by KE Monahan Huntley
At the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards Elvis Costello croons: “What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, and understanding?” War is a horror show.
. . . What if everyone went to the movies instead?
Park City is the locale for film festivals and festivities that promote peace, love, and understanding. And a little bit funny. The following are a few . . .
Notes from Park City 2003
In the shuttle enroute to Park City—eavesdropping on seatmates: One is George Clooney’s agent. Another is Oliver Stone’s travel agent. With Screenplay Competition postcards in hand, I am posing as a HypeFest special agent.
Screenings
Sundance Film Festival
Thierry Michel’s stunning documentary, Iran, Veiled Appearances, offers pertinent insights into the complexity and diversity of Iran—its clash of civilizations where inhabitants suffer from the “systematic derangement of the senses,” and children of the revolution feel “lost in space.” The last scene, Iranian women flying through the air with the greatest of ease on rainbow colored hang gliders, conjures an image of liberation over a landscape of constricting dust and black veiled oppression.
NoDance Film & Multimedia Festiva
Now in Year 6, Direktor Jim Boyd crafts an alternative indie film and dv event comprised of: “features, shorts, docs, music videos, panels & parties galore.” This year’s program showcased the caliber of talent that continues to hone indie’s edge. Here’s a slice:
The 7th Man (Audience Award for Best Short) Director Jason Liggett takes inspiration from a newspaper article, and along with DP Matthew Libatique (Requiem for a Dream, Pi), brings an iconic war photograph to life and the audience to tears. Another kind of war story is recounted in Shadowboxer (Grand Jury Award for Best Short in Program 1). Vilka Tzoura’s examination of female teenage violence and the reasons why is carefully considered is this fictionalized short film set in the gritty city of New York.
Two documentaries expand the SoCal state of mind: Dana Brown’s most excellent surf doc Step into Liquid visually enlightens us to why: “Surfing is not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that” and Brad Bemis’ Venice: Lost and Found embellishes on Albert Kinney’s Venetian dream, Venice Beach, California—”a tidal pool, a distillation of the greater metropolis” that is Los Angeles. Featured interviews with Dennis Hopper, Gregory Hines, The Doors‘Ray Manzarek, cameo by Dogtown and Z-Boys‘ Skip Engblom.
SheDance and X-Dance Film Festivals
“Girls Getting’ It Done.” Misti L. Barnes celebrates films written, directed, or produced about women. Girls outfitted in pink tees ushered the audience into Cicero’s Restorante to watch dark matter shorts: In Rush of the Palms, two hit men reevaluate their day jobs mimicking Mamet patter; Mind Wars l and ll journeys into the minds and minefields of two individuals with mental illness. Paige Cameron’s directorial debut: Hills Like White Elephants is an intriguing interpretation of Ernest Hemingway’s classic short story, marred only by melodramatic music and abrupt cuts.
A sly line of auburn-haired Cameron’s dialogue: “Every woman wears red sooner or later” could be applied to one of the X-Dance Festival’s short films in which New York tough chicks carry toy poodles, wear matte crimson lipstick and make mad love and war. Definitely “Girls Getting’ in on the Action.”
Stars and Bars
Cocktails at The Caledonian Hotel—espying Emmylou Harris and entourage across the way; Tilda Swinton glides past the Sundance Wait List line for Born Rich—she gets in, we do not; Party Monster and occasional werewolf Seth Green cruising up Main Street; also on Main Street: Farrah Fawcett in fun fur, Stanley Tucci on his cel, Aiden Quinn on his cel, cute Loco Joe boys handing our free coffee drinks and compliments; those nutty yet strangely endearing TromaDance kids handing out party invites; chatting up the congenial Forest Whitaker at NoDance; running ’round with the lovely Indian actress Delna Rastomjee and her elegant beau, entertainment attorney Alan Abrams; listening to Stephen Baldwin bray at the Bad Ass Cafe; making eyes at Steve Buscemi at Zona Rosa while lunching with Santa Cruz District Attorney turned filmmaker Dennis Wong. Look for his doc on California gangs in 2004.
Reading Modern Drunkard Magazine on the outbound shuttle. Literary Libation! Our driver is Samoan. And a bounty hunter when not shuttling the “People in Black” to and fro in the Park City snow.