Flavorpill Sundancetag:flavorpill.net,2007:/sundance/172007-01-29T17:24:58ZMovable Type 3.2Taking a breaktag:flavorpill.net,2007:/sundance//17.54552007-01-20T01:29:52Z2007-01-29T17:24:58ZFlavorpill skipped out on Sundance this year, holing up instead in our SoHo, NYC headquarters crafting an entirely new film publication. Set to launch in the coming months, this will be your source for all things cinematic — an indispensable...admin
Sign up now, and look for us back out on the Park City slopes in 2008. In the meantime, get your small-screen video fix with Flavorpill's newly launched video page — filled with exclusive content created by the M SS NG P ECES camera crews.
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Sundrunk Lovetag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.32062006-02-02T03:22:22Z2006-02-02T17:19:49ZI think Lisa spoke for both of us with her tremendous Sundance '06 wrap-up piece below. As with all film fests, we saw some truly inspirational flicks, met a boatload of incredibly kind people, and jumpstarted more than one dance...Jocelyn K. Gleijocelyn@flavorpill.net
wrap-up piece below. As with all film fests, we saw some truly inspirational flicks, met a boatload of incredibly kind people, and jumpstarted more than one dance floor. Now drunk on Sundance, we're officially closing the Flavorpill Sundance blog for this year. But all of the content will live on here in the ether, so don't be shy about continuing to troll through our archived reviews and video interviews — or telling your friends to.
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Sure, It Was the Movies, Stupid. But Not Just the Moviestag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.32032006-02-02T02:39:13Z2006-02-02T16:56:43Zimage=http://flavorpill.net/sundance/zapatero.jpg So many movies, so little wireless time to write about them, at least up there in the mountains. All in all, I screened (at least part of) 28 films at Sundance 2006. The irony, of course, is that those...Lisa Rosman
Princesas, which I'd hotly anticipated. That's the name of the festival game, though. You plan your film schedule carefully, fiddle with it based on word-of-mouth during the week, and, at the end, still wonder queasily about what could have been. I thought that the remorse might've been my own Rosmania, but pretty much everyone I talked to copped to the same malingering regrets. Still, many more films than 28 and I might now be languishing with a case of cinennui to rival a Tulsa projectionist's.
By far, the documentary categories proved strongest, whereas the American dramatics largely buckled under the weight of their own, ill-advised quirkiness and dime-store psychoanalytical revelations. In general, a few films rocked my world one way or another; a surprisingly many could reincarnate as excellent legal soporofics if they don't find other distribution; and pretty much everything was too long. Why the long films? Extending a feature past its ideal length is like adding extra spices to a stew: if it's bad, it'll just taste worse, and if it's good, why mess with a masterpiece?
Some cheers, jeers, and barely theres:
After all the bally-hoo surrounding Alpha Dog, it'd be nice if director Nick Cassavetes's cinematic drama rivaled his legal one. Predictably, though, the film itself never transcends its Titanic syndrome: You know the ending, and it ain't good. What's best are some of the startling strong performances Cassavetes coaxed out of his young actors, most notably from Six Feet Under's Ben Foster as Jake (get this) Mazursky. Such Hollywood homages proliferate the film, which is highly well-intended. But it's hard to make a film about such unsympathetic, self-involved people as Valley teenagers sympathetic. Apparently, too hard. And Cassavetes' legal problems translated into a sloppy tacked-on ending including at least five minutes of Sharon Stone weeping copiously in a fat suit. Come to think of it, though, that last bit may have had more to do with problems fulfilling a diva's contract.
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So Much So Fast may find an unshelfed life at PBS. With its NPR-style twangy guitar and almost unctuously voiced narrator, this documentary about one family's struggles with ALS has got PBS written all over it. Which is not to say it isn't great. As a person who grew up with the Heywood family, I may not have experienced this film objectively. But as it focuses on what does and doesn't transcend life's mad rush of time, I feel that my personal involvement — the last time I saw Stephen, the 30something son severely afflicted with ALS, he was an almost too-handsome rake in love with his family, pretty girls, and life in general — only enhances the universal emotional revelations about love and life that the film offers. That it somehow uncheesily imparts such revelations, as well sheds truly inbiased insight into how medical research does and doesn't work, is commendable.
