I would have started this entry yesterday but I was really zonked. But I know how desperately you, gentle reader, have been waiting for news from the festival. You are wondering whether ordinary attendees like myself truly live the fabulous star-studded life you've read about or seen on TV. Well, the short answer is, yes we do.

After watching Somebodies and buying an alarming amount of food (we'll never finish it) at the grocery store, we returned to the condo to rest and recover our wits prior to attending our first Sundance party. This was technically in honor of some kind of film school organization, but really it was in honor of people who know the host, or people, like me, that know those people. So there I was, surrounded by beautiful people, sipping a red bull and vodka and grooving to a smooth beat provided by the DJ. I met some people and promised to work on a guy's karaoke for the blind project. We'll see about that.

That was Wednesday. Thursday started early. With about four hours of sleep, Glen and I leapt out of bed and rushed out to see Stephanie Daley, a movie about a teenager who gives birth and possibly kills her baby. It was really good. Tilda Swinton was excellent as a therapist who had herself recently had a miscarriage.

From there we went immediately into Flannel Pajamas, another excellent film that explored a romantic relationship between two people with extraordinary poignancy and depth. Really great stuff, though amazingly, it was somewhat more depressing than the baby-killer movie.

We then went straight into In Between Days, in the same theater. This was a low-budget movie about a couple of teenage Korean-American kids in love. It was a little slow but made the best of a small budget and simple equipment.

Post-movie, we proceeded downtown to meet my buddy Betty! Yay, Betty has arrived! From there we headed to 350 Main with the entire condo gang to eat dinner. That included me and Glen, Russ and Jason, Sparky and Erinne, Betty and her two friends Stacy and Adrian. Dinner was fantastic - I mean, really, seriously good. Sparky picked up the tab for all nine of us, which was a major bonus seeing as I was grimacing at paying just my own bill. Thanks, Sparky!

After dinner we barely had time to stop at the Liquor store before hitting the last movie. Kiss Me Not on the Eyes is an Egyptian film about a woman who wants to explore desire and sensual love in a society that represses them. A little hard to follow, maybe, for us foreigners, plus we were sleepy, but I basically enjoyed it.
- posted by Joachim @ 12:08 AM