I have been back for a couple weeks now but haven't had a chance to write anything about sundance yet since I was home for barely a week then off to Utah again to take Nick to the MTC! But now he is safely in the MTC learning Spanish for 8 weeks before leaving for Salta Argentina for 2 years. He was very excited to go on a mission and very happy to go to Argentina. He will serve under our former Stake pres. and longtime family friend, Pres. Dan Northcutt (and Cynda) Yes, the same Dan and Cynda that I babysat for when I was 15 and we regularly TP'd their house! I had Dan for 2 years in Seminary. Anyway, Nick was really cute and was anxious to go. So Sundance this year was good. There were a lot of movies that sounded interesting to me so I made an effort to go to movies and ended up seeing 30! It is a lot, the most I've ever seen at Sundance, but I only went to the music cafe 3 times so I was able to see alot of films. Some of the standouts of the Docs were, It Might Get Loud, about guitar legends Jimmy page, The Edge and Jack White. Who knew that jack White is the coolest man alive? Well he is! If you love music and especially guitar, Zepplin, U2 and the White Stripes go see this one, its really fun! I have a crush on Jack now.
When Your Strange- by Tom DiCillo a doc about The Doors is another great look at the Doors. There is footage of Jim from his UCLA film school days that is amazing! So amazing that people thought it was a re-inactment with an actor, so they made an announcement at the beginning of the film that all the footage is Doors original, because a buyer walked out of the first screening after 5 minutes thinking it was re-inactment! In the q & a some woman asked about the "re-inactment" and Tom DiCillo had a cow(or kittens if your from Australia) and practically pulled out his hair! When he explained his frustration and asked if the announcement was made at the beginning, Carly yelled out, "Were not all blonde"! It was great.
Prom Night in Mississippi about the only Public High School in the nation that still has a segregated Prom, yes 2 proms still! This is in Morgan Freemans home town and 10 years ago he offered to pay for the prom if they would have one prom and the school board turned him down so he offered again and they accepted! But the white parents still hosted their own separate prom! The kids in this one were so good. Amamzing that this is still happening today in the USA...well MS anyway.
Crude was a very good David and Goliath story. The indiginous peoples of the Ecuador amazon living and dying due to the polluted rivers from the oil drilling by Texaco or now Chevron. These poor villagers in remote areas have high cases of cancer and skin disease and their water is really polluted by the bad job that the American oil companies did down there. There is a 13 year lawsuit that will probably drag out forever. Trudie Stlyer (Mrs. Sting) is one of the heros. She is a UNICEF ambassador and the filmmaker invited her to go there and she right away had UNICEF buy and put up rain collector barrels with filters so at least the people can have clean water to drink and cook with. I want to raise $300 to donate to buy a barrel!
Sergio,based on the book Chasing the Flame about Sergio Viera De Mello who was the go to guy at the UN who died in 2003 when the UN was bombed in Bagdad. I bought the book because I want to know more about this man and his life.
Other good docs, Over the Hills and far Away, about a family with an autistc son, Boy Interrupted about a 15 boy with bi-polar disorder who commits suicide was really good and tragic at the same time, Afgan Star, about the Afgan Idol, yes they really have it in Afganistan, and Reporter was also really good, about Nicholas Krystof of the NY times who spend alot of time trying to get us to care about the atrosities in Africa.
I saw 11 docs total and there were ones that I didnt see that I wished Id had time to! Now for the features....My favorites of the 19 feature films I saw were these 5,
Adam- starring Hugh Dancy as a man with Asbergers syndrome trying to have a life and girlfriend...very endering and Hugh is so cute!
Arlen Faber- stars Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham and I laugh so much in this one...it was really clever...
The Greatest- Pierce brosnan and Susan sarandon play parents whose 18 year old son dies and they have to deal...and they find out he had a pregnant girlfriend! Pierce was so good in this! I hope this one gets released, but is is a movie about grief...
Against the Current- Joseph Fiennes plays a man dealing with his loss as well in an intereting way.
Taking Chance-Kevin bacon play real life Lt Col Michel Strobl who volunteers to escort a fallen marine back to his hometown. This is a great movie and will be on HBO in April. Watch it, its another story about grief but beautifully done.
okay those were my top 5 but I had a few more that deserve some mention....Moon a good sci-fi that Sam Rockwell carries is very good, An Education written by Nick Hornby is a great British film, Pomegranets and Myrhh was a very good Palestinian love story and Amreeka was a funny and heartwarming look at at a palestian and her son who immagrate to the US and the changes that happen to them. So thats the best of the 30 movies I watched! The music cafe was moved this year and I just wasnt as into it as years past. It was in a tent on main street and not as far of a walk but not like a club at all. I did get there a couple times and got down in the front with my local buddies and saw some good musicians...like John Reznik who was funny and talked alot the first day because he wasnt used to playing such a small club and said it made him nervous! Rachael Yamagata was really good, Wynonna was fabulous! Wynonna was also very chatty, probably for the same reason, the intimacy of the "tent". Also the Irish guy, Damien Rice, oh and the Gin Blossoms. It was good....not like years past though.....oh well!
