Sundance Day #2

I started the day off by seeing my first Sundance film - Amreeka. I decided to buy tickets because the director is a friend of a friend, although I had no idea what to expect. I knew it was about a mother and son who immigrate to America from Palestine, but I think that description doesn't do the film justice. I thought it was really excellent - very touching, at times funny, and very well written.

Here's the cast and crew during the Q&A -


This is the crowded lobby after the screening -


After that, I checked out a panel at Queer Lounge called "Short Films - Yes, there is a Market!" I already have a few short films in distribution and will probably continue to just focus on features, although I still thought the panel was interesting. My friend Roberta Maria Monroe was the moderator; she has a book that just came out called How NOT to Make a Short Film: Secrets from a Sundance Programmer


Afterward, Roberta and some other friends got me into the afterparty for a film at Slamdance (the alternative to Sundance that is a well-respected festival in its own right) called Weather Girl.



After that, we headed out for sushi again, and then back to Roberta's condo to chill for awhile. I joined her condo mates at the Queer Lounge kick-off party (even though they had already kicked-off two days earlier), then briefly hit up the party at the Filmmakers Lodge to get some complimentary hummus and pita before heading back to my condo.


I do feel lucky to have been able to get into so many of the parties there (it isn't always easy - it pays to have friends in high places), but I did find them a tad overrated. Not a whole lot of networking seemed to be going on, although I realize every party is different and I'll definitely do the rounds again when I go to Sundance again.

Sundance Day #1

To pick up where I left off in my last post -

I went to the box office to pick up my tickets I had bought online. It isn't always easy to buy tickets to the screenings at Sundance, but I think it helped that this year was a slow year (some people said it was the economy, others thought it was the inauguration).



I had a panel to go to about Avid file formats at 2:00, but I had a little bit of free time beforehand, so after I got my tickets and bought a souvenir T-shirt, I walked around and got the lay of the land.





Sundance has several different lodge-type spots where you can go in and relax, get warm, check your email, chat, etc., so I checked them out - the Sundance House, Filmmaker Lodge, and New Frontier. The Sundance House in conjunction with Brita and Filter for Good was giving away BPA-free refillable water bottles in an effort to reduce water bottle waste during the festival. I already had three of my own in my back pack (I drink a lot of water), but these were free and said "Sundance" on them so I picked one up. The best part was that there was free Brita water at all of the theaters and lodges; each lodge had its own mini cafe and none of them even sold bottled water. Since a reported 50,000 people go to Sundance every year (I read somewhere that this figure is 5 times as many as the amount of tourists who visit Park City the whole rest of the year), that's a lot of waste reduction. And hopefully people will continue to reuse their bottles after they get home.

The Filmmaker Lodge, despite the cool name, didn't have anything too exciting going on at the moment, so I headed over to New Frontier where the panel was going to be. The space was set up like a hybrid between a night club and a modern art museum. Colored lights lit the rooms (although the room with the panel was regularly lit), and video installations and interactive computer art lined the walls. They had plenty of couches to lounge around on while you waited for whatever you needed to wait for.




Despite the visually crazy club-like appearance, the video installations provided a soothing sound backdrop (something like birds and waves from what I remember), and it was actually a very relaxing and zen sort of place to hang out. It ended up being one of my favorite places to sit and recharge in between events.

After the Avid file format panel, I walked back down main street to Queer Lounge, which is a space open to the public to come in and chat, relax, check their email, etc. like the other lodges/lounges around town (the other lodges/lounges are actually only open to the public on a space available basis. I had bought a credential that would guarantee me access, however, it was slow enough this year that you didn't need one). Queer Lounge had the benefit of having a lot of queer people there, and like a couple of the other lounges, they also hosted daily panels and nightly parties.



That evening, I went to the "Thank GLAAD it's Friday" party at the lounge, which a friend of mine got me on the list for before arriving in town.

Here's a view of main street from the balcony -



It was really crowded inside and not totally conducive to talking to people.


