Got in this afternoon and I'm already dehydrated. Altitude sickness is a bitch. All this unpleasantness in my body is offset by the sheer beauty of the Wasatch mountains. Everyone here is so NICE and helpful and friendly! The bus is free and goes everywhere you need/want to go. I'm here a day before the world hits Park City and it's the calm before the storm. The streets are nearly empty, but for the 100's of Sundance Film Festival volunteers running around in their flourescent green/gray jackets. On the Xpress Shuttle from the Airport I met some great filmmakers who are volunteering and incredibly enthusiastic to get to work. Picked up my tickets to Jenni Olsen's "Joy of Life" and an extra for the condo owner at Gateway Center. Ate the requesite hamburger at Burgies on Main St., then did the requesite essentials food shopping at Albertson's, all the while gulping gallons of water. I'll sleep well tonight...
Jan. 20, 2005
Surreal morning. Up in time to watch the sun break over the mountains (thanks jet-lag - really, thanks - it was gorgeous). Turned on the TV to watch commercials for the upcoming local Gun Show ("Rock-bottom prices!") in between George W.'s second innaugual. Breakfast up at the Canyons Resort, more supplies at the 7-11 and the arrival of some roommates for the condo. So far, we're all filmmakers. I can't wait to hit the films and parties and get down to the business of The D Word.
Moore Rhys, filmaker and condo-roomie, and I headed down to the Eccles for the the opening night premiere "Happy Endings." Moore's at Sundance shooting for her doc "Tinseltown Tomboys" and we were getting B-Roll.
Moore Rhys shooting the red carpet
Michelle Wolff interviewing for here! TV
Maggie Gyllenhaal working the press line
Jan. 21, 2005
I'm fried after a long day, so this is the boring recounting of Friday's events.
Full house in the condo overnight. Everyone got up and out early except for Moore and I who took our time and got wait list tickets to an earlier screening of Jenni Olsen's "The Joy of Life." We saw the World Premiere Screening with the filmmaker and her crew in attendence, which is one of the things I LOVE about film festivals. Fantastic film, very odd, but that's partly why it's such an amazing cinematic experience; It's a love letter to San Francisco and the futile but worthwhile pursuit of love just for the feel of the fall, juxtaposed with the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide landmark - another kind of fall in life.
Met up with my friend Christian Calson (mastermind behind "Shiner") and his charming, well-connected industry friends.
Christian Calson (Shiner, Variety Magazine), Corey (indie film PR) & Kelly (TLA Releasing)
Headed over to The Queer Lounge where I registered as an official queer filmmaker not officially associated with Sundance and finally hooked up with Sarah Warn and company of AfterEllen.com to excahnge tickets and party plans.
And oh! the parties! Two tonight: first up - TLA Releasing. Lots of schmoozing and a swag bag! Then over to the Claim Jumper for the transplanted L.A. party the Cheap Beer Club for lesbians in entertainment. More schmoozing but much more relaxed.
Christian (Queer Lounge), Kim (outFest L.A.) and Debra (founder of Cheap Beer Club and WOW Cafe)
Kim & Sarah (AfterEllen.com)
We did try to get into a 3rd party, the David LaChappelle "Rize" party with celebutantes and wannabes, but it was way too cold to be rejected by bouncers and we were way too tired to care.
Me ("The D Word" - Dasha) & Shira (Queer Lounge)
Jan. 22, 2005
It's colder today and I think the wear and tear of a few nights of no-sleep-&-lots-of-excitement are beginning to make people melt down in different ways. The volunteers know more when you ask them a question, but the pressure of being nice to thousands of strangers in a strange land outside in the cold for hours on end is starting to show in bulged-out eyes and mutterings of "break time?" under the breathe. Lines are longer for movies, food, bathrooms, busses, and parties. You see the same people at the same kinds of parties and have to find new topics of discussion beyond the initial pitch for your film - also known as filmmaker fatigue.
That said, everyone's gotten in the groove of talking to the person next to them about the screening they just came from and the one they're going to next. Normally reserved folks are animatedly telling strangers on the bus how amazing the cinematography was in the feature this morning and urging them to catch the next screening - no matter how long and hopeless the wait list line looks. The traffic is awful, but cars still curteously stop in the middle of the street both ways for clueless pedestrians to ramble their way across to the sunny side. And the movies just keep getting better.
