sundance, en repose

so, I am back. sundance was and, more importantly, is interesting. the admirable thing is that it remains a place for film not just the retarded press and industry frenzy on the surface. and by film i mean all film. (I feel especially privileged to have been involved with the new frontiers category, where this fact is most obvious)

this is actually not an easy thing, especially given how money from outside the festival makes it harder to run the festival itself. it's strange how much harder it is to run a festival in a confined space rather than the relative sprawl of a city - something I can't imagine sundance thought they'd have to deal with when it all started.

celebrity is a retarded phenomenon, and sundance does a very respectable job ignoring it to focus on what matters. I overheard some people complaining about having to wait in line despite their VIP badges and wanting a VVIP badge, but hopefully they got run over by a truck. the festival has a lot going on and is awesomely accessible to people who plan ahead rather than expect thousands of people to yield to their whim.

I've been to a good number of different festivals over the past 15 or so years and I will confess that sundance rates right up at the top despite my curmudgeonlyness. If I was going to pick two it'd be toronto and sundance easy.