At first, I adored Wim Wenders' latest, Don't Come Knocking, starring (and written by) Sam Shepard as a successful Hollywood western star who's a failure at life. A few days later, I still find it visually stunning; Wenders' eye and passion for the American West's wide-planked beauty, best evidenced in Paris, Texas, is of a caliber more easily mustered by a foreigner. But with classic 20-20 hindsight, I now recognize it as somewhat hackneyed as well. And a movie about making movies? Crazy that even Wenders fell into that meta-pit once in his career.
As I said, the biggest success of Sundance 2006 was its documentary categories. Some American entries, such as Who Killed the Electric Car?, did seem doggedly half-baked. But the world documentaries, from In the Pit, about Mexico City construction workers, to Black Gold, the UK take on the coffee industry, were consistently astounding. Not only did they convey truly important stories, but they conveyed them brilliantly, sensitively, originally. And by far, the strongest of these films is Viva Zapatero! (see picture above), the Italian documentary written and directed by the self-described buffoon Sabina Guzzanti about her crusade against the Italian government after a public TV network axed her immensely popular political satire show (think: John Stewart if he were a hot Italian renegade prone to pratfalls). When Guzzanti and her cronies recreate their show live at the film's end, so many Italians attend that thousands are forced to watch from big screens outside of the auditorium's gates. As an American whose country's media outlets are equally cozy with government and big business interests but whose countrymen tend to observe that fact from a prone position only, the Italians' solidarity and indignation gave me goosebumps. Here's hoping that Viva will render that commitment infectious.
Overall, yes, plenty of mumbles and grumbles were heard this year, and some were merited. Yes, waiting in endless lines in freezing snow would rankle a saint, let alone Jocelyn and me. Yes, the films were an uneven lot. Yes, altitude sickness really did have its way with my lungs and even my face for most of the festival. (How many noticed my cold sore in the videos?) And, yes, especially if you hate snow, Parka City itself is more of a frosty bastion of passive-aggression and bland cuisine than a cultural oasis. But I came to love my pretty-in-pink parka, not to mention the amazing conversations and tremendous good will that prevailed everywhere we went all day and every day. A casual conversation about the weather could transform speedily into a fervent debate about global warming and the Al Gore documentary. With Al Gore! So Sundance remains an amazing immersion program. The music was great; we nailed some serious swag; kicked it at some great parties; ogled some serious stars; laughed at some highlarious outfits; and learned more about the mainstream indie film machine than we could have ever dreamed. But the true highlight of our stay, by far, was bumping and grinding with the cast and crew of The Trials of Darryl Hunt at the Awards afterparty. After watching Hunt mid-week, we knew just how hard-won and well-appreciated the luxury to dance was for those cats. To join in felt like an almost hallucinogenic honor.
Which, at the end of the day, is pretty much how we felt about the whole of Sundance 2006. To join in was an honor.]]>
How Distribution (Doesn't) Worktag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.32012006-02-02T00:54:36Z2006-02-02T17:04:20Zimage=http://flavorpill.net/sundance/foureyed.jpg During Sundance 2006, as our trusty metabloggers documented, a bevy of films sold before you could even utter Whatchyou talkin' bout, Weinstein? But even after speaking with industry types and filmmakers galore, I still don't think there's a clear...Lisa Rosman
trusty metabloggers documented, a bevy of films sold before you could even utter Whatchyou talkin' bout, Weinstein? But even after speaking with industry types and filmmakers galore, I still don't think there's a clear method to the madness of what lands deals.
For sure, there are open-and-shut cases. Little Miss Heaven sold because it worked; the much-anticipated and then much-maligned Open Window didn't because it didn't. Other deals draw on past successes — Right at Your Door was snapped up because it smacked vaguely of Blair Witch Project, for example. And then there are deals stemming from outright guesswork loosely masquerading as cynical scientific equations. As in the case of the somewhat hackneyed Wordplay (admittedly, a movie I really dug): Times crossword puzzlers = moneyed, educated leisure class = enough cashish to hire a babysitter + willingness to hit an arthouse flick on a Saturday night = good investment. Not that there's anything wrong with that.]]>
Sundance wrap-up, Rotten Tomatoes' Jen Yamato noted that "commercially viable films were being snapped up while the truly independent award-winners remained largely unbought." Too true. It's interesting how the Sundance 2006 awards felt like booty prizes compared to the pie-in-the-sky distribution deals.The word on Main Street was that Sundance juries were actually encouraged to award deserving films that otherwise might lurk permanently under the radar. Hence HBO-sponsored docs The Trials of Darryl Hunt and Thin, though arguably the best entries in their category, were completely overlooked when came time for awards.
