I say this every year, but there are just too many movies to see! Add the parties, press conferences, and discussions, and you barely have time to eat and sleep! Friday morning, it started snowing and it hasn’t stopped. I, thankfully, bought new snow boots, which makes trudging from place to place much easier. While other people walk around the slush and ice puddles, I walk right through without a second thought.
• Snow falling on Main Street. Park City, Utah. Photo by Jessica Mosby. •
The snow has also meant that fewer people are frequenting Main Street during the day (my celebrity sightings have been rather weak this year) and the lines for parties are not nearly as long as previous years. I actually made it into the GEN ART party Friday night after waiting for less than 10 minutes, although it felt much longer because I was waiting in the snow and couldn’t feel my hands. Part of the wait was spent near Ian Ziering of Beverly Hills 90210 fame. Or just “Ian” as he is referred to by members of his entourage, as in “Yeah, we’re at the GenArt party with Ian…it’s the only party worth being at tonight.” Who knew, Ian Ziering still had an entourage? Once I was inside and warm, I found myself sandwiched between Ian Ziering and the band The Fray, that is until a bearded member of the Fray made a path for me.
• Too many films! Photo by Jessica Mosby. •
Between celebrity sightings, I’ve seen six films. This is fewer than I had planned and hoped to see. My screening schedule has been thwarted by my inability to get a waitlist ticket (Waitlist: 4, Jessica: 0). I have a theory that the snow is driving more people into the theaters, thus making waitlist tickets very hard to come by. At least I take solace in the fact that the New York Lounge always has fresh bagels, popcorn, and cider to help me recover from the cold and my waitlist rejection. After having completely given up on seeing HOWL and the film’s star, I saw James Franco at another screening. And yes, he is just as charming in person!
Documentaries are having a particularly strong year at the festival, and I’ve had the good luck to see my top picks. My two favorites thus far are Restrepo and Waiting for Superman. I can’t stop thinking about Restrepo; footage of Afghanistan and the daily life of American soldiers stationed there is so incredible. The fact that the camera person survived filming, when some of the American soldiers captured did not, makes the documentary all the more extraordinary. The film is so intense and so worthwhile.
Thanks to an early distribution deal, Waiting for Superman is one of the most talked about documentaries of the festival – and it totally lives up to the hype. The documentary takes a candid look at the American public school system’s failings while balancing profiles of individual students with input from a wide spectrum of educators, journalists, teachers’ unions, and education-minded intellectuals. Post-screening, I was surprised at how moved and emotional I felt leaving the theater. Waiting for Superman might just be the call to action for America’s public school system.
Tomorrow brings another day of exciting films! I’m feeling a bit more confident that it might be my lucky day in regards to the waitlist!
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