In the Pit (World Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner)
Sundance, 28 January 2006

Caught this screening with the lovely and talented Emily Kimball.

A great documentary about construction workers building an extensive elevated highway through Mexico City.

An awesome soundtrack, too, comprised entirely of sounds from the construction site. Too bad it will probably never be available (composer at the Q&A said that it depended on the Sundance Institute). How absurd. The technology exists to make it available. Distribute the CD yourself or just distribute it for free on your website. And why not just have some copies on CD-Rs to distribute at the screening?

Unfortunately, artistry is sacrificied at the altar of greed I suppose. Still, just seems to me that it would be great press to have yoour compositions out there, leading to future contracts, etc.

Alpha Dog
Sundance, 27 January 2006

Justin was introduced before the screening – much to the screaming delight of hundreds of teenage girls. I’m so glad I sold my two extra tickets to this screening. Thanks, Nick! It subsidized all of my Sundance tickets!

Madeinusa
Sundance, 26 January 2006

During Holy Week in the Peruvian Andes – the time between Christ’s crucifixion and Easter, local villagers believe that God is dead. Since he is dead and cannot see, there is no sin. This is an unfortunate situation to stumble into as a tourist from Lima soon discovers.

Beautiful scenery, compelling performances from non-professional actors, interesting story.

Sundance, 24 January 2006
Art School Confidential

Wow, the first comedy I’ve seen at Sundance this year. Stark contrast to the other fare I’ve seen. This is a funny and creative movie, but it relies a little to heavily on crass humor to be a classic. It is already dated because of it. Too bad.

Sunday, 23 January 2006
It’s Only Talk (Sundance film guide entry)

Bore-fest. Oh man, I could barely make it through this one. Lots of coffee and a couple of jager shots at the No Name beforehand didn’t help. I was completely vibrating. Not a good state of mind for a slow-paced, delicate Japanese film about a young woman with manic depression.

Now I’m normally a huge Japanophile. I love slow, drawn out scenes with little action aside from watching the actors’ emotions evolve. This just goes to prove that Japanese literature just doesn’t always translate to film…

It wasn’t a complete loss, though. The saving grace is the cho kawaii Shinobu Terajima who puts in a truly notable performance.

Sundance, 23 January 2006
Iraq In Fragments

A documentary on the war in Iraq, told in three vignettes: a sunni boy in Baghdad, Sadr City in Naseriya, southern Iraq, and Kurds in northern Iraq.

Downright depressing….

Sundance, 22 January 2006
Son Of Man (Sundance film guide entry)

Oh my heck. This retelling of the Jesus tale set in Africa is sure to rile up some conservative christians.

For starters, Jesus is black. Come on, we all know he was white and had long stringy hair. Second the conception is not immaculate (not explicitly shown in the film, but certainly implied by a rather omnipresent Joseph). Third, Jesus doesn’t die on the cross but is rather emblematically hung there after his death.

When “Sid and Nancy” was released, I remember one of the actors stating that down the road, people would mistake stills from the movie for actual photos of Sid and Nancy. Maybe Son Of Man will throw similar confusion on the rather pathetic, limited, and hypocriticial interpretation of Christianity currently employed in the US.

UPDATE: I decided that I’m not really qualified to judge the state of Christianity in the US. I retract my last comment…

One of the best — but most inconsistent — features of Sundance is the question and answer sessions that follow most screenings. Oftentimes, these are entertaining and insightful although I find most actors to be rather dull and self-aggrandizing when someone isn’t putting words into their mouths. Such is perhaps the danger of wanting to be adored by millions. But I digress.

There is always a fair amount of gushing that goes on by the audience during these sessions, especially when the star power is great. And sometimes the questions are so utterly inane I just want to slap the person upside the head.

The following questions should be categorically disallowed (or answered by default at the start of the Q & A):

1. Has the film been purchased / is it in distribution?

2. In what order did you film the scenes?

3. How did you do the casting / where did you find him/her/it ?

4. How did you pick the music?

More to come I’m sure….

Sundance, 21 January 2006 (Premier at Prospector)
Wordplay (Official website | Sundance film guide entry)

A tremendously entertaining documentary featuring Will Shortz, former editor of Games magazine, NY Times crossword puzzle editor and NPR puzzle master and a slew of other notables, including Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, etc. Jon Stewart is particularly hilarious. “Bring it, Will, you can’t fool me with your triple consonants”. Heh.

Met Will later in the day at a book signing at Dolly’s. I brought a copy of Will’s “Favorite Sunday Crosswords”. After flipping through it and seeing the first half of the puzzles half done, he inscribed “Todd, you can do these puzzles!”. Extremely nice guy — great to meet him in person.

Some of the cast of Wordplay.

Crossword constructor Merl Reagle, Will Shortz, and Patrick Creadon at the Q & A session.

Sundance, 20 January 2006
Solo Dios Sabe (Sundance film guide entry | IMDB)

Wow! This is an amazing movie with great editing, great acting, beautiful scenery. Travel urge was seriously stoked by this movie.

Starring Diego Luna (Frida, Y Tu Mama Tambien, etc, etc) and and the cho kawaii Alice Braga (City Of God) who were both on hand at the screening and for a Q and A afterwards.