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In 2006, Flavorpill covered the Sundance Film Festival firsthand, dispatching daily video and blog posts from Park City. Relive some of the highlights here.

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In Transit

Bus Interview #6

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 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.

Flavorpill Sundance

We're flying back home today, but we'll still be offering continued coverage — perhaps a bit lighter than usual — throughout the day. Flavorpill Sundance will live on through this coming Monday and Tuesday as we post more video and present wrap-up pieces with our final, big-picture thoughts on the 2006 festival. So stay tuned.

Bus Interview #5

The shuttle bus drivers are an interesting part of the local color here at Sundance. They range from angry and bitter to jovial and helpful, and every stop in between. Some ten different shuttles go to various places around town, but few visitors — even those who are here for over a week — make an effort to learn the routes, which means that at every stop, bus drivers are bombarded with questions about where they are going. I'm impressed that all of them haven't gone postal by now.

I talked with one still-upbeat driver yesterday about his Sundance experiences. Since it was clear what he was doing (read: driving my bus), I deviated a bit from the usual Flavorpill Five questions.

The Subject: Mike Murray, shuttle bus driver, Deer Mountain, UT
Where: Bus to Holiday Village Cinema

Have you seen any films here at Sundance?
Nope. I really haven't had a chance to do anything but prepare for Sundance, run around and put up the special signage, and then drive my bus.

Have people been generally friendly? Have you met anyone?
People have been really nice for the most part, and I like meeting people from all over. Generally, I'm too busy to talk to them, but I usually have interesting conversations when I get a few minutes to chat with someone new.

Are there any films you'd really like to see?
I don't even know what's playing. I saw Brave Toaster in like 1982, and I watch the Sundance Channel sometimes.

Burrito Interview #1

When you travel, especially to festivals, your world shrinks. In many ways, it's like being a kid again — you just hang out with whomever happens to live next door. I found myself shacked up at Harry's Burrito — halfway between the Albertson's grocery and the Holiday Village theater, and a much better option than Giant Panda — with Hungarian filmmaker Bálint Kenyeres, whose film, Before Dawn, is part of Shorts Program V.

While ungraciously stuffing burritos into our mouths, we chatted about the festival thus far. Bálint, who was nominated for a Palme D'Or at Cannes last year, gave me the downlow on the features he'd seen, and I must say he struck me as a man of good taste. Though he loves Paris, Texas, he didn't go in for Wim Wenders' new flick Don't Come Knocking, about which Lisa and I are both very curious. He loved Michel Gondry's new film The Science of Sleep, and shares my penchant for its female lead, Charlotte Gainsbourg.

He agreed with Lisa on Friends with Money's high quality even if he thought it lacked a certain luster, and was as impressed as I with Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance in Sherrybaby. Meanwhile, Bálint's opinion of the dubiously titled The Hawk Is Dying was decidedly low. After lunch (and the inevitable biz card exchange), we went our separate ways, but I have a feeling he's going to turn up again...

Bus Interview #4

The Subjects: Partners in crime Laurie Kelley, financial consultant, and Tim Treible, orthopedic surgeon
Where: Bus to Raquet Club Theater

What brings you here, and from where?
Tim: We've been coming to Sundance for the last five or six years from Portland, Oregon. We come to the festival because of the intense exposure we get here.
Laurie: The energy of the town, not to mention the empty slopes while everyone is at the movies. We ski in the middle of the day and then see two films in morning and two films at night.

Who paid for you to come here?
Tim: We did, though we already have a place here in Utah.

What movies are you most excited about?
Tim: Clear Cut, because it's a doc set in Oregon and I have a personal connection with one of the people who went to college on the scholarships featured in the movie.
Laurie: Friends with Money, which will be a commercial success, we think. At least relatively speaking since it didn't cost too much to make. I liked it, although i don't know if it really needed all those famous actors playing those roles. And Wide Awake, because so many people we know can't sleep. I'm really curious to see what a filmmaker does with that, and to see how an audience reacts to it.

Where'd you get your boots?
Laurie: Me and my daughters all got our Uggs at Nordstroms. We three each got different ones that suited our personalities. My 13-year-old picked these out for me.
Tim: REI, very Northwestern.

And the last song you listened to on your iPods?
Tim: I don't have one. But she does.
Laurie: Yes, I do. And it was Aimee Mann!

