COLUMN: Sundancing the night away
Even as you read these lines, the sub-culture of American and world cinema is ranging free across the sloping streets of Park City: A place where people from around the world come to Sundance.
Named after the cowpoke alter ego of Actor/Director Robert Redford (from the western “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid”), the festival has been bringing in crowds of film-making worthies and wannabes for almost 25 years – and the popularity keeps growing.
Of course, it’s easy to see why.
With several sleeper hits and independent blockbusters like “Shine” (1996), “The Blair Witch Project” (1999), “Memento” (2000), “Whale Rider” (2003) and “Napoleon Dynamite” (2004), coming out of the festival every year, people from every area of the film industry come to Sundance for a chance at the big time (defined here as “swimming pools” and “movie stars”).
Even cruising around on the bus (as full as it was, getting on the bus could have been the thirteenth Herculean labor) felt different, what with all the film industry fanatics joking about the ins and outs of showbiz. One man, who I swear was as slovenly as Peter Jackson, went off about how everybody had a script to sell or a story to pitch.
Even the bus driver he’d met that morning.
The festival, which screens more than a hundred films every season, while holding a large finger on the pulse of cutting-edge cinema, isn’t for everybody.
As director Thomas Vinterberg said, “America represents the frontier of modern living – for better and for worse.” The same frontier finds outlet as well in the Park City festival microcosm – again, for better and worse. For every blockbuster there’s likely to be a dud, and the necessary hit and miss selection process only gets easier if you know the directors or screenwriters of the films and what they’ve done before.
Many of the films also include disturbing and controversial material – little of which really comes up from reading the three paragraph summaries available for each film.
Still, like most events in life, there’s a lot of enjoyment in the ride and walking down Main Street is probably reason enough to brave this frozen festival of the Rockies every January – even if you don’t get into the film after standing in the wait line for two hours.
The ambiance of the whole town thrills with the airs of a mini-Hollywood, especially if you have a chance to sit at the world premiers of some of the most interesting and innovative contemporary films being produced.
One of those films, “Dear Wendy,” with its unique story of a group of American youth and the growth of their obsession with guns, takes the tone of a twisted romantic comedy that both disturbs and excites the imagination. Blending and breaking the distinctions between genres, the film succeeded in delivery one of the first truly distinctive movies I’ve seen in recent months.
With most of the principle cast and the director on hand to talk about the film and answer questions from the audience, the movies are something more than a night out at the theater.
They are an experience.
Though tickets, which go for $10, have long since sold out to the shows, every movie has a wait line and, if you’re willing to sit for a few hours, each brings an opportunity to Sundance.
Matt Wright is the features senior writer for the Statesman. Comments can sent to him at mattgo@cc.usu.edu.