The question, though, is do those prizes make a difference? Hustle & Flow, the Memphis hip-hop drama, already had been sold for a then-record $9 million (Little Miss Sunshine sold for $10 million this year) when it scored the 2005 American Dramatic audience prize winner. It went on to make a decent showing in a nationwide release this summer, and this week was nominated for two Oscars. But Flavorpill favorite Forty Shades of Blue (another Memphis drama), which won the Grand Jury Prize that same year, has limped along ever since with scarcely any distribution. So who knows?
One night over at Slamdance headquarters, Four Eyed Monsters's (see picture above) filmmakers Susan Buice and Arin Crumley laid out a super-Slamdance (read: genuinely indie) solution to their distribution problems. Working with the Without A Box team, they are creating their own distribution-on-demand system. If it works, they just may be creating a precedent that could help other worthy filmmakers distribute work not perceived as mainstream-marketable. Here's hoping so.]]>
The August Cliff Doerksen Weighs Intag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31942006-02-01T16:53:44Z2006-02-01T17:43:18ZI struck up Time Out Chicago critic Cliff Doerksen's aquaintance at Sundance press offices, and found him comic, just snarky enough, and kind enough to oblige us with a few of his final Sundance thoughts: Nothing blew me away as...Lisa Rosman
Time Out Chicago critic Cliff Doerksen's aquaintance at Sundance press offices, and found him comic, just snarky enough, and kind enough to oblige us with a few of his final Sundance thoughts:
Nothing blew me away as comprehensively as Bobcat Goldthwait's perversely charming rom-com Stay, starring the wonderful Melinda Page Hamilton as a nice girl with a disgusting sexual secret in her past. The rancid Tarantino rehash Lucky Number Slevin was a drag (and boy, did I get tired of being told how "smart" it was), but nothing bummed me out worse than the inexplicable British "musical documentary" Songbirds, in which the inmates of a women's penitentiary lip-synched to stillborn rap numbers about their hard lives.
I'd never been to Sundance or any other fest before, so I've got nothing to compare it to, but I had way more fun in Park City than I
thought I would. The people-watching was great, especially if, like me, you dote on middle-aged Eurotrash in black leather trousers and
high-concept eyewear. But all the conspicuous fabulousness notwithstanding, the atmosphere was absurdly friendly and sociable. I don't know when I've had as many interesting conversations with total strangers. Just on those grounds, I'd say Sundance has a continued right to exist.
For more of Cliff's Sundance edicts, check out his Time Out Chicago home base.]]>
Shortcut to Sundancetag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31892006-01-31T23:00:50Z2006-01-31T23:03:17ZSundance is all about access this year, which is good news for videophiles like ourselves. Courtesy of Adobe, you can now view over 45 of the short films that were in competition this year, including award winners Bugcrush, Preacher with...Jocelyn K. Gleijocelyn@flavorpill.net
view over 45 of the short films that were in competition this year, including award winners Bugcrush,Preacher with an Unknown God, and Before Dawn. All you need is the latest Flash plugin, and they load lickety-split.]]>
Man-on-the-Street Mashuptag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31832006-01-31T14:03:00Z2006-01-31T15:00:02ZIn addition to jotting down our bus, burrito, and on-the-street interviews throughout the festival, we were also talking to people on camera about the films they saw, and the lines they waited in. We've got a bit more written wrap-up...Jocelyn K. Gleijocelyn@flavorpill.netWristcutters.
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Fireside Cineastetag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31822006-01-31T00:33:00Z2006-01-31T00:36:26ZJust before we hopped on a plane back to the big city yesterday, Lisa and I sat down to fully embrace Utah's mountaineering metaphors with a fireside chat about a handful of the movies that we both saw at Sundance....Jocelyn K. Gleijocelyn@flavorpill.netThe Science of Sleep, Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's The Trials of Darryl Hunt, and Brian Hill's Songbirds. Can you tell I'm concentrating really hard on my posture?
