Festival Director James McNally is attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival from January 21st to February 2nd.
Festival Day 1
Today started very early with a 6:00am alarm and out the door by 7:00am to get to HQ by 7:45am (that’s my view on the way to work in the photo above). I wanted to make my usual Starbucks stop and did but then things were complicated by a car accident right in front of Fresh Market. They were diverting all the buses before the shuttle stop and so I ended up walking nearly all the way. I still got there on time (in fact, I was there before Terry, my Artist Relations Liaison). We expected to check in at least half of our 33 film teams, but I think we only ended up getting to about 12 or 13. As always there are periods of great activity followed by nobody coming in for hours. Luckily, all of our Shorts Program 1 teams came in, since their premiere was at 6pm at Prospector. And at some point during the day, I was sitting just three feet away from Aragorn! Yes, Viggo Mortenson is here with a film he directed (Falling) and I got to watch another volunteer check him in. I also saw, waved at, said a quick hello, or briefly hugged a few familiar faces, including Tom Hall (Montclair Film Festival), Robert Greene (filmmaker of Actress and Bisbee ’17), Sam Fragoso (host of the great podcast “Talk Easy”), and Kathleen McInnis (programmer and publicist extraordinaire).
Our first premiere went pretty well, considering the two liaisons are new. One of our short film teams (for Blocks) had a film crew from the LA Times following them everywhere (even at check-in) for a show called “Road to Sundance” or something. Luckily, I don’t think I appear in any of the footage.
We wrapped up by 6:30pm and although Drew and Terry (and possibly Bryan) were going to check out the Filmmakers’ Welcome Party, I decided to just come home, eat, catch up on this blog and some short film watching, and head to bed early. Tomorrow is an epically long day. Up at 6am and then going until around midnight. So sleep is needed. My voice is also completely gone, so resting it is a good idea.