Sundance Day 4: Snowstorms Got Nothin’ On Me

Greetings, friends! I blog at you today in the depths of a ridiculous snowstorm that has been raging on and off all day. It’s made walking around incredibly difficult - especially considering I forgot to Scotchgard my boots - but it’s been such an interesting day that I don’t mind at all.

I started off after breakfast with a trip to the furthest theatre in Park City - the Temple Har Shalom. Yep, a theatre in a synagogue. It was one of the coolest venues I’ve been to so far and also hosted the first documentary I’ve seen during the festival: DETROPIA. Coming from Oscar-nominated directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), the film is a portrait of Detroit in decline during the late-2000s financial crisis. Described by Grady and Ewing as a tapestry of the city, we follow several different story threads: a teacher-turned-blues club owner’s growing disdain with the state of the city he was once proud of, the president of the local chapter of United Auto Workers as he works to negotiate with manufacturers, the attempted restructuring of the city by mayor David Bing to prevent Detroit from going bankrupt, and the crumbling arts scene that can’t stay alive since its once-wealthy patrons are feeling the effects of the recession as hard as the city’s poor, just to name a few.

What I liked most about DETROPIA was that the directors didn’t take a stance, and instead chose to let the inhabitants of Detroit tell their own stories without adding bias. The frustrations, joys, and passions of Detroit’s diverse citizens are fascinating in their own right, and while it was pointed out at the Q&A that not all of the city’s aspects were shown fully, I was okay with that - the patchwork quilt that Grady and Ewing stitched together to show the husk of this once-great American city was eye-opening and thankfully not preachy. I have high hopes for its chances in the U.S. Documentary competition.

After DETROPIA, I trekked over to the Yard, where the New Frontier exhibits were set up. The New Frontier is essentially an experiment in mixing art and film, with installations like a virtual reality game set at the L.A. Food Bank, a 3D amalgamation of set pieces from major blockbuster movies, and an exploded computer that only showed video of gamers getting pissed off at their own computers. While I only spent about 30 minutes at the Yard, I was definitely glad I went - it was a weird, artsy side of the festival I haven’t been able to really explore (aside from watching Perceptions the other day) and I enjoyed seeing how film can be used used for non-narrative purposes.

I also had my first volunteer shift at the Holiday theatre, where the press and industry retreat to when they want to see movies without the crush of festival-goer traffic, which has significantly increased over the past few days. I shoveled snow for the first time in my life, made sure that people went into the right theatre door, and made new friends and contacts, including the director of the Palm Springs Short Film Festival, which I might have to make a trek to come the end of June.

But now, it’s time to kick back, relax, and enjoy some peanut butter toast. See you tomorrow, friends.