Monday of my trip since MICA starts a week earlier, so I’d miss the first class. Had to do work for that on the plane. Took a really relaxing (and seemingly short) 5 hour trip to Salt Lake City. A shuttle picked us up and dropped us off at our condo in Park City – the Sunflower. Caught up for a bit with Clare (after not seeing her for 6 months since she was in Florence for the semester). Met her dad. Walked a few blocks to the grocery store and made dinner at the condo. Made a game plan for the week.
Thursday:
Walked around Park City. Saw what’s on Main Street. Took a peek inside Sundance HQ. Got some free stuff (the first of many days of swag). Got our ticket package. (Alexandra thought she saw Elijah Wood at HQ, but that was never confirmed by anyone else.) Took the Shuttle Loop around and saw where all the theaters are. Visited New Frontiers – a set of buildings with art installations inside. The things there included The Arcade Fire’s ‘Wilderness Downtown’ interactive music video, James Franco’s “Three’s Company: The Drama”, an interactive game that ran throughout Park City all week called “Pandemic”, and a room upstairs with a sandbox and interactive bugs made of light that you can play with (harder to explain than I thought). Also, had a Robert Redford sighting there. Went to a really nice dinner with the whole gang and Clare’s dad’s friend.
Friday:
FIRST MOVIE DAY! Get up super early to get waitlist tickets for a film called The Nine Muses. Not worth it really – an interesting experimental feature, but not a good 9 AM movie. Then Alexandra and I took a trip to Eccles – the main Sundance theater – to see Martha Marcy May Marlene which we both really liked. After that, we took some time to go get food and head back to Eccles for Miranda July’s The Future – one of my favorites of the festival. After the movie, we came back for dinner and I waited as the girls got ready for us to go to the Fox Searchlight party. Clare worked as an intern at Searchlight the past two summers and pulled some strings to get us in there. Here was our big celebrity sighting (most of the others were at Q&A’s done after each film with the cast/crew/director). We saw Ed Helms, Paul Giamatti, Anne Heche, Elizabeth Banks, Danny McBride, Rashida Jones, Amy Ryan, and Miguel Arteta (I may be forgetting some.). We walked back in the snow – yes it snows a lot in Utah.
Saturday:
Another early morning with a 9 AM show at Eccles. This time it’s Win Win – another festival favorite coming to a theater near you soon. The afternoon included Like Crazy, which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the festival (an inexplicable feat for something we found so mediocre). But the day ended well with Azazel Jacobs’ Terri. We spent the night in catching our breath.
Sunday:
The day started at 9AM with My Idiot Brother. Got to see Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, and Elizabeth Banks (again) in person. We got free sushi for lunch. Later that day we went to the Shorts II Program. We saw some interesting films including one called Sexting starring Julia Stiles that was awful and another called Brick Novax Pt. 1 and 2 which went on to win the Best Shorts Prize. With a mixup on the guest list at the IFC party (for which we were on the list but the guy at the door did not see us, but it was later confirmed by Alexandra who worked for IFC last summer and talked to her boss about it), we went for a walk around Main Street. We stopped in at the Brownstar Insurance building – a mock insurance company set up to promote the film Cedar Rapids. We made a pit stop at the condo to sadly watch the Jets lose in the AFC Championship game, but then it was back out to Main Street for a midnight screening of Septien – a strange film, but I kind of liked it. We knew the DP and Editor of the film so we said hi afterwards and caught up. We passed out shortly after arriving back home.
Monday:
Cedar Rapids kicked off the new week at 9 AM – not one of my favorites. With no tickets to films, and nothing really worth waiting around for in the afternoon we took a break from movies for a bit. Early in the afternoon, we played around in the snow up in the mountains. We (meaning Clare’s dad) were invited to the San Francisco Film Society party. Note to all: make connections that get you into these types of events. Free booze and lots of swag at all the parties. Afterwards, we were brought to the Sundance Channel party where we got to rub shoulders (literally, it was kind of a small place) with lots of TV and distribution execs. Although it’s hard to tell who they were and who were just normal people like us. After we left there (with the best swag bag of our trip), we headed to one more movie. We saw Perfect Sense which was not a good choice. The only benefit to going was that we made friends with this woman who was waiting on line with us who friended me on Vimeo the following day after taking my business card (Yes, I made business cards for the trip).
Tuesday:
Our last movie day. We got up very early to get on the waitlist for The Details which was a pretty good start to the day. In the afternoon we made our way to Vampire – a movie that you can’t unsee, even if you wish you could. Margin Call was up at 9 PM, which was good for what we saw of it. Unfortunately, due to poor planning, we couldn’t stay for the end since we had to run to the midnight screening of my most highly anticipated film, Submarine. Luckily it didn’t disappoint (except for the fact that the director, Richard Ayoade, was not there for a Q&A after). And after a long day of 4 films, we finally set off for our last night at the condo.
Wednesday:
We woke up early again in a concerted, panicked frenzy as we tried to finish packing and getting ready simultaneously. The shuttle to the airport arrived, and we hopped in. We watched the snowy mountains pass us by until we got back into Salt Lake City. We were lucky enough to get off the ground in time for our flight to stay on track, but a huge storm rolled into Baltimore. We landed safely and headed to my car (which I had warned the others is not so great in snow). After a 2 hour ride – that usually takes 20 mins – and getting stuck several times in the snow, we finally made it home, into warmth and rest.
****************
One of the best things about Sundance is how small it feels. You see the same people all over the city during the week – even though 50,000 people descend on Park City. It’s just a really great atmosphere to see films in. Another nice thing is that you go in with no preconceived notions about films, for the most part. You see things based on the director or cast or minimal buzz, but most of the films you know little to nothing about. It’s a rare opportunity to see a movie like that. The other great thing is the amount of films you get to see. We saw 15 movies in 5 days of screenings. You start to lose track of what you’ve seen and even where you are. Sometimes I would forget what theater I was in or what time of day it was. Being in a dark theater for that long was totally immersive and allowed a unique viewing experience.
***********************
I changed my mind a little though while writing this. For those of you who have stuck this out, it is about Hopkins. I would have never been afforded this opportunity had I not come to Hopkins. I would have never met Clare. And that would be a terrible shame (although she means more to me than just a fun trip to Sundance). I would have never met Alexandra. Or any of my friends, some who couldn’t come this year, but went last year. And without any of these friends, I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am today.
PS – I think this is my longest blog post ever. So sorry to any readers who feel put off by this. I will be returning to more concise entries soon.
Name: Josh G.
