Director of Programming James McNally is attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival from January 19th to 31st.
T-2 days until festival begins
Today was a whirlwind. I was up pretty early (around 8am) and didn’t have anything on my agenda except getting a coffee at a place near my AirBnB called Jack Mormon’s. I couldn’t resist with a name like that, and the coffee was great, too.
I packed everything up to be ready for 12:30pm, when a really kind Sundance volunteer named Susan arrived to pick me up. She’s a Salt Lake City resident and in the Facebook group for Sundance Volunteers, she offered to drive people to Park City so they wouldn’t have to take the shuttle. She asked for $20 each, which was much better than the shuttle’s fee of $35. And I didn’t have to make my way all the way back out to the airport, either.
We also picked up Claire, who was also staying in SLC for a few days. I had met her yesterday for coffee and we discovered that not only was she working with my friend Jackie, but that they were going to be roommates, too. Small world.
We had a full SUV of 7 people, a mixture of new and seasoned volunteers, and the ride was lively and full of conversation. The only other guy in the bunch, Joel, turned out to be my roommate. He’s working as a Category Volunteer in the Film Office, too, with Premieres. He’s Australian, and actually worked with Courtney (our manager here) at the Melbourne International Film Festival. He said she convinced him to come work at Sundance.
Jackie’s flight was delayed and she ended up getting to Festival HQ with just minutes to spare before their 6pm closing, so we didn’t have much time to chat. There are volunteer screenings tonight, but I just wanted to decompress after finding my way over to my festival-provided lodging. I’m sharing a room with Joel in the basement of a condo. We each have a twin bed. The other three housemates each have their own room with a Queen bed, and one even has his own bathroom. It’s all a matter of seniority, I think. They all know each other well, having worked together both here and in Chicago. They seem really nice, maybe late 20s or early 30s. Joe and Eric drive around and fill up propane tanks(!) which seems like a bizarre festival job, but they say it leaves them lots of time to see films. Mike works in the Development Office with donors. Oh yeah, the condo complex (just 6 units, each the size of a house) has a shared hot tub! It’s much smaller than the one I enjoyed last year, and it closes up at 10pm, but still!
It’s relatively early, but I just want to settle in here and maybe go and do some grocery shopping. Our place is really central, on Park Avenue about halfway between Festival HQ and downtown Main Street. It’s a 20 minute walk to HQ or about the same by shuttle. There’s a 7-11 across the street and the big grocery store (Fresh Market) is just a few minutes walk. It feels like a great location.
Earlier, I stopped by the Film Office to say hello to Courtney and to Kevin, with whom I’ll be working again this year. We’re the US Shorts team, and the Film Office Coordinator (FOC) for International Shorts is named Corinne, whom I also met. Her volunteer is Celine, who lives in Toronto and who worked at the Film Office Box Office last year. So things are familiar, mostly.
But Kevin says we have 39 film teams this year, a huge increase over last year, so we’ll be very busy over the first few days. Tomorrow is our training day, but Kevin is also trying to encourage any film teams who are here already to check in early. So we’re going to hit the ground running.