Wish I Was Still There

Bastard Mike has to post a cool ass video of him and the King of Park City sledding. So not only am I not going to see more films, but I'm apparently going to miss out on all manners of coolness. (Stupid Day Job!) Anyway, I really have to speak on two incredible films I saw on Monday. Son of Man and Quincenara. Son is a modern day retelling of the Christ story set in the fictional African nation of Judea. Using Steven Biko as their template, Director Mark Dornford-May and his co-writer Andiswa Kema have fashioned a film that does so much that I won't even try to do it justice here. This is a film that deserves a full-length review. Improved over a ten week period and starring 38 actors who had never acted on film before, Son is the type of film I was hoping to see at Sundance. As for Quincenara I marched right up to one of the co-directors and cussed him out for making me cry. (Yo, I'm secure in my manhood, AIGHT!) Seriously though, Quincenara stars Emily Rios and straight from Atlanta Jesse Garcia (Performance Anxiety and Last Goodbye) and I put it right along side Son as an incredible piece of filmmaking. My only real complaint is that as great as Emily is and as much as I would like to see more Latina actresses get in the game, Jesse's performance deserves some true recognition. I didn't even know who he was till I was chatting with my fellow cinemATL folk. So any and all gushing is based of genuine admiration. Once you see it, I think you'll understand completely. Co-writers and directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland based this film on their neighborhood and as a audience member put it, they've created a work that's filled with lots of humanity, heart and truth. So now that I'm home, what do I think of my first trip to Sundance? What have I come back with?

1. If you want to hook up with producers and industry folk, ride the bus and keep your ears open. It's the one place that all the Execs can be found (When you're practicing the art of cornering, cold is your friend. You can include drinking too much to that list--in otherwords see no. 5)
2. Expect the first weekend to be infected with teeny-boppers and party goers who don't care one damn about seeing a good film. By Sunday the teeny-boppers have to go back to school and the party goers have to pay for the insane amount of drinking they did and thus must go back to work.
3. Schedule time to sleep. Mike's post is dead on. Nothing's more frustrating than sitting in the middle of a film you're enjoying, but your eyes feel like their weighed down with 2 tons of cement.
4. Nothing is a better conversation starter than what did you think or what did you see? Talked with some fellow audience members and Sundance attendees on the bus, standing in line, whereever and I thought they were the best reason to shell out all that dough. From first timers (like myself) to veterans, it's a great atmosphere to express your film jones.
5. Bathroom bonding = A strange, drunken conversation leads to amazing possibilities. (Refer to no. 1 and figure this observation on your own.)
6. Next time I must stay longer. I know there are more great films I'm going to miss. And with the film IQ growing at an exponential rate day by day, I don't think I'd be off the mark to think that by Friday I would have been in celluloid heaven.