Sundance Film Festival Report

Words: Jonathan Wells

Photo: Jonathan Wells

Not unlike another festival that happens in the desert each summer, Sundance gets bigger and even more of a spectacle each year. Much of the escalating frenzy in Park City over the last five years has been due to the alternative festivals that have followed Slamdance's lead, setting up in the midst of the "official" festival and offering interesting alternative fare. This year, the Damah Film Festival and Freedom Festival joined the returning X-Dance extreme sports film festival as Slamdance, now itself becoming a hallowed institution, celebrated its tenth year in Park City. Add the innumerable events and parties, and you get one crazy, hectic little town.

While the hullabaloo of parties (up to 10 or more a night) and influx of celebrity gawkers and party people threatens to overshadow what Sundance is all about, thankfully there are still amazing, innovative and challenging films being shown from all over the world.

The festival opened with the world premiere of Riding Giants, a documentary about the world of surfing from Stacy Peralta and the team that created hot skateboarding doc Dogtown and Z-Boys a couple of years ago. The film was bought early in the festival and should be released later this year.

Documentary films continue to be a strong point of the Sundance programming. Acclaimed photographer and music video director Matt Mahurin screened his film I Like Killing Flies, a sometimes hilarious portrait of a Greenwich Village restaurant. Meanwhile Jorgen Leth was in town from Denmark to premiere The Five Obstructions, the film he co-directed with Lars von Trier. RESFEST 2003 attendees will remember one segment of the film, namely The Perfect Human: Cartoon, which we previewed. Animated by Bob Sabiston & Co., the segment illustrates just one of five challenges that von Trier posed to Leth when he dared the filmmaker to remake his classic short film, The Perfect Human, from 1967.

Another film making its debut at the festival was the three-hour Los Angeles Plays Itself, an amazing film by acclaimed Cal Arts professor and filmmaker Thom Andersen. The fascinating film examines the City of Angeles as portrayed in movies, from early Laurel and Hardy films to more recent films like Blade Runner and LA Story.

On the music tip, there has been healthy buzz on DIG, a behind-the-scenes look at the travails of two bands -- Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols -- who are sometimes friends and sometimes rivals. Tuesday night, LA's Loma Lynda (featured in the January issue of RES) performed a live soundtrack for a film they had constructed especially for the festival.

Jason Wishnow and Friends

Among the highlights of the numerous short films is Andrew Jarecki's Just a Clown, the original film he was making that led to his award-winning documentary feature Capturing the Friedmans. Meanwhile Jason Wishnow accomplished a personal goal of premiering a film at Sundance before he turned 30. His remarkable short tells the story of Oedipus in eight minutes and is performed by vegetables. The digitally shot short is being screened on 35mm Cinemascope with a Digital Dolby soundtrack!

Fashion photographer David La Chapelle's Krumped created a big buzz, as did RESFEST 2003 entry Fast Film from Virgil Widrich. Some of the best short films at the festival however were not in any program, but rather before the programs. This year's commissioned openers are hilarious -- muppet-like characters playing inexperienced festival-goers enact various adages -- like "you can never arrive too early" and "you'll be fine up there," referring to what happens when you go up on stage to introduce a film.

Finally, in this election year, there have been many politically tinged films dealing with corporate control and freedom of the press. The Corporation, Control Room and the tale of corporate pranksters The Yes Men are just three notable films in the genre.

With more and more festival films shot, posted or projected digitally, the Sundance Digital Center was hopping more than ever. Located on upper Main Street, the venue is jam-packed with the latest high tech filmmaking gear, including Sony's full line of digital camcorders, from the new PD-170 to the celebrated HDW-900 24P high def camera. Also on view: Microsoft's latest Windows Media format, which now supports high def, and this year's Sundance Online Festival films, which may be seen on HP computers throughout the room. Highlight: In a backroom Sony demo-ed the sexiest LCD projector on the planet! The sleek Qualia 004 displays beautiful high definition images; however, at $30,000, it will be reserved for the home theaters of only the biggest moguls.

Playstation Renames a Local Sushi Joint

And now, news on the party front. It wasn't long ago that the most desirable parties at Sundance were hosted by talent agencies like CAA and William Morris in huge, rented houses. And you expect to see festival stalwarts like Kodak, Sony, IFC and Sundance Channel host their own parties, too. In just the last few years, though, lifestyle companies have used the Park City festival frenzy as a branding opportunity so that the abundant revelry is -- surprisingly -- really a mixed blessing. Companies like Skyy Vodka, Diesel, Levi's, PlayStation and Motorola have either rented storefronts or houses and set up shop distributing swag to actors, directors and visiting celebs who have nothing to do with any of the films screening (e.g. Paris Hilton). So, while some of the companies are party-crashers, others host some of hottest events. Among the many live music guests performing at the "houses" this week were Outkast, Liz Phair, Macy Gray, the Roots, Pete Yorn and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Good Eats at the DVD Club

On of the more elaborate setups is the multi-sponsor The Village at the Lift, which features a Fred Segal shop and salon, a Columbia House DVD Café serving complementary breakfast and lunch every day to accredited guests (the oddly named entrees like "DVD Scramble" have been surprisingly good), and a huge tent with parties each night.

Finally, one of the more interesting diversions from nonstop film watching is the snowboard lessons hosted by festival sponsor Burton for filmmakers and press. Indeed, after an amazing day on the mountain, this reporter is happy to sit in a dark theater and enjoy one last film before returning home.