Sundance, Day One

After a speedy trip to the airport to grab Jen, and a grateful sigh of relief that she hadn't checked any bags, we hauled ourselves up Parley's Canyon to Park City. We were blissfully on time for our first film, and excited to be there, despite our short 4.5 hours of sleep the previous night.

Our first film was a documentary called War/Dance. It was about the children in a refugee camp in Northern Uganda and a music competition they were a part of. It was also a peek into the awful things they had experienced in their short lives and a beautiful picture of how optimistic they are despite those experiences. It was gorgeous. It was a brilliant example of how a documentary can move you, when it is done right. We didn't pity these children. We loved them and believed in them.

After the film, the director asked us all if he could take a picture of all of us applauding the film so that he could send it back to the children. We were the first people to see the film, and he wanted to record our reaction to it for them. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house as we all stood up and clapped for these kids. In the end, I think this was our favorite film. To compare the films we saw isn't totally fair, but we were all really moved by this one.

After the film we went up to Main Street for some lunch at the Wasatch Brew Pub. It was very tasty.



We then did some back and forth on the shuttle. first to the eccles to get numbers for the wait list line for The Savages. Unfortunately, we didn't get there early enough. We were #s 161-165. The odds were not in our favor, but it was a big venue, so we decided to try.

We went back to Main Street and went to the Festival Store for some swag. I got an official poster that looks like this, to balance the 2005 poster hanging in our office.


We took a few more pictures along the way. Luckily nick was kind enough to be our photographer. We had to take a picture with the bear, and the other one we thought looked like a puzzle behind us. Whitney is in the red jacket, Jen is in the pink scarf, and I'm the other one.



In the end, we didn't get in to see the Savages. About 120 wait list people got in, but we were still too far back. It was our own fault, and we were determined to do better on Saturday. As it was, we were exhausted and decided that there was nothing to be done but to go home, get some dinner, and then go to sleep. We had a 9 am movie the next morning, so we needed to get to bed early.

Films Seen
1

Celebrities Sited
Mandy Moore (I have a picture of the guy behind her because we didn't get cameras out fast enough, but you don't care about that guy)

Hours Spent Waiting in Line
1.5