This year’s Sundance Film Festival kicked off in Park City, Utah today and as promised… we’re here. We haven’t seen anything or done anything, but we’re here, which I suppose is a beginning. While Kelly, Steve, Leanne, and I we were re-enacting It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World by scrambling through airports (where Kelly may or may not have stalked Eliza Dushku), cramming into almost comically compact rental cars, and stumbling through Utah streets desperately seeking press credentials, somewhere nearby Robert Redford was smiling.
The festival kicked off with showings of In Bruges, a movie which I might know something about, had I not been so busy standing in front of a hotel check in counter next to former Howard Stern sidekick Jackie “The Jokeman” Martling. They managed to lose both our reservations, and we bonded over the universal truth of hotel ineptitude. Jackie’s reservation was eventually found. “Shit happens,” observed Jackie. Wise indeed. Apparently whoever made Jackie’s reservation was a fan, and had decided to list his last name as “The Jokeman” instead of Martling. Jackie seemed rather pleased, and even though I lacked his pseudo celebrity to motivate things along behind the hotel counter, the folks at the Hotel Zermatt staff tossed me a room key.
Jackie retired to his office (which looked a lot like a chair in the corner of the lobby), and the entire CB crew stumbled through the snow to our single room, where we contemplated doing something, and instead voted on sleeping and eating. Yep, we’re working ourselves to the bone for you. Scratch that, we’ll start working ourselves into a film festival frenzy. It’s a travel day.
Kelly, Steve, Leanne, and I will be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow (Literally. 6AM shuttle. Whose idea was this trip again?), pounding the icey pavement for your Sundance reporting enjoyment. No really, we promise. In the meantime, Robert Redford would like you to know the following: “This year filmmakers are putting a personal focus on issues relating to the world we live in rather than addressing them on a macro-political level. And it’s exciting to me to see a new community of storytellers cross over from different points of origin: the playwright who brings his words to the screen, the poet who shares her story through music, the advocate who invokes social change through documentary and many other artists whose works extend beyond the screen.” Thanks for the opening day press release Bobby. See you in the morning.
Keep up with all of our Sundance coverage over on our dedicated Film Fest page right here. Good for bookmarking and may be useful as a hangover curative.
PICTURED BELOW: Josh attempts to drive the world’s smallest rental car, without the benefit of removable knees.
