Sundance!

January 26-27

Both Monday and Tuesday were pretty easy going with a day of work, meeting about future jobs and packing followed by a day pretty much just sitting on airplanes. Honestly, the only extremely eventful thing other than arriving in Park City and being given a quick tour on the way to pick up my Sundance Festival Pack was the conversations had between my roommates and I while they watched me pack. Here's how it went: a certain roommate who recently spent a semester in Peru thought it heinous that I should need to bring four different pairs of jeans (among other things) to Sundance with me as she only took two pairs for a whole semester away. I then had to point out the fashion behind each one (different shades, colors, and pant leg styles) and that I simply have a hard time packing light when I will be gone for two weeks and need to dress to impress. Its kind of like the whole dress well test well thing...when I dress well, I feel my best! Anyway, on to more exciting things...

January 28

Well first thing is first, I am completely exhausted from the day, but it is the great kind where I know I will be ready to wake up and do it all over again tomorrow! Today has taught me a whole lot, friends! To begin, everyone is in love with this place and this festival and I already know this will be an annual pilgrimage for the rest of my life. The energy and excitement here is simply contagious and I hope that next year I can bring people to experience it with me! I began the day with a few cups of coffee and a documentary called City of Gold. Naturally I loved it- it is about the first pulitzer prize winning food critic, and LA native, and his understanding and characterization of his home based all in its food. I went straight from there to an event for Ignite package holders where we were give a little free snack as well as some other freebees, but best of all we got to hear from Sundance staff about the institute and everything it is up to.

Oh, and in throughout the course of the morning my brother was a hero and made me some business cards and got them printed here in Park City by the end of the day because I blew it in forgetting to have them made before I came.

Next, I high tailed it on over to my second screening of the day. Everyone reading this, please know that if you see any one film in the course of the next year, it should be Stockholm, Pennsylvania. The film is about a twenty-two year old girl, who was kidnapped as a child, as she returns to her parents home  after being found once 18 years had gone by. If you think you know what might happen, the sentiments it might evoke, or that is will be depressing, you are mistaking. This film was the first directed and written by Nikole Beckwith and she did an absolutely beautiful job. In addition, the designers, actors, producers and casting directors definitely showed off some wonderful talent. This movie was thought provoking, raw, beautiful, and made me genuinely feel more emotions in one movie than I have ever done. I really hate trying to describe it because I know I am not doing it justice!

Once I left the Q&A there, I headed to my final screening of the day that is a New Frontier piece. New Frontier pieces are either technology or films that are pushing the boundaries of both creativity and technology. This one in particular was a very stylized and artistic piece that told the story of a train crossing the US and capturing an artistic happening in each place it stopped and while traveling. It was then all compiled to be sixty-one one minute clips. It was pretty cool stuff!

Finally, I headed back into town to grab my first meal since 6am before heading home.

All in all, I can already say I have learned a lot here- practical things like remember business cards or good opportunities will be missed, but also challenges that I had not previously considered, one of which was to not only think about a film and whether or not you liked it, but why you did or didn't and what you would have done differently because these opinions are often missing, but also help us as artists find our own style. I have also been reaffirmed that if nothing else, I want a job where I get to hear people's stories; meeting so many interesting people today reminded me just how big this world is, but just how similar all humans are. Oh, and last but not least, I am seriously considering making a documentary. (more to come on that later...I think)

Well friends, that is all for now, but I should be posting again soon so feel free to check back and leave any comments below!

~Thanking the good Lord for bringing me here!