If it's January, it must be Park City

Hi everyone!

It's that time of year again - my annual volunteer trip to the Sundance Film Festival. For those of you who have received the Sundance Missives in past years, welcome back to the journey! For those of you new to the Missives, welcome! As always, if you would prefer not to receive these daily e-mails for the next couple weeks (or if you'd like me to send them to a different address), let me know.

I arrived in Park City yesterday to find the balmy temperature of 20 degrees. So much warmer than I remember it! I am living in the same condo complex that I did last year, but with a new group of roommates. It's still going to be a trek to get to my theater, but at least it's free housing.

Last night was the volunteer party where I met up with a lot of the people whom I've worked with in the past. It was good to see a lot of familiar faces. Today, we had our trainings for all the stuff that we'll be doing on our volunteer shifts. It's mostly the same as past years, but it's good to get a refresher before jumping back into it.

There were some scheduling snafus that had to be worked out today. I had signed up to work the same job and shift (box office on the midnight shift at the Prospector Theater) as last year, but I suddenly had shifts in the middle of the day. That would have allowed me to attend evening parties that I've missed in the past, but it would also mean not working with a good group of friends. In the end, we were able to trade shifts with other people, so the Prospector Midnight gang has been reunited!

Tonight, I saw my first film of the festival. They had a screening of "Mermaid" for the volunteers before the festival gets into full swing tomorrow. This was an interesting Russian film that followed a young girl's life from living at the seashore to moving to Moscow. She was a quirky character with an active imagination, who could every now and then make wishes come true. It had a lot of the same vibe as the movie, "Amelie," but also with some darker tones. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it, so I'll give it 3 stars (out of five).

I'll write more tomorrow…

Your Sundance correspondent,

Ted