Bus Interview #3

The Subject: Micaela Cordoba, an events organizer based in Park Meadows, UT
Where: Bus to the Transit Center

I struck up a conversation with Micaela after overhearing an intense cell phone conversation in which she was explaining to a colleague who was arriving in town the arcane liquor purchase laws of Utah — how you have to be a UT resident if you want to purchase liquor with a credit card, beer must be bought at the grocery store, wine at a state liquor store...

Why are you here?
I'm organizing six events, in like two days, for MSN's new blogging site MSNspaces — things for the Method Fest Awards Show, the Queer Lounge, an Entertainment Weekly photo studio, and on and on.

What movie are you most excited about?
The Darwin Awards, Lucky Number Slevin, and American Blackout.

Alas, we only made it through two of the Flavorpill Five questions before Micaela had to hop off the bus at the local grocery, Albertson's, as she chatted away on her mobile about the limited availability of Veuve Clicquot and Taittinger's.

Bus Interview #2

The Subject: Shannon Cavers, a Houston-based lawyer
Where: Bus to Yarrow Theatre

Why are you here, Miss Shannon?
I love movies, and I was looking forward to some winter weather. It's 80 degrees in Houston! I came with five friends, and we're all staying in a condo together until Monday.

Who paid for you to come here?
I did, I did. I ran away to the snow!

What film are you most excited about?
Well, we have tickets to Off the Black, Open Window, and A Little Piece of Heaven. You know, I'm most excited about Open Window, because I love unique plotlines and I hear this is a very creative story.

[Her friend chimes in, saying:] Also, we really wanted to see movies that we couldn't see back in Houston, like Window. Some of the movies this year, we've seen trailers for them in local theaters back home. I think that misses the point, if they already have a way to be seen. This festival is exciting because it's all about discovering something new that you wouldn't see at home. So they shouldn't forget that.

Amen, sister. Shannon, do you think the festival is too commercial, as well?
I don't know about that. I was hoping to see a few stars. I think that'd be fun.

So, brass tacks. Where'd you get your boots?
I got them in Houston at Whole Earth Provision Co. They're hiking boots, but my feet are nice and warm.

And what's the last song you listened to on your iPod?
I was listening to a podcast of news from Mother Earth.

Bus Interview #1

The Subject: John Manulis, CEO of Visionbox Pictures.
Where: Festival HQ bus stop

So let's start with our standard Flavorpill Five questions. Why are you here — and from where?
I'm here from LA, which is also where I was born. I'm here because my film The Illusionist is screening and also to learn about new films.

Who paid for you to come here?
Oh, I did.

What film are you most excited about?
Ours!

Where'd you get your boots?
Venture Sixteen, in LA, five years ago. They're great. Waterproof. European-made. You know, I think I'm the only person who comes to the festival and still wears a ski jacket out at night. I've been coming for 18 years, since when people skied until 3pm and then went to movies until 3am.

Sounds like those were the days.
Oh, yeah. Things have changed.

So, have you seen any other movies?
I saw Friends with Money last night. It was good. Nicole makes good pictures. But everything coming out of LA is so self-referential, so obsessed with itself. Too bad it's so hard to get movies made in NYC. The few films that do get made there are interesting and original, but there are so few.

OK, the big question. What's the last song you listened to on your iPod, if you have one?
Bob Marley. But don't ask me which song!

Getting Acclimated. Oh-So-Literally

Speaking of festival life being rough (sniff), our initial entry into Park City has been like a bad indie outtake from Planes, Trains & Automobiles. On the eve of our departure, Lisa's laptop keyboard exploded, incurring a detour to the Salt Lake City Apple store. But this did give me a chance to meet our lovely East African cab driver Mohammad, one of the self-proclaimed "only brown people" in Salt Lake, who also happens to speak six languages. Other hurdles have included overcoming a blogger hex (read: dearth of wireless access) and discovering the wonders of altitude sickness, a slippery illness whose side effects I have now decided to call La Nausée Vague.

But as my partner in crime always says: it's all part of growing up. We're finally headed to our first screenings this afternoon, and this morning we shot an interview with director Larry Clark, who has a short film at Sundance as well as the Slamdance opening night feature, Wassup Rockers, and was ubercool. Look out for the video here tomorrow.

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