After that, a group of us lesbos headed out for sushi.


After that, we finagled ourselves to be somebody's +1 for the film programmers party at the Filmmaker Lodge that night. I hung out with my lesbo friends, but was a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be a whole lot of networking going on.


At any rate, we stayed out late and had fun; it was an all around eventful day.

Sundance Day #0

As I wrote a couple of posts ago, I recently got back from my first trip to Sundance. Over the past few years, I've submitted two of my films to the festival - my short Half Laughing in addition to Butch Jamie, and while neither one of them got in, I still hope to someday go with one of my films. But in the interim, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go and check it out.

There was some talk about boycotting the festival since it's in Utah, and so much of the money in favor of prop 8 came from Utah. However, there seemed to be the general consensus among GLBT filmmakers that since Sundance has always supported us, at times when no one else would, it didn't seem right to take our support away from them. That and of course, we would only be hurting ourselves by not going and partaking in what Sundance had to offer.

Park City is about 700 miles from L.A., and I decided to drive in the interest of doing the trip as cheaply as possible. I had some friends driving up as well but they were staying two days longer than I had planned, so I made the trek by myself. It took over 11 hours to get there - longer than I've driven by myself before, and I felt it was quite an accomplishment. Here are some pics from the road -




That night, I arrived at the condo that I would be sharing with 7 or so people I hadn't yet met. I had secured a bunk bed for $85 a night via craigslist in a two bunk bed room with three other people. I never did spend much time at the condo and I didn't even meet all of the other people there, but the people I did talk to were all very nice and were volunteering for the festival. Sharing the room didn't turn out to be too bad, although next time I will definitely be bringing an eye mask and ear plugs.

The next morning I woke up, not quite in the swing of things. I laid in bed thinking to myself "Do I really have to get up? Do I really have to schlep myself and all my winter accessories, water bottles, local maps, and trail mix all over town to which I have no idea where I'm really going or what I'm really doing?" "Yes Michelle, you didn't spend all this money and drive across three states to lay in bed all day." So I got up.

I put on every single winter accessary I had brought and I walked outside completely bundled and ready for the worst. It was about 43 degrees and...really warm. I stripped off all of my accessories, unzipped my jacket, and walked a few minutes to the nearest shuttle stop. Since it was dark when I got into town the night before, it was the first time I could see how beautiful everything was.




At the shuttle stop, a festival representative asked me where I was going so he could get me on the right shuttle. I had a color coded map and was fully prepared to navigate myself around, but it was nice that there seemed to be people looking out for us.

After I got on the shuttle, I started to get excited; I could feel the energy of the people around me - we were at Sundance!

Waiting for the Shoe to Drop

Is it just me, or is this Obama craze making anybody else a little nervous? I didn't think too much about the be-jeweled Obama baby doll tees in the L.A. boutiques, and I laughed a little at the Obama candy bars at the airport. But then when I saw the Obama Big Gulp cups at the 7-11, I started to think that things were getting a little out of hand.

Among the things that I spend the least amount of time on, shopping is high on the list. So I know I'm not the most qualified expert in this area, but this much I know - I've never seen a president merchandised this way before. In my lifetime, I've never even seen a president that people really love. I was 14 when Clinton got elected, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal happened not long after I was old enough to vote. After spending most of my adult life with W., from the year I graduated from college until now, I am of course excited about the promise that Obama brings - reforming health care, revitalizing the economy, ending the war in Iraq, bringing political equality to the GLBT community, and even opening up Cuba, as my Dad thinks will happen under his leadership (and this is from a man who voted for W. The first time).

Obama has become synonymous with the words "change" and "hope", and I love - I really do love that people are excited for something different, but the fact that we've already iconized him makes me a little nervous. We've projected so many wishes and desires onto this man that he's become a cross section between Jesus and Elvis - part savior, part legend. The pedestal we've constructed for him seems so incredibly high that I'm already flinching at the disappointment and disillusionment it seems to foreshadow.

