Peace, Love and Movies

Still in Sundance. Just heard a filmmkaer sitting next to me saying that this week has been the most stressful ever...Oh boy. Once again I am reminded that Sundance can be hard to manage. Its so big, so many things are going on, so many people try to achieve so much, it certainly can get stressful. For me one the main challenges is to manage my time as I constantly get pulled in conflicting directions. Shall I go to the movie on my schedule or shall I go to that party? Shall I move my meeting, risking cancelling it all together, or shall I keep the meeting and forgo the screening everyone says is a must see? Shall I forgo everything for a couple of hours and go to my hotel room and disappear and re-energize, or shall I just continue to go go go? Normally I just go go go.

I was glad to have seen Mother & Child yesterday, starring Hudson Valley part time resident Naomi Watts, who was excellent in it. Directed by Rodrigo Garcia (son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) the film is a beautifully crafted tappestry of relationships and motherhood told in gentle strokes through three interweaving stories. I think it will do well in the box office once it hits the theaters.

Another film I caught yesterday was Gasland, a documentary about "fracking". Very interesting, disturbing and well done, I hope to bring it to the Hudson Valley before long.

I was also happy to see The Imperialists Are Still Alive, a dramatic narrative that takes on an innovative approach all of its own in terms of style and subject. A brave work by a team of women writer / director and producer. I look forward to see what those two will do next.

Somewhere in the middle of the day yesterday I got to interview Davis Guggenheim, the director of the Sundance hit Waiting for Superman, a comprehensive exploration of our ailing educationa system. Davis, who did An Incovenience Truth a couple of years ago and with it delved into a social action campaign that made an impact on our lives, plans to develop similar campaign for Superman with the goal to impact the public education in the US. If anyone can do it, Davis can, and I wish him luck!

Today I'm interviewing the Duplass Brothers as well as the director of Bass Ackwards, looking forward to both. Couple of meetings, a few parties and the tradional BMI Sundance dinner (where I'm told in the middle of the meal everyone is asked to get up and change seats so that they are forced to start talking to new people), as well as film screenings will fill my day. And oh yea, forgot to mention; its snowing again! What a surprise...thankfully I'm going to remain indoors at Headquarters for the next couple of hours as after that its going to be out into the snow for the day.

Until next time. See you at the movies.