Arrived!

Day One Sundance

by Ilene Marder, January 16, 2009

The first day is always slow...not everyone is here yet, the bus drivers are still figuring out their routes and film goers are still studying the program. The streets are not as crowded as they will be by this weekend, and frankly, the talk of the town, even here...is the 'Miracle on the Hudson', especially by those of us who could have been on that plane. Speculation abounds on who has already optioned the film rights ...

I'm sitting at Sundance Headquarters at the Marriot Park City... and there is a mob scene here with credentials pickups, tickets reservations, meetings, tech-talk and the like. There doesn't seem to be just one film that stands out as a must-see. Although there are many high profile offerings with big name stars, respected actors and directors, all the conversations I hear are about which "small" films are expected to break-out, the hidden gems.

The opening night film was one of them. Mary and Max, directed and written by Adam Elliot of Australia,  is a claymation animated film, which I didn't expect to like, much less, love. I'm tired of all the slam-bash-bang- animated,computer-generated product that has been dominating the screens, but this film is as real, and well... human... as any 'serious' live action film I've ever seen.  It has soul. Hand-made from start to finish... there are no computer generated images, manipulation, overlays or short-cuts...as the director said when introducing the film, everything you see can be held in your hand. It took five years to get the claymation right and I think it will live on as a classic....let's hope it finds a distributor.  It's about the long-term penpal relationship of a lonely, outcast little Australian girl and an odd, misfit, obese  New Yorker -  I know, it doesn't sound that appealing, but it is a triumph of  insight and eccentricity and really funny and completely absorbing. Philip Seymour Hoffman, as the voice of the New Yorker, is astouding and completely disappears into this weird, but ultimately loveable character. To read more about it, go to www.sundance.org/festival/filmguide.

ON THE BUS - one of the fun things about Sundance is the great bus service that takes you from theater to theater. Everyone rides it. A couple of years ago, I ran into Aidan Quinn who boarded holding his little brown paper-bag lunch on his way to a screening. Today, I  encountered Woodstocker and master screenwriter Ron Nyswaner who had just come from a successful screening of his protege's short film- Predisposed, directed by Woodstocker Philip Dorling.  I asked how Philp was doing... Ron said... 'what do you think? Ge's 23 years old, it's his first film and I just left him doing at q & a at the Sundance Film Festival...!'  Yes, pretty heady for anyone... congratulations Philip! (By the way, Predisposed was launched at the 2008  Woodstock Film Festival, to great reviews).

Tonight, the parties start in ernest...