My first Sundance film was 'William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe' screening at the new Temple Theater just on the edge of Park City. The theater was very nice (seats 267 and every seat was sat in). The filmmakers, Kunstler's daughters, were in attendance and facilitated an amazing Q&A with special guests including Kunstler's widow and also Joey Johnson, Yusef Salaam, a few other notables from the doc and quite possibly the spirit of Abbie Hoffman. Kunstler successfully defended Johnson in his 1984 US Flag Burning First Amendment case with the Supreme Court. Salaam was wrongly convicted in the infamous Central Park Jogger Gang Rape case in New York in 1989. Kunstler was vilified for his defense of Salaam and his c0-defendants and died before seeing them exonerated in the case. Salaam honored his lawyer by reciting the poem 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'. I shook both of their hands and chatted a little with Johnson. He signed his news publication for me - what an amazing f
irst Sundance film experience.
Caught up with the "industry" at the IFC Mixer across from the Egyptian later in the afternoon. Ran into Rob Epstein, Academy Awad winning director of 'The Times of Harvey Milk'. He came to Enzian opening weekend of MILK for a special presentation of his documentary (thanks again Magaret Nolan of Kangagirl for making that happen). It was great to see him - I got to let him know in person that I thought his doc was better than MILK. Both are excellent films, but 'Times...' evoked more emotion and told the story about this tragic hero just a bit better.
Got to see Guillermo Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal introduce their film 'Rudo y Cursi' at the Eccles (see my review). Bernal was hilarious and in person seemed so much like his character in 'Science of Sleep'.
Regrettably I couldn't watch the Q&A - Holly Herrick had an extra ticket for Shorts Program # playing at midnight and there was little time between films. The Shorts program was good overall (see review) and I got to get a HUG from the lead actor from HUG. What a great first film watching day at Sundance!
-Chris
irst Sundance film experience.Caught up with the "industry" at the IFC Mixer across from the Egyptian later in the afternoon. Ran into Rob Epstein, Academy Awad winning director of 'The Times of Harvey Milk'. He came to Enzian opening weekend of MILK for a special presentation of his documentary (thanks again Magaret Nolan of Kangagirl for making that happen). It was great to see him - I got to let him know in person that I thought his doc was better than MILK. Both are excellent films, but 'Times...' evoked more emotion and told the story about this tragic hero just a bit better.
Got to see Guillermo Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal introduce their film 'Rudo y Cursi' at the Eccles (see my review). Bernal was hilarious and in person seemed so much like his character in 'Science of Sleep'.
Regrettably I couldn't watch the Q&A - Holly Herrick had an extra ticket for Shorts Program # playing at midnight and there was little time between films. The Shorts program was good overall (see review) and I got to get a HUG from the lead actor from HUG. What a great first film watching day at Sundance!
-Chris
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