Hanging out with your favorite stars... and not realizing it

For the third year I have had an opportunity to Volunteer as an usher at Sundance. As a film professor at Utah Valley University I oversee a large number of students who volunteer. We try not to hold "official" classes during the festival and encourage our students to take full advantage of the festival being so close.

I will give a brief summary of my festival experience in a later post, but first I will start with a frustrating story that I just want to vent, and it starts with one of last year's most buzzed about films, SING STREET. I didn't get to see SING STREET at Sundance last year, but I saw it the weekend it came out in theaters, and it quickly became my favorite film of the year - with MOONLIGHT just behind by a hair. Each year I write out my list of Duane's Favs - not what I think will or even should win Oscars - just what were my personal favorites. SING STREET wins this year for "Favest" Picture, Original Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Lucy Boynton. I felt Lucy's performance as Raphina the aspiring model was a revelation. She is able to convey so much with great subtly. The scene where she talks about her relationship with her dad is particularly tragic and beautiful. Before the festival started this year I had watched the film again with my son and his girlfriend, and sent it to my siblings for birthday presents (it is dedicated to "Brothers everywhere").

As an usher at the festival I often get to interact with the directors and the talent. I try to stay professional but I honestly really enjoy the thrill of being around them. Screening your film at Sundance is such a big deal, and there's a huge amount of excitement and energy that exudes from them that I find contagious. I normally have the chance to at least shake hands and congratulate the directors. This year I also got to interact with the cast and crew of THE BIG SICK: Ray Romano, Holly Hunter, Jadd Apatow, Barry Mendell, Michael Showalter and Kumail Nanjiani.

Unexpectedly the people I ended up interacting the most with was Danny Strong (writer and director of REBEL IN THE RYE - as well as GAME CHANGE, THE BUTLER and the creator of EMPIRE), and his parents and his fiancé. After the screening of his film it was my opportunity to be his "Handler" as we brought him to an area off the theater for a special Q&A with the audience (we had a short turn-around and we had to clear the theater quickly). While Danny very generously entertained the gathering, I worked out some details with his fiancé about their car, where Uber would pick them up, and a few other details. I recognized his fiancé as a character in the film and I congratulated her on her performance. She was definitely traveling incognito as she didn't come up on the stage for the Q&A and was happy to stand back and let the attention all go to Danny. When I got home I imdb'ed the film, and noticed that her name was highlighted... meaning I'd recently looked her up. To my complete shock and frustration it was Lucy Boynton, my "Fav" supporting Actress from Sing Street. I am completely more upset than I should be about not recognizing her, but I sure would have loved to have been able to tell her how much I loved her performance in SING STREET to her face. The fact that not only did I see her and not recognize her, but I talked to her, and hung out with her a bit is even more frustrating. She is the celebrity encounter that was not to be. Oh well. Some other time I guess.

Rebel in the Rye is a very good film and well worth seeing. It seems almost like a film that needs to have been made, though it's pretty standard as far as presentation goes. It certainly brings up some interesting concepts - commitment to art being the most compelling to me. I imagine there will continue to be other biopics about Salinger that will push the form a bit more - a la I'm Not There or another one of my "Favs" this year, Miles Ahead - but that none of those could come to pass without this first excellent film biopic paving the way.

Lucy Boynton as Raphina in SING STREET

Sundance - The other days (Meet the Filmmakers)

After one of our events held at the Utah Film Commission Headquarters in Park City, filmmakers (L to R) Kerem Sanga (First Girl I Loved), Mario Campos (Christine), Clay Tweel (Gleason), Andrew Neel (Goat), Jeff Feuerzeig (Author: the JT LeRoy Story), and Steven Kijak (We are X), have fun in the Utah Postcard set. 

OK, it's hard to keep posting consistently, so it was a bad idea to try to keep a digital journal type thing for Sundance this year. But now that the dust has settled I can report on the other films I got to see and some of the other experiences.

As far as films go, in addition to what I already reported, I got to see Nuts (Penny Lane), Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker), The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer), Author: The JT LeRoy Story (Jeff Feuerzeig), and First Girl I Loved (Kerem Sanga) They were all fabulous. I learned a lot as a filmmaker from each film I saw, and will make better films myself for having seen them.






Each year I host several Meet-the-Filmmakers events for my students at Utah Valley University. These events are a highlight of the festival for me. We get to sit down with these awesome filmmakers and pick their brains and hear their advice for young filmmakers. This year was the second year we did it, and it's definitely becoming a thing. Last year I had four friends who had films in the festival, so I just called each of them and invited them to participate. This year I didn't know anyone, so I had to reach out through publicists, agents, and Facebook. In spite of the cold calls, we had a great response. We had nineteen different filmmakers participate this year - including all the filmmakers of the films that I got to see.