So that was the highlights! My sister patty came up a couple times and we had a great time hanging out together and also with carly. Carly and I had fun working the midnight shift at the holiday Theatres again. It was fun to see and meet new and old friends.
When Your Strange- by Tom DiCillo a doc about The Doors is another great look at the Doors. There is footage of Jim from his UCLA film school days that is amazing! So amazing that people thought it was a re-inactment with an actor, so they made an announcement at the beginning of the film that all the footage is Doors original, because a buyer walked out of the first screening after 5 minutes thinking it was re-inactment! In the q & a some woman asked about the "re-inactment" and Tom DiCillo had a cow(or kittens if your from Australia) and practically pulled out his hair! When he explained his frustration and asked if the announcement was made at the beginning, Carly yelled out, "Were not all blonde"! It was great.
Prom Night in Mississippi about the only Public High School in the nation that still has a segregated Prom, yes 2 proms still! This is in Morgan Freemans home town and 10 years ago he offered to pay for the prom if they would have one prom and the school board turned him down so he offered again and they accepted! But the white parents still hosted their own separate prom! The kids in this one were so good. Amamzing that this is still happening today in the USA...well MS anyway.
Crude was a very good David and Goliath story. The indiginous peoples of the Ecuador amazon living and dying due to the polluted rivers from the oil drilling by Texaco or now Chevron. These poor villagers in remote areas have high cases of cancer and skin disease and their water is really polluted by the bad job that the American oil companies did down there. There is a 13 year lawsuit that will probably drag out forever. Trudie Stlyer (Mrs. Sting) is one of the heros. She is a UNICEF ambassador and the filmmaker invited her to go there and she right away had UNICEF buy and put up rain collector barrels with filters so at least the people can have clean water to drink and cook with. I want to raise $300 to donate to buy a barrel!
Sergio,based on the book Chasing the Flame about Sergio Viera De Mello who was the go to guy at the UN who died in 2003 when the UN was bombed in Bagdad. I bought the book because I want to know more about this man and his life.
Other good docs, Over the Hills and far Away, about a family with an autistc son, Boy Interrupted about a 15 boy with bi-polar disorder who commits suicide was really good and tragic at the same time, Afgan Star, about the Afgan Idol, yes they really have it in Afganistan, and Reporter was also really good, about Nicholas Krystof of the NY times who spend alot of time trying to get us to care about the atrosities in Africa.
I saw 11 docs total and there were ones that I didnt see that I wished Id had time to! Now for the features....My favorites of the 19 feature films I saw were these 5,
Adam- starring Hugh Dancy as a man with Asbergers syndrome trying to have a life and girlfriend...very endering and Hugh is so cute!
Arlen Faber- stars Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham and I laugh so much in this one...it was really clever...
The Greatest- Pierce brosnan and Susan sarandon play parents whose 18 year old son dies and they have to deal...and they find out he had a pregnant girlfriend! Pierce was so good in this! I hope this one gets released, but is is a movie about grief...
Against the Current- Joseph Fiennes plays a man dealing with his loss as well in an intereting way.
Taking Chance-Kevin bacon play real life Lt Col Michel Strobl who volunteers to escort a fallen marine back to his hometown. This is a great movie and will be on HBO in April. Watch it, its another story about grief but beautifully done.
okay those were my top 5 but I had a few more that deserve some mention....Moon a good sci-fi that Sam Rockwell carries is very good, An Education written by Nick Hornby is a great British film, Pomegranets and Myrhh was a very good Palestinian love story and Amreeka was a funny and heartwarming look at at a palestian and her son who immagrate to the US and the changes that happen to them. So thats the best of the 30 movies I watched! The music cafe was moved this year and I just wasnt as into it as years past. It was in a tent on main street and not as far of a walk but not like a club at all. I did get there a couple times and got down in the front with my local buddies and saw some good musicians...like John Reznik who was funny and talked alot the first day because he wasnt used to playing such a small club and said it made him nervous! Rachael Yamagata was really good, Wynonna was fabulous! Wynonna was also very chatty, probably for the same reason, the intimacy of the "tent". Also the Irish guy, Damien Rice, oh and the Gin Blossoms. It was good....not like years past though.....oh well!
So that was the highlights! My sister patty came up a couple times and we had a great time hanging out together and also with carly. Carly and I had fun working the midnight shift at the holiday Theatres again. It was fun to see and meet new and old friends.
