TGIF :: Sundance Film Festival

TGIF :: It’s Friday.  Get fired up.

Sundance Film Festival officially began yesterday.  I’m not sure what triggers the start, but it’s either the Day One Press Conference (which I covered for Salt Lake magazine) or the complete transformation of Main Street into the hippest place in the country.

And I don’t know which of the two events I observed yesterday was more affective.  The Presser inspired me.  Seeing all these influencers (from Robert Redford, to his Sundance partners John Cooper and Keri Putnam, to an audience full of media, to people walking the streets) **talk** about translating creativity and the power of raw human emotion… it makes me a little teary-eyed.  It’s like I’ve found my people — a place where I’m safe and heard when I begin a diatribe about the horrors of cultural commidification, the exhaustion involved in being an independent artist, or my fascination with watching an actor transform into his character.  The thing is: I feel dumb, a lot, when I talk about my lifestyle or passions or observations or weaknesses.  I have friends — wonderfully gifted & smart people — that are doctors, lawyers, investment bankers, engineers, consultants, and executives, and they are making real-deal m o n e y and leading lives that seem to make far more sense than mine.  Talking with them about my writing or my shooting (film or still) feels sometimes foolish and always a little irrelevant.  But, that’s who I am; it’s my heart, it’s my initiative, it’s my currency.  And at Sundance, I get to talk ad nauseum with people that feel the exact.same.way.  It’s seriously relieving and comforting.

And walking around Main Street this time of year is always a trip.  This is what happens: most shops, galleries, and restaurants are emptied out, re-structured (painted, walls put up, carpeted or not, new furniture & signage & branding), and re-named something like, oh, It’s So Miami.  People are walking around going, ‘did you go to Tao last night? ‘let’s head to Udi’s!’ ‘STK is fabulous’ ‘the Chase Sapphire building is a great stop to warm up’ — and, all of the sudden, you realize they’re talking about your town.  Because, you see, those places aren’t real places.  Pop-ups with huge brand names appear on every corner, and when you meet someone from out of town, and they tell you they’ll see you later at Stella Artois, you may have no idea what they’re talking about (and they think you don’t get out much if you don’t know the name of a hang-out spot right on your own Main Street, which, they don’t realize, didn’t exist until two days prior).

Anyway, it’s a bizarre time of year.  Corporate marketing run amok meets A-listers meets Nobodies meets Soon-to-be-A-listers.  At the center of it all — at least, supposedly — is film (and, with it, inspiration, spirit, kinship, and story-telling), and that’s what keeps me interested, holding onto the Sundance train, white-knuckled with a dash of hope.

… and away we go!