It was especially cool to have Mr. Parker there. Less than forty-eight hours before he had just sold his film for the highest amount of any film sale in Sundance (and all of film festival) history, but he very willingly and humbly came to sit with our students and answer their questions. I think all of the filmmakers who participated have already had some kind of sale, and several of them had super buzzed about films.

If I were to sum up what we learned from these filmmakers I would say: just make stuff. That's what we hear time and time again. Don't wait for permission or approval. Just go out and make stuff. It doesn't even have to be good. You can make stuff that you never show anyone - stuff that is horrible. It's the work and the learning that happens through work that matters. As you make things, you hone your craft and eventually you will make better and better things. This is a universal truth that I hear in one form or another from every filmmaker I interview.

After another of our Meet-the-Filmmaker sessions Utah Valley University Film Students pose with (L to R) Andrew Hyland (The 4th), Nate Parker (Birth of a Nation), Aaron Brookner (Uncle Howard), and Rokhserah Ghaemmaghami (Sonita).

Writer/director Rebecca Daly (Mammal), producer Mel Eslyn (The Intervention), producer Kim Leadford (Joshy, Yoga Hosers, Too Legit) talk to film students from UVU.

Writer/Director/Actor Jennifer Prediger (left) talks with students from Utah Valley University's film program.

At Sundance - Days two to five

As I've continued my assignment as a volunteer at Sundance for my second year, I've had the chance to see several great movies. I've enjoyed all the movies I've seen, but want to give particular shout-outs, observations and predictions about a few of them.

Jesse Plemons is going to be a star

I've seen Jesse Plemons in three movies in the past couple of months:   Black Mass, Bridge of Spies, and now Chris Kelly's touching film Other People which premiered this weekend at Sundance. Plemons reminds me a lot of the late-great Philip Seymour Hoffman. In each of the films I've seen him he plays very different characters, and he's spot on with each. He's quickly becoming one of these actors that everyone wants to work with.

Kelly's film is very well done. If I could ask him a question it would be: what were your thoughts when you were making your film, and you saw James White? Because Other People and James White are ridiculously similar... however, their tone is extremely different. From personal experience, I am sure Kelly freaked out and felt like he was ruined, for a moment. Then I bet he realized that it's all about tone. And the tone of these two films are light years apart. I'm sure the programmers at Sundance would agree, otherwise, they wouldn't have scheduled these two films in back-to-back years.

Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon star in Chris Kelly's Other People

Molly Shannon is very smart

Recently I've fallen in love with Molly Shannon. She was always great in her SNL days, but now she has embraced the role of being an Indie Darling. She has consistently done great work, and it won't be long before she starts doing bigger and bigger roles. By seeking out great directors, and not shying away from small budgets or first-time directors, she has amassed an impressive body of work. In fact, I feel her work has been better than just about any SNL alumni as far as quality and authenticity (except for Bill Murray - but she's definitely followed his model). On top of that, friends of mine who have worked with her, say that she is just an amazing person to work with as well. Hopefully for everyone involved, Other People, will help to get her the mainstream praise she deserves (though may not be interested in).

Molly Shannon at the premiere of Other People

Everyone involved in the movie The Free World is awesome

I hope this movie gets to rise above the indie-scope and gets some people out to see it. It's an amazingly tight, well executed, poetic, and intense thriller with great performances from Boyd Holbrook and Elisabeth Moss. Jason Lew, the film's writer/director, is headed for great things. The filmmaking world would be better with more films like this.



It's cool to just be able to stand near Paul Dano

I was very happy that Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe fought their way through a blizzard to come to the Grand Theater in Salt Lake City for the Q&A following their screening of Swiss Army Man. The film is unlike any other and is a whole lot of fun. There was all of this silly scandal because some people walked out. People walk out of movies at Sundance all the time. There's a lot of people who just get tickets, but are sensitive about what they watch; so they roll the dice, and if it's not to their liking they leave. That's cool. I think a movie like Swiss Army Man has a particular audience, however, and I think that audience will eat this up.  I thought the film was very entertaining and visually inventive.

At the Grand it's an almost all local crowd. Seldom will you find many industry people there. So, it's great when directors come to do the Q&A (and most of them do the first weekend), but it's seldom that actors make the journey... even more rare for actors of the profile of Dano and Radcliffe.

Mr. Dano is my favorite actor right now, so I was excited to just stand a few feet from him after the screening. It made my night.

Paul Dano in Swiss Army Man