Director of Programming James McNally is attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival from January 16th to 28th.
Festival Day 8
With all our premieres done, all I had to do today was put in a shift at HQ from 8:00am-1:00pm and then I’d be free to see films. It was nice to catch up with everyone back in the office for a while, but I was ready to start catching some movies. First I headed to the MARC where I met up with several of our group of volunteers from our shuttle ride. We’ve been keeping up with each other on Facebook messenger and so it was nice to see a film with some friends. It was The Miseducation of Cameron Post with Chloe Grace Moretz and it was the best thing I’ve seen so far. A very understated film about a young woman sent to a “gay conversion therapy” camp in the 1990s. I liked how there weren’t any caricatured villains. The evangelicals who run the camp are misguided but they don’t come across as completely unrelatable, either. I hope this gets a wide release.
Afterwards, we came out to another heavy snowfall. It took about twenty minutes for enough shuttles to arrive to take everyone who’d come out of the film, but I had enough time to use the third of my four “grub stubs” to get a meal at Burger King before heading to the Park Avenue Theatre for Shorts Program 2 at 6:00pm. I found it weaker than Shorts Program 1 overall, but enjoyed The Climb very much, a clever one-shot comedy about two cyclists riding up a steep hill and having an awkward conversation.
I was fading fast, but managed to convince myself to stay at the Park Avenue to see Documentary Shorts Program 1 at 9:00pm. The highlights of a very strong lineup included Symphony of a Sad Sea, a beautifully-shot story about a young Mexican man exiled from his hometown, Volte, about a young Polish acrobat whose adolescent growth spurt threatens her position within the troupe, and Baby Brother, a loving portrait of the director’s younger brother who has moved back in with their parents. I’m glad I stayed out.
I don’t have to be in the office until 1:00pm tomorrow but I’m not sure how early I want to get up to see films. If I see one before work and one afterwards, I think I’ll be happy.