Sundance Part 1

This weekend was quite the adventure. Friday was great. Shirley, Brittany, Brittany's fiance and I all went to Salt Lake to see my first Sundance film! We saw the Shorts Program II, which was a collection of (mostly) great shorts that all had a similar theme of longing and the need to belong. Here's just a quick review of them:

The Arm - Dark comedy about the dangers of a pure texting relationship. Funny and insightful.

Henley - Clever but slightly disturbing, this film was about a young boy who tries to bring guests to his motel by luring potential roadkill to hit passersby near it.

OK Breathe Auralee - An interesting little film about a women's desire for a baby and the need to find out her own identity. Not sure a baby will fix those problems, Auralee.

The Return - A deeply touching film that tells a bigger story about the tragedy of the war in Kosovo by focusing on one family and how the war has affected them.

'92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card - So, so funny. Two brothers who haven't seen much of each other over the years fight and bond at their father's funeral. Hijinks ensue, including a liquid chugging contest and the ripping of suits.

Girl - Don't see this. Trust me. Those Swedes...

The Black Balloon - A play on the 1960's French film The Red Balloon, a wayward black balloon travels through the streets of New York trying to find companionship.

After the feature, the filmmakers from each of the shorts came up to do a Q&A session. Most of them were super chill and just really humbled to be there. They were literally one of the thousand submissions chosen, and most of them were just getting started. It was really cool to hear their inspirations for their films and their decisions behind them.

The Shorts Program II filmmakers

My film guide and credentials!

The next day Shirley and I drove up to Park City to go to some panels and see some celebrities! Only not so much. Once we got into Park City, the snow really started coming down hard. We parked at The Yard and tried to catch a shuttle to Main Street, but it was 20 minutes late and we were freezing to death, so we decided to check out the New Frontier exhibit near The Yard. It was pretty cool. There's a film depicting the history of humanity in 3D, a couple of interesting video games, and this neat exhibit where you pull an iPad up to a screen and touch the screen via the iPad, showing you live footage of wild animals.

We chilled in there for like 20 minutes or so and when we walked out the snow had gotten so much worse. Shirley's car already had like 3 inches on it. We decided not to risk staying any longer and just got in the car and drove back home. Which was a good thing, since it took us four hours on the way back even though we beat the worst part of the blizzard. We were kinda bummed out since we drove up there for pretty much no reason, although we stopped at Texas Roadhouse on the way back so we felt a little bit better. Or something :)

Shirley not so happy

I always dreamt of being a snow woman

The couple next to us literally got engaged while we were eating. I hope they had their first date at Texas Roadhouse and it holds special memories, because I would not be so accepting of that proposal...

The view from the car

So that was my weekend! I'm going up to Park City again next weekend; I'm going to pray all week that it does not snow. I need to see my celebrities and get some swag! I have credentials, dang it!

This week is also the culmination of a semester's work in Bradley, the UCCP / Enough Is Enough "Power in Prevention" Conference. I'll post more details tomorrow, but let's just say I'm throwing a big party when all this is through!!