From rebels and romantics to freaks and geeks, the indie film festival offered a robust range of dramatic and documentary characters. Built on fresh faces, this love-fest of parties and powder, biz and buzz brought 50,000 fans, movie stars and industry types to Park City, Utah, for one whopping week in wonderland.A self-proclaimed Sundance Film Festival addict, I consider 2008 a definitive turning point. Independent, personal cinema surpassed celebrity-driven genre films in a way that was almost embarrassing. Regional indie pics were, as a whole, more ambitious, challenging and charming than their big-brother brethren. The best films were characterized by a sense of survival, of finding personal resolution in a troubled environment.
My favourite documentary of the fest, Young[at]Heart, is set to open this April. Following the journey of a quirky choir of senior citizens who perform covers of Sonic Youth, James Brown, The Clash and Coldplay, this doc is a hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of a generation in transition. You heard it here first, Vervegirls: make a date with your parents and grandparents to see Young[at]Heart.
Another fave, The Wackness, stars Josh Peck of Nickolodeon’s Drake and Josh. He plays a middle-class pot dealer who pays his therapist, played by Sir Ben Kingsley, with marijuana. The film provides one of the creepiest, eye-gouging sequences of late: Mary-Kate Olsen making out in a telephone booth with Kingsley, the man I forever associate with Gandhi. What’s next—Ashley hooking up with Ganesh in a laundromat?
The brightest directing talent to emerge was Lance Hammer, who shot the strikingly uncompromising Ballast using nonprofessional actors and no set script. A poetically understated story of reconciliation in the Mississippi Delta, Hammer explores underclass African-American lives with grit and unflinching honesty. Ballast is exactly the kind of provocative personal vision Sundance Film Festival was intended to showcase. I was also utterly hypnotized by the stirring Trouble the Water, which uses the home movies of Hurricane Katrina survivor Kimberly Roberts to pose a new perspective on the natural and governmental disaster we all
“witnessed” on CNN.
Gifting lounges continued to prosper. Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian went gaga over Lia Sophia jewelry and Primp hoodies at the at the Boost Mobile Lounge. James McAvoy, Harvey Weinstein and Jessica Alba feasted on gear from Triple Five Soul, Urban Decay and Kenneth Cole at the Stereo and LRG Gifting Suites. But Sundance Film Festival is about more than celeb spotting and free swag. It’s also about social dialogue. For example, I was watching some guys play a jarringly bloody video game at Harry O’s, a legendary Sundance concert venue, and I couldn’t resist making a comment which sparked discussion with a nearby group. We started talking about the voyeuristic guilt implicit in watching violent acts. Next thing you know, Michael Pitt, the star of Last Days and The Dreamers, was telling us about his Sundance premiere. He said of his character in Funny Games: “It’s the stuff of every bourgeois nightmare. There’s no rationale to the violence of this cold-blooded youth who preys on his own class.” My jaw dropped at the significance of Director Michael Haneke’s brilliant young star giving us an impromptu play-by-play on the subtext of his film as we watched young men manipulate a violent video game.
Such eccentric encounters abound when you’re hanging out at Sundance’s pre-eminent party spaces: catching up with Colin Firth at The House of Hype/Amnesty/Rock The Vote Lounge; eating grilled cheese with Adrian Grenier at The Myspace Café; and (my personal highlight) dancing with James McAvoy at HYDE at The Village at the Yard.
Yes, it’s taken me a few years to scale the social peaks of Sundance. My best advice to Vervegirls: volunteering is a great way to start relationships with the brands that run the social life of these festivals. It’s a legitimate way to contribute, that looks great on a resumé and won’t drive your parents crazy. You’ll observe the pros and cons of life in the industry, make friends for life and have a great time doing it.
