Season 1 - The Recap

Hi everyone!

Well, I survived the ten days of Sundance without catching any of the colds or flus that were going around while I was there. Of course, now that I'm back home, stuffy head, fever, and overall soreness have reared their ugly heads. At least it let me enjoy my time in Utah.

But here, in my Daytime NyQuil-induced stupor, let me recap my first year as a Sundance Film Festival volunteer. It was certainly exhausting, but it was all worth the lack of sleep to be part of the grand-daddy of independent film festivals. It was such a pleasure to meet so many other volunteers and filmgoers. It was such an easy venue to talk with strangers on the shuttle buses, on the street, and in the theaters, because most everyone was there to enjoy these films and it was fun to discuss your opinions together.

Yes, I did have some celebrity sightings, but, as some of you have noted, I could have stalked these celebs much better than I did. That wasn't my goal, so I was happy with randomly coming across stars when I did. Yes, it's too bad that I wasn't one of the many people who saw Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake gallivanting around town, and it's too bad that apparently Gwyneth Paltrow walked right in front of us at our box office and I didn't even notice, but that does not negate the wonderful time that I had.

Apparently my movie-going at Sundance was not the same as the jury and other audience members, because of all of the Sundance award winners, I only saw one of them (and that one I didn't like). You can view the list of Sundance award winners here ... http://festival.sundance.org/2006/festival/press.aspx, but below is the list of films that I saw, ranked, in my opinion, from best to worst:

1. Stay ****1/2

2. Friends with Money ****1/2

3. The Illusionist ****1/2

4. The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros ****1/2

5. Lucky Number Slevin ****

6. The Descent ****

7. The Night Listener ****

8. Alpha Dog ****

9. All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise ****

10. Man Push Cart ****

11. SherryBaby ***1/2

12. Forgiving the Franklins ***1/2

13. Adam's Apples ***

14. Half Nelson ***

15. Flannel Pajamas **1/2

16. The Darwin Awards **

17. Right at Your Door (which won an award for cinematography) **

Normally, I try to see short film programs during film festivals, but this time I stayed with features and documentaries, since all of the short films are available to watch on-line until June. I'll take my time and watch some of those now that I'm home. You can check them out at http://festival.sundance.org/2006/watch/index.aspx.

So, thank you for reading my Sundance tales, and if I have inspired anyone to take a couple weeks to work at next year's festival, you can find a volunteer application at http://festival.sundance.org/2006/utilities/volunteers.aspx.

Your trusty Sundance correspondent,
Ted

PS - Pictures should be available in the next couple days.