After a leisurely breakfast in town I headed over to Eccles (the biggest venue, and it's the local high school) to see Loggerheads. I hope it wins the dramatic competition. An incredibly complex tense and emotional exploration of the adoption "triad" of birth mother, child and adoptive parents told through exquisite images, acting and metaphor, set in 3 different North Carolina towns on 3 different Mother's Days. Truly poetic and sparse and beautiful.
Then I stopped by The Queer Lounge to check in on email and people.
Basil (NewFest) at Queer Lounge.
In the afternoon came the long-awaited AfterEllen/AfterElton Party.
Lori & Sarah hostesses with the mostest.
Incredibly, as I networked my way through lesbians in entertainment, I schmoozed right into Nina Morrison who was in my cabin at Camp Minnetoska when we were 10. Nina is a lawyer with the Innocence Project who had several clients' stories depicted in the film "After Innocence" about death row convicts who are exonerated years later and their life post-incarceration. She also happened to go to high school with Moore Rhys, my condo roomie. Such a small world that we all had to come to Sundance 2005 to bump into each other.
Nina Morrison & I - Minnetoska alumni forever.
The party was so hot, i had to go outside and be interviewed about The D Word by Q Television's Chrisanne Eastwood.
Q Television interviews me at twilight in Park City.
Chrisanne & I are On Q Live
But the interviews didn't stop there! No sirree. Q Television continued to stalk me - I mean feature my lovely visage on camera for their program Q On The Move.
Nick Oram takes pity on me and my loud sweater and features The D Word anyway...
I ham it up some more on camera...
Pooped from a long day of eating, flirting, schmoozing, screening and interviewing, Moore and I headed home through the now familiar Park City Transit Center, where we wait impatiently (all day, every day) for the pink or brown bus to whisk us away to our condo in The Canyons.
Jan. 23, 2005
This morning featured the annual Queer Brunch sponsored by PlanetOut.com and here! TV.
Queers as far as the Eye can see.
After a lunch sighting of Penn Gillette and Paul Provenza, bus close encounter with Roger Ebert and party bump with John Cameron Mitchell, the Queer Lounge, which had been open for days, threw it's official Opening Party on my last night in town.
Us Queers take over the Gateway Center to let loose and party.
In a last ditch effort to garner some Sundance nookie action, I plastered cute women with D Word t-shirts, who obliged with sweet cheek kisses.
Jinx Titanic Babe in D Word T-shirt
As the Ditty Bops played the party and near-miss romantic interludes were missed by all, I celebrated accomplishing all I set out to do in Park City this past week by hangin' with my roomie Moore Rhys one last time.
Jan. 24, 2005
POST SCRIPT of sorts...
The Xpress Shuttle to Salt Lake was late this morning and carried a bevy of Sundance veterans - 3 going to NYC, 3 to L.A. and me, all squished inside with our bags now bulging from party swag. It was a subdued ride into town for the most part, the mirror opposite of my reverse journey just days before. We were all schmoozed-out I suspect, a kind of handshake hangover, although I'm sure the traditional altitude-enhanced alcoholic hangover hung over the minivan, as well.
All but one of us passed the ride quietly, as the production attorney for this year's breakout film "Hustle & Flow" was on his mobile phone to everyone he knew recounting the whirl of opening night, cast party and all-night negotiations with Paramount for the most expensive acquistions deal in Sundance history. This guy was jazzed from head to toe and his tale got more fantastic and lurid with each subsequent cellular re-telling; Great entertainment for the beleagured returning industry carpool.
As for MY fantastic and lurid tales of Sundance 2005...
Well, I came to Park City on a mission to put The D Word on the Indie film map. I talked with festival programmers, broadcasters, distributors, filmmakers, actors, press, publicists, fans, locals and anyone who would listen and basically had a great response. And I had a heck of a lot of fun, too. You'll have to get the gossip from me in person ;-)
Not bad for a few days in Mormon country.
See you at the next festival...