Director of Programming James McNally is attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival from January 20th to February 1st.
T-1 day until festival begins
So I actually got out of bed to write this, since I don’t want to get behind so early in the festival. Today was a day filled with training. I learned a lot of Sundance procedures around ticketing, different types of credentials, theatre load-in procedures, radio etiquette, etc. I also got to know some of the other Film Office category-specific volunteers better. There’s a good mixture of veterans and newbies like me, and even two people from Toronto: both Alyssa Kornet and Denae Peters work year-round for TIFF, so it was nice to see them here. Sundance has a long history of using volunteers from Canada, and most of them have worked for TIFF as well.
At lunch, I tagged along with a nice group that included category volunteers like myself and then expanded to include my FOC (Film Office Coordinator) Kevin and the other shorts FOC Meredith and her volunteer Shayna. We’ll be working together a lot at screenings. After lunch I helped Kevin assemble the folders and envelopes that we’ll be giving to our shorts filmmakers beginning tomorrow. Lots of different tickets and information inserts that they’ll need to enjoy their festival.
And then tonight was the Staff and Volunteer party, where I finally tracked down most if not all of the other Toronto volunteers, including one of my amazing Head Reps from the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, Caitlin Nicholls, who was kind of my inspiration for coming to Sundance this year. We were given wristbands with three drink tickets attached, but the lineups were so long, I only used two. I also have a very early start tomorrow (8am at the Film Office to begin checking in filmmakers), so I made sure I was back in my comfortable room before midnight.
Tomorrow the festival begins, and it will be a crazy day of filmmakers picking up their credentials and tickets and also our first shorts screening, so it will be a busy day. I’m also moving accommodations tomorrow, so I have to bring my great big suitcase and try to store it somehow until the late afternoon. I’ll get just about 5.5 hours sleep tonight, hoping that’s enough to get me through tomorrow. Goodnight!