Day 2

My Life is Festival

Last night Web, StubbyP, Tim the Wonder Horse and I spent several hours working on the site. We played with the video, audio and digital images we had captured. I typed up a few notes. And as it got late, we got giddy. We all finally fell asleep around 2:30am or so.

Got up around 8 and showered. We all took in what was left of the continental breakfast at our condo and then web and I headed into town. Web and I went to Starbucks (they don't sell Cokes!) and then he dropped me off and I circulated downtown by myself for a little while. At 9am on Sunday morning, there is nothing going on at the Slamdance headquarters. At least a few folks are here setting up and stuff. I'm kinda half-awake and grumpy but as I pass Joseph Bologna in the hallway I manage a nice "Good morning."

I walk around and try and hook up my laptop and I can't find an electric outlet that works. I really don't have too much to write anyway, just a few thoughts and notes. I scribble some down on a notepad instead.

It's hard to believe that 24 hours ago this placed was jam packed House cleaning has done an excellent job. The place is nice and clean. The world seems sparkling and crisp and smells like fresh ground coffee. I WANT A DAMN COKE! There is no place to buy a Coke that I can find, only coffee.

Some folks come into the press lounge type place, which is furnished in inflatable chairs and sofas, and are discussing how Park City has made handing out flyers illegal. This is a tradition in independent film and with film festivals. The action of handing out flyers is like the cockfighting of film culture. They can't take that away from us! Filmmakers, being pretty resourceful creatures, have found plenty of other avenues to promote their films, including sandwich boards, picket signs and other means to promote their films on the street. It's a great sight to behold, like the carnival days of yore where barkers attracted the rubes to the sideshow. And, as the day progresses, of course, there are plenty of people breaking this new law and handing out flyers anyway.

Bologna comes into the cyber lounge with his agent to be schmoozed by some folks and they talk about something called the "Starving Students for Hire" program or something. It was kinda quiet elsewhere at Slamdance, so I decided to go to the No Dance headquarters. There was no one there. Their first film isn't until noon. And I still could find no place open to buy a damn can of Coke! This is crazy it's 2000 already people.

Went back to Slamdance HQ and got seated for a screening of "Blink of an Eye." Here's a guy whose put up a lot of flyers.

A short called “Kings” preceded the film. A lot of people from both films were there. "Kings" director Niva Dorell, the main actor Michael Jace and co-scripter Anita Cal were all in the house. Anita sat next to me and videotaped a lot that happened before and after the screening. I met another guy, whose name I didn't catch, who said he was there just to network and schmooze and meet someone who can help him make his movie.

Nina introduced the film and told us that it hadn't been announced yet, but the film has won the Showtime black Filmmaker's Grant. Nina looks white to me. Maybe it's wrong to even say such a thing. Looks are utterly deceiving and the film is surely a "black film." "Kings" is worthy of a grant and attention anyway, so it is probably a moot point.

Of course, Bologna was at the screening of "Blink of an Eye," since he is in the film. Director Van Fischer, his producers, and actors Lombardo Boyar and Seidy Lopez were there as well. The Q&A's were informative and fun. It was one of the nicest screenings I have ever been too. Bologna even talked about how nice it is to do independent films that he feels are worthy of his time and talent.

After the screening, I walked around a bit, it wasn't long before I ran into Nettie and Web and then Tim TWH and StubbyP. Tim had a PB&J sandwich and (more importantly) a Mountain Dew for me, so I was much grateful. We hung out and talked a bit. Some cute kids came by and were out handing out Skittles and stuff. Is everyone here doing promotions? I wanted to see "The Blair Bitch Project" at No Dance at 3p, so we went and hung out in front of their building. The director, Scott LaRose, was handing out flyers and we talked to him a bit. A guy walked up and was talking to him and I thought I recognized him as an actor who was in "Lucas" and played the "heavy" in a lot of other 80's teen film. I walked up to him and was about to ask him if his name was Tom when Scott introduced him as Tom Hodges. I suddenly flashed and remembering reading something about him becoming a filmmaker. Tom was a super nice guy. He had a short film at the festival a couple years ago and is now working on promoting a new short he has directed that is about the mob. It stars the guy who played TV's "Commish." Unfortunately, he doesn't have it in any festival this year. StubbyP came up wielding a camcorder and we did a short interview. I kidded Tom about knowing Corey Haim and he joked along with me. (He said he'd talked to him about a year ago when we got more earnest). Tom may try to get the film into SXSW, so I'm hoping to meet up with him if he can get to Austin.

We went in and watched "Blair" and another short called "Central Garden." These were great films. The No Dance Festival is nothing more than a large TV set up in a mall storefront. If you can rent a space, hook up a TV and a DVD player, you can have a film festival at Park City. But it's cool that the place was packed and it was SRO and so many people wanted to see some indie short film so badly. It's part of what makes the festival scene here so awesome. So many choices and so much opportunity for filmmakers to have their work seen.

Went to a place, can't remember what it's called, where there are all kinds of computers set up and all kinds of cyber companies hawking their wares. They were even having a pitch festival going on. It's in the same building as Harry O's, where Slamdunk will start tomorrow. Checked my e-mail and hung out a bit. A guy named Mike Tarnower, a Texan, had spoken with me over email a few times and I found him, through StubbyP, here at this cyber arena. I had tried to log onto Mike's website a few weeks back but my computer was acting up. Mike has a short film called "15 minute Tape" and you can see it on his website at http://www.mikesvideostuff.com

MASSIVE MULTIPLE PUN ALERT: Mike took me over to one of the cyber company's area (a place called LoadTV... no, not the gay themed website with "streaming” video as you would imagine, but a kind of alternative to streaming video) and got them to log on to his site so I could see the preview. It was interesting and definitely left me wanting to see more. Mike's short is showing with No Dance at the Gateway theater on Main on Tuesday at 6pm.

I ran into a lot of folks today that I had met yesterday or knew from other places. I saw Bob Ray (check out our interview) about a million times plugging "Rock Opera." And I got to meet Tom Hodges. That was pretty cool stuff for me. Film is good. Life is even better.

also...check out Tim's Virgin Eye View of day2.