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video=http://download.divx.com/labs/sundance2006/SundanceLisaJocelynByTheFire]]>
See for Yourselftag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31802006-01-30T20:27:56Z2006-01-30T20:34:55ZThroughout the festival, the DivX crew worked hard to amass as many high-quality trailers as possible for Sundance 2006 entries. To complement our written and video coverage, you can now watch trailers for over 45 of this year's films, including...Jocelyn K. Gleijocelyn@flavorpill.net
watch trailers for over 45 of this year's films, including Friends with Money, Steel City, Sherrybaby, Little Miss Sunshine, and Thin.]]>
Somebodies Director and Startag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31782006-01-30T16:06:23Z2006-01-30T17:08:00ZWe'd been trying to land a sit-down all week with Hadji, but the young writer/director/star of the Southern comedy Somedbodies was a much sought-after commodity. Finally, on the last full day of Sundance 2006, he filled us in on the...Lisa Rosman
Somedbodies was a much sought-after commodity. Finally, on the last full day of Sundance 2006, he filled us in on the hustle and bustle of launching your first feature while nursing the Sundance croup. Rest assured, his easy-peezy manner doesn't entirely cloak those bright eyes that don't miss a beat.
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video=http://download.divx.com/labs/sundance2006/SundanceHadji]]>
Bus Interview #6tag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31652006-01-30T15:17:45Z2006-01-31T05:19:48Zimage=http://flavorpill.net/sundance/bus6.jpg A swan song to our In Transit interviews, this is the last of our shuttle bus conversations. The Subject: John Larkin, an SF-based real estate broker Where: Prospector Square bus stop Why are you here? I'm here as a...Lisa Rosman The Subject: John Larkin, an SF-based real estate broker Where: Prospector Square bus stop
Why are you here?
I'm here as a traffic liasion. But I also came to shop around my screenplay.
What's it about?
An idiot-savant bookie.
Any interest yet?
Not so much. But I haven't been hustling that hard.
So who paid for you to come here?
I did. But if you volunteer, the festival pays room and board. It's not so bad. You work four hours a day and then you can see whatever movies you want, so long as there's space. And the place where they put you isn't bad at all.
Sounds like a good deal. So what movies have got you hot and bothered?
Well, the Tom Waits. Wristcutters, I mean. I love Tom Waits. Who doesn't love Tom Waits? And that Bobcat Goldthwait movie, Stay.
And what's playing on that iPod there?
Miles Davis, Miles Smiles.
Does he smile? He has always seemed pretty serious to me.
Well, he makes me smile.]]>
Film Comment Critic Amy Taubin Weighs Intag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31752006-01-30T14:30:22Z2006-01-30T15:14:30ZAmy Taubin, esteemed Film Comment critic, was kind enough to pen a few words for Flavorpill Sundance about her thoughts on this year's festival. Here's what she had to say: This the first Sundance where I didn't fall in love...Lisa RosmanFilm Comment critic, was kind enough to pen a few words for Flavorpill Sundance about her thoughts on this year's festival. Here's what she had to say:
This the first Sundance where I didn't fall in love with at least one one film. Perhaps I chose badly (twinge of guilt), but I don't think there was a Donnie Darko, a Primer, a Police Beat or, to revisit some ancient history, a Safe, a Kids, a Clerks or a sex, lies and videotape. Gone are the days when a wild-haired Steven Soderbergh had nothing better to do while waiting for the premiere of the film that would put Sundance on the Industry map than to take a shift or two driving one of the shuttle buses. The films I liked quite a bit at Sundance '06, and I suspect I'll like even more in less hectic circumstances, are Kelly Reichardt's delicate, melancholy Old Joy, which should have been in the dramatic comepetition and not in the marginalized Frontier section, and the Larry Clark section of the artist-make-porn omnibus Destricted. The rest of Destricted is pretty lame, but Clark's hefty half-hour was, hands down, the best documentary at the festival, where, as usual, the docs, as a group, easily out-class the fiction films.]]>
Down from the Mountainstag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31772006-01-30T14:20:18Z2006-01-30T14:28:08ZNow that Jocelyn and I have safely wended our way back to our NYC headquarters, we'll be posting our wrap-ups — as well as those of a few others — through tomorrow, so keep checking back. Man, we are so...Lisa Rosman
so into the higher oxygen levels here at sea level.]]>
What Becomes a Sundance Legend Most?tag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.31742006-01-29T20:01:41Z2006-01-30T00:11:06Z (We'll give you a hint: It ain't Blackglama.)Yo, Silent Bob, love the Vans, but Dogtown screened five years ago. Somebody get Kevin Smith to the swag suite for some socks, stat!...The Cinetrixhttp://pullquote.typepad.com/
Yo, Silent Bob, love the Vans, but Dogtown screened five years ago. Somebody get Kevin Smith to the swag suite for some socks, stat! ]]>
Sundance 2006 Winnerstag:flavorpill.net,2006:/sundance//17.32302006-01-29T16:55:02Z2006-02-07T00:10:07ZThe big surprise of last night's awards ceremony — aside from the crazy range of resort-town high-occasion garb — was that in both the documentary and dramatic categories, the grand jury awarded their prizes to the same films that won...Lisa Rosman
God Grew Tired of Us, the documentary about Sudanese children; and Quinceañera, the story of a 15-year-old Mexican girl, shot by two honky gay male directors.
