Director of Programming James McNally is attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival from January 19th to 31st.
Festival Day 9
We’re in the home stretch now. My last early shift at the Film Office ran from 8:00am until noon. I met Jackie (whom I feel I haven’t seen in a couple of days) for lunch just after 1:00pm at Red Banjo on Main Street. I had ravioli and garlic bread, which was a (very) small change from all the pizza I’ve been eating. Then we wandered down to the bottom of Main to the ASCAP Music Cafe, where we saw three sets: Genevieve (sort of twee hippie folk), Freedy Johnston (a semi-legendary “songwriter’s songwriter”) whom I wanted to see, and Sibling, a fairly new indie pop band whom Jackie knew about and loved. We left just before 4:00pm and headed to our separate lodgings. She leaves tomorrow, while I’m here in Park City until Sunday.
I had been starting to feel sickly as early as last night, but the aches and pains and coughing and general lousiness caught up to me today, so I slept for two hours and skipped a film I had a ticket for (The Fundamentals of Caring with Paul Rudd). I hadn’t even really wanted to see it, but director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed, Jurassic World) turned it in at the Film Office for whomever could use it. It’s not even his film, but I expect because of the cast it will come out theatrically at some point, so I’m not worried about missing the screening.
I did head out to Redstone pretty early, though, to get a volunteer ticket for my friend Robert Greene’s new film Kate Plays Christine. Before the film, I used my last “grub stub” at Red Rock Brewery to enjoy a hearty burger and mashed potatoes. Even as I felt myself getting sicker, I knew I should have a good meal.
Kate Plays Christine is another examination of performance a bit similar to his previous film Actress, and features Kate Lyn Sheil preparing to play Christine Chubbock, a television journalist in 1970s Sarasota who became the first person to commit suicide live on air. It’s an intense film at times, as it examines our morbid need to see horrors like this at the expense of valuing ordinary life.
Despite feeling ever-lousier, I gave Robert a quick hug after the screening. Hopefully I haven’t passed along this sickness! Redstone is far and isolated at the best of times, and coming out of the cinema after midnight was a bit scary, but I did somehow find my way onto the right shuttle. I got to bed sometime after 1:00am, after drinking a mug of Theraflu.