Sundance Film Festival 2011

The end of January, or Sundance week as most locals know it, is a week unparalleled by anything else that happens in Utah. People from all over the US (mostly California) flock to the tiny ski town of Park City, and for ten days stalk celebrities, walk around in stilettos, and sometimes go see an independent movie or two.

Ever since I was a kid, my mother used to take me to the Sundance Film Festival. We never had tickets, but we went anyway, as if the excitement alone was enough reason to attend. Out of sheer luck (literally winning a lottery), 2011 was the first year I was able to actually attend the festival. Not only was it an amazing experience, but actually being able to see the process of how a movie comes into being after being made: the screening, the promotion, audience reviews, distribution, etc. was absolutely fascinating.

These Amazing Shadows, Miss Representation, Mad Bastards, and Hobo With A Shotgun are all great independent films I saw this year that I feel deserve some merit. Hobo With A Shotgun in particular was my favorite, mostly because it's such a great gonzo-style grindhouse production.

There is so much work that goes into being an independent filmmaker, much more than people know, and I have deep respect for each and every filmmaker who dedicates himself to a vision and sticks with it until the very end. I truly hope that festivals like Sundance and Slamdance stay around for a very long time, and that they continue to support talented people whose visions don't necessarily fall into the cookie cutter Hollywood agenda. After all, can you imagine a world without Reservoir Dogs, Blood Simple, or Sex, Lies, & Videotape? Would this year's Oscar-nominated True Grit even exist had it not been for the Coen brothers' initial success at Sundance? Food for thought, I suppose.

Anyway, although I'm incredibly sad it's over, this year at Sundance was a great experience, as well as an incredibly rare experience (for me at least). Below are some of the pictures I took along the way: