“Make room, Tim and Eric will go in the van with you guys.”
But the first assignment of the day was to accompany a small film crew (field producer, cameraman, and 2 PAs) to cover the annual Directors’ Brunch, hosted by my nemesis from the previous day, Robert Redford.
Each year the brunch is held at Redford’s Sundance Resort, which is in a remote and beautiful mountainside area about 45 minutes away from Park City. All filmmakers who have movies at Sundance are invited, the idea being for directors to relax and mingle away from the pressure and dealmaking that characterize Park City during the festival.
The snow had already begun to fall when we set out, with a forecast of much more projected for the rest of the day. The filmmakers arrived from Park City in 3 separate busloads. Each group arrived with more snow on them than the last.
The last group was pretty late. When they finally arrived, we found out that all the directors had to move to the back of the bus to distribute the weight and help the bus up the mountain.
Marina Abramović, who is the subject of a documentary at Sundance
Overall it was a really nice, relaxed atmosphere. In between shooting, I got to chat with some directors and other festival attendees. Everyone seemed really happy to be there. I also made a fun discovery: directors LOVE my Fuji X100. While I did most of my shooting with my Canons, the little retro Fuji was usually around my neck for behind the scenes stuff, close-ups (like the shot of the bagels above), etc. More than a few directors made a beeline toward me when they spotted the camera. “What kind of camera is that?” “Is that a Leica?” Serious director bait. Even if I hadn’t shot a single frame with it, bringing the Fuji was worth it just for the icebreakers.
After a couple of hours, Robert Redford turned up and took the podium.
He made some interesting remarks about the history of the festival and of the Sundance Resort, where the brunch was taking place. He bought the land in 1969 for $500, and considers everything that goes on in Park City to be an important but ultimately peripheral component of the mission of Sundance, which is to find and develop new filmmaking talent. After his speech, he stuck around for a few minutes to meet and greet starry-eyed attendees.
Here’s the piece that the crew I was tagging along with produced:
It was time to drive back to Park City, but we got word that the snowstorm had forced some road closings. The roads were slowly being cleared, but there was no point in rushing. I snapped a quick photo of our crew while we awaited traffic updates:
Left to right: Cameraman Matt, PA Dane, field producer Lisa, and PA Vanessa
Finally we decided to start heading back, knowing that it would take us closer to 2 hours, and not the 45 minutes it normally takes. Fortunately our vehicle was Vanessa’s sisters Subaru. We drove slow and were treated to some breathtaking vistas as we left the Sundance Resort.
By the time we got back to Park City it was late afternoon. The city was transformed and the snow kept falling.
There wasn’t much downtime to enjoy. Our evening assignment was to produce a “My Premiere” segment — basically, a video diary piece that follows a director of a film premiering at Sundance on the day of their premiere. I’d be going with producer Lisa again to shoot stills while they shot video. Our subject was Rick Alverson, director of “The Comedy”, an un-comedic look at aging hipsters in Williamsburg starring, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (of Tim & Eric) and James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem, among others.
We met up with Rick at the cast’s pre-premiere dinner. There wasn’t much to shoot, so I grabbed a few candids while the video crew got Rick talking to camera and we retired back to our two cars.
Rick Alverson
The plan was to give Rick and his girlfriend a ride to the premiere, and possibly do the same for some cast members, as the snow that blanketed Park City earlier was still falling. That’s when producer Lisa came by and told us that we’d be taking Tim and Eric to the premiere in our minivan. They piled in with their dates. It was a tight squeeze but a fun and surreal ride.
The snowstorm was only getting worse. We hurried out of the car and into the media tent for some red carpet action.
Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Tim and Eric
James Murphy
We followed the cast all the way into the theater to shoot their opening remarks, after which we were supposed to leave and await the end of the movie to go back in and shoot the Q&A. That meant an hour and a half of doing nothing or… maybe just slip into that empty seat at the back of the theater, stuff my cameras under the chair, and wait for the lights to go down. And that’s how I saw my first (and only) movie at Sundance. I really got away with one there, since I later heard first-hand stories of directors and actors being barred entry to their own premieres without a ticket. I didn’t love the movie, much of which was shot in my neighborhood of Greenpoint, but I enjoyed the experience immensely. After the credits had rolled, I got to see first-hand that most awkward of film festival spectacles: the post-movie Q&A session. And that was it. A relatively light 12 hour day, compared to the 16-hour marathon that was day 2.
Here’s the My Premiere video from that evening:
And here are my galleries from the Directors’ Brunch and The Comedy premiere on the Sundance Channel website.
Thanks for reading! You can check out my other Sundance posts here.
Leave a reply