Frankly, we were a little surprised: Although both films were quite good — and the Quinceañera team were so goofily grateful that you couldn't begrudge them a thing — we'd hoped that either Thin or The Trials of Darryl Hunt would've taken home one of the unwieldy glass squares they call an award around these here parts. Other big winners of the night: the documentary Iraq in Fragments' James Longley took home awards for editing, cinematography, and directing. Not so shabby, James!
We were most gratified that American Blackout was awarded a special jury prize for documentary; that the very endearing So Yong Kim received the Independent Vision award; and that In the Pit, about Mexico City construction workers, took home best world documentary. As the directing/production team took the stage, the audience whistled Mexi style, and Juan Carlos Rulfo screamed, "This is for the workers!"
Overly commercialized or no, moments like that are what Sundance will always be about. A complete list of the winners is posted after the jump.
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God Grew Tired of Us (Christopher Quinn)
Audience Award, Documentary: God Grew Tired of Us (Christopher Quinn)
Special Jury Prize, Documentary: American Blackout (Ian Inaba)
Special Jury Prize, Documentary: TV Junkie (Michael Cain and Matt Radecki)
Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic: Quinceañera (Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer)
Audience Award, Dramatic: Quinceañera (Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer)
Special Jury Prize, Dramatic, Best Ensemble Performance: Cast of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (Dito Montiel)
Special Jury Prize, Dramatic, Independent Vision: In Between Days (So Yong Kim)
Jury Prize, World Cinema Documentary: In the Pit (Juan Carlos Rulfo)
Audience Award, World Cinema Documentary: De Nadie (Tin Dirdamal)
Special Jury Prize, World Cinema Documentary: Into a Great Silence (Philip Groening)
Special Jury Prize, World Cinema Documentary: Dear Pyongyang (Yonghi Yang)
Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic: 13 Tzameti (Géla Babluani)
Audience Award, World Cinema Dramatic: No. 2 (Toa Fraser)
Special Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic: Eve & the Fire Horse (Julia Kwan)
Directing Award, Documentary: James Longley (Iraq in Fragments)
Directing Award, Dramatic: Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints)
Cinematography Award, Documentary: James Longley (Iraq in Fragments)
Cinematography Award, Dramatic: Tom Richmond (Right at Your Door)
Documentary Film Editing: Billy McMillin, Fiona Otway, and James Longley (Iraq in Fragments)
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Hilary Brougher (Stephanie Daley)
Jury Prize, Short Filmmaking: Bugcrush (Carter Smith) and The Wraith of Cobble Hill (Adam Parrish King)
Jury Prize, International Short Filmmaking: The Natural Route (Alex Pastor)
Honorable Mention, Short Filmmaking: Before Dawn (Bálint Kenyeres)
Honorable Mention, Short Filmmaking: Preacher With an Unknown God (Rob VanAlkemade)
Honorable Mention, Short Filmmaking: Undressing My Mother (Ken Wardrop)
Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award: Patrice Toy (The Spring Ritual), Fernando Eimbcke (Lake Tahoe), Cruz Angeles (Don't Let Me Drown), and Kanji Nakajima (The Clone Returns to the Homeland).]]>