AKA, what did I learn and/or experience in Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival.

In short:

• Watch the black & white screen
  Make things seem so much simpler
• “They say if you’re not confused, you’re not thinking enough.” Hogan from Little Birds.
• My head is hanging low
  I hear the sounds of victory moving through me and in me
• There’s dignity in suffering, but there’s also dignity in accepting the inevitable.” Cody Curtis from How To Die In Oregon.
• I wish my camera was made as well as my eyes were.
  I wish my pictures could show you want I’m seeing now.
  A glimpse of majesty.
• It’s a calm cold (like a dry heat)
  Snow-capped dream
• I am selfish to the core
• My mind is a ghost town
  I leave it at every chance I get
• Saw a jet from my window seat, the wake it left as it glided over the cloud was amazing. (wish I could have gotten a picture of this.)

In pictures:

From the Hammill Condo

Park City Mountain Resort

Ice Bar Outside High West

Ice Movie Reel Outside High West

This is How I Brush My Teeth

Another View from the Hammill Condo

I wish my camera was made as well as my eyes were.

I wish my pictures could show you want I'm seeing now

A glimpse of majesty.

In Movies

There were over 100 movies screened doing the festival.  I saw four of them.  I enjoyed most of them, although not all were pleasurable, they were all well-done.

• Little Birds A gritty drama that follow two teenage girls who run away from their small, desperate town to explore what else is out there.  They test the bounds of friendship and tote the line of morality.
• I Saw The Devil An action-packed, thriller from South Korea.  The movie follows the story of a man whose pregnant fiancé is murdered.  This is not your typical revenge saga.  It goes well beyond what is expected.
• How To Die In Oregon A documentary about the people behind physician-assisted suicide (or more politically-correct, right to die with dignity).  It was not easy to watch and this invoked a visceral response in most people.  It won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary.
• Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same I didn’t think this was a real movie when I first heard the title and jokingly even said I wanted to see it.  A last minute choice, after watching How To Die in Oregon, I had to see something light-hearted and easy on my mind.  Think 1950s sci-fi, complete with bad special effects, black and white story-telling, and horribly bad alien-cadenced speech. It was fast-paced and almost believable.  It had a deep message in there if you looked for it. More on that later.