Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2008 > January > 17 > Entry
Taking the scenic — and chatty — route to Sundance
PARK CITY, UTAH — I’ve been in subarctic Utah for about 30 minutes waiting for a shuttle at the Salt Lake City airport (“waiting for a shuttle” will be my mantra this bustling cold weekend, along with: Brrrrrr), but my Sundance experience began some three hours ago in Austin, inside a 50-seater Delta jet.
The 8 a.m. take-off time meant a 6 a.m. wake-up time, so the plane fast filled with red-eyed zombies (save for the gleaming business commuters, who always look so fresh and perky and obnoxiously happy). I take my tiny seat and suddenly notice that joining my row is PJ Raval — one of the reasons I’ve come to the Sundance Film Festival, which runs today through Jan. 27. My seat is 11D. His is 11C. We are cramped-leg mates.
PJ Raval, shoehorned into plane seat, still on Austin tarmac
Then, stars aligning madly, we spot at the front of the plane, ducking and stowing, Matt Dentler, South by Southwest Film Festival producer and man about town, who’s also heading to Sundance, as he does every year to keep abreast of the constantly shifting festival culture.
I’m here for four days to follow around Austin filmmakers, namely: Raval, the cinematographer for the competition documentary “Trouble the Water,” which follows Hurricane Katrina survivors and is directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal; Margaret Brown, whose doc about race relations in the context of the Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras is also in the doc competition; David and Nathan Zellner’s dark feature comedy, filmed in Austin, “Golitath”; and Mark and Jay Duplass’s follow-up to “The Puffy Chair,” the comedy-thriller “Baghead.”
Same plane, same plan. Raval, Dentler and I meet at baggage claim, surrounded by scruffy hipsters, skinny pretty people and moneyed ski bums. Our trio zonked out most of the flight, and we all need caffeine, or a really good movie.
PJ and Matt Dentler, ready to PARTY
We go our ways, with firm plans to hit the IndieWire opening night party after the opening night film, “In Bruges,” a violent crime caper starring Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes, written and directed by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh.
Everyone must hire a shuttle to get where they’re going in this mountain-girdled, snow-bluffed, ashy-skied valley. My van is packed, so I sit shotgun next to our dimly hippie-ish driver, Christopher. As I board, some of the passengers warn me that he’s a wee eccentric, maybe cuckoo.
He sports a graying, frizzy ponytail, mirror sunglasses and an Indian blanket across his legs as he drives. He also offers quite a bit of narration. Disney’s “The Jungle Book” soundtrack spins on the stereo (“The Bare Necessities” on to “Never Smile at a Crocodile”), as he explains, “I am a creative person,” which means, naturally: a screenwriter. A Native American “dream-catcher” dangles from the rear-view mirror.
The feathery dream-catcher, with snowy Utah mountains. It has caught all of my dreams, but one: To drop me off at the Holiday Inn, pronto.
“We’re all connected, even the animals,” Christopher says, and then tells us about the Sasquatch that resides in these powdered mountains. It’s name is Wegwawamohend, and, yes, he did spell it for me.
“He” — meaning the Bigfoot — “spoke to me back in my wild days, when I had my hair long. He said I was from the Clan of the Bear Cats.”
The women seated behind me …
Hello!
… chimed in, joining my intrepid questioning of our woolly driver. As we went around an elevated bend, suddenly he blurted, “This is where your ears start poppin’!”
He was — pop! — right.
“There’s elk on that side,” he said, pointing right, “and moose on that side.”
We drove past Lambs Canyon. “Ted Bundy killed people in that valley,” our trusty guide declared.
Oh. Here he is, by the way:
As we approached Park City, Christopher announced we were no longer in Utah.
“We are in the Independent Republic of Park City!” he said. “Here, we are ‘Parkites.’ And we speaky ‘Parky.’
“We are,” he added, “outside of Mormonia.”
As I write this, a bit later, in a funky-cool-organic cafe/bookstore — The Spotted Frog, which’d be right at home in Austin or Berkeley — my new cell phone tinkle-jingles (my very first cell, acquired expressly for the fest). It’s Paul Stekler, Sundance-winning documentarian (for “George Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire” in 2000) and University of Texas film professor.
He’s smack on Main Street in the heart of Sundance with Austin filmmaker Karen Skloss, and he tells me they are looking for a Wal-Mart or Radio Shack, “because that’s what you do when you’re at Sundance.”
Sounds like they need help. I will be right there …
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Sundance
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By m.a.
January 21, 2008 1:47 PM | Link to this
KILLINGS SNAKES< an Austin written and produced film by Martina Amende and Rick del Castillo is also screening at the Festival - up for best score for a short (Rick del Castillo of Del Castillo -the hot Austin Latin rock band) - see killingsnakesmovie.com
By Mark
January 18, 2008 9:51 PM | Link to this
The locally produced film “Garrison” is also screening at the Park City Film festival which is sponsored at the same time as Sundance in same location. Check it out while you’re out there. Many local folks are in the film. We’re proud the film was accepted.
www.parkcityfilmmusicfestival.com
http://parkcityfilmmusicfestival.com/ScreeningSchedule2008.html
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=289019443
By X.O. M.
January 17, 2008 3:38 PM | Link to this
Doesn’t sound so devastatingly bad. Read the other blog first, incidentally (accidentally), and that was devastatingly delightful. … Glad you found free wireless.