I know I come across as a bit jaded. It surprises me, as I have come to realize that I'm somehow more comfortable with everyone bitching, moaning, and making fun of the president rather than treating him like the second coming. I grew up with Dana Carvey's great impression of Daddy Bush on Saturday Night Live where he made fun of all his trite phrases; I remember the laughs we got out of Dan Quayle's misspelling of potatoe (with the "e" on the end); then there was the ordeal over Monica's stained dress, and then of course, the ridiculousness that we've been living with for the last 8 years.

But I did always want things to be different. I remember falling in love (platonically, of course) with Ross Perot's no nonsense b.s. in the early 90's. I remember rooting for Jesse Jackson in the democratic primaries in the late 80's - yes, just because he was black. I can still remember the hope and desire on the representative's faces from Puerto Rico during that broadcast. I wanted Jesse to win because I could see how much it mattered to them. It didn't matter to me - I was only 10. And I didn't know that he didn't stand a chance in hell at winning.

I do know how much this election means to us, myself included. I think the thing that worries me the most is that if we are not satisfied with the results over the next 4-8 years, if this doesn't work out as we've planned, we'll never allow ourselves to get caught up in the promise of our political future again. When I think about it that way, I know I have to be wrong. I have to be wrong about my sense of impending doom that hovers over this pervasive idealism. I don't believe we're fooling ourselves into thinking we're taking a huge leap forward only to fall back into generations of bitterness. How could I believe that, when life is about progress and change, about moving forward and evolving.

So I can guarantee that you won't be seeing me sporting my Obama skateboard around town (featured above), but I will do my best to stop waiting for the first shoe to drop. And to really start allowing myself to feel a part of this time in history.

The Road to Sundance

I just got back from the Sundance Film Festival. I had a great time and am completely exhausted. I'll be posting more about my trip soon; in the meantime, below is a post I wrote before I left but didn't have time to finish.


Tomorrow I'm leaving for my first trip to Sundance! Even though I don't have a film there, it's a great place to go and network and to attend parties, panels, and films. While Sundance is notorious for not being super-accessible in terms of getting tickets to screenings, getting access to parties, and finding housing, I've had great luck so far with all three. Hopefully my good luck will continue...

While I have few expectations, I think the trip will be a good thing for me to do for my continually evolving film career. However, it's not something that I can really afford to do; deciding whether or not to go is a thought I briefly entertain each year before I dismiss it. But in thinking about going this year, I remembered an email I received a few days beforehand from one of the new-agey lists that I'm on -

"You must invest three percent of your income in your self-development in order to guarantee your future. Brian Tracy said that and he was right. I know you really want to take that class or that seminar or that spiritual growth retreat, but you think you can't afford it. That truth may be that you can't afford not to. Try following your highest impulse. Your mind rarely invites you to explore things that are worthless - and your soul never does."

XMAS and New Year's!

Last week I got back from a two week holiday vacation - a week with the family in Missouri, and a week with some friends in Upstate NY. It's the longest I've been away on vacation in over 10 years and it was a nice long break. I realize that Missouri and Albany aren't quite as exciting as Taiwan or Korea, so I'll skip the day-by-day recap and give you a brief overview.

Missouri:

Christmas morning with my twin nieces -






Bald eagle spotted on our ATV ride -



Me as Aunt -


Albany:

Foster kitties under the Christmas tree -



Snow on New Year's Eve Day -


Rockin' New Years Eve -



Day trip to Northampton:

Smith College campus -









Snowboarders on the railing -



Butch Jamie featured in the gay bookstore -



I also got to see my old cat Huey (aka Howard) for the first time in over a year and a half. I was happy when I could tell he remembered me. I also saw some old friends who worked on the movie, and my ex and her new wife and I all played Rock Band into the wee hours of the morning. I discovered that drums and singing badly with enthusiasm are my specialty.