Welcome to the last installment in my Pulitzer prize-winning series, "Three Depressing Issues and the Men Who Brought Them To Sundance So I Could Get Really Sad About the State of the World." Today I present Zack Godshall, the director and co-writer of Low and Behold, a docudrama about post-Katrina New Orleans. Zack wrote the movie with his friend Barlow Jacobs (pictured), who also stars as the shy, repressed Turner Stall; Barlow actually lost his house in Katrina and spent some time after the hurricane working as an insurance claim adjuster, and the movie is based on his experiences. They've also spliced in interviews with real live NOLA residents who are now either living in FEMA trailers or struggling to rebuild what they had. It's not a party-time movie, I can tell ya that, but I did laugh out loud several times, mostly just at the communication breakdown between Turner and his insurance clients. It's possible I was laughing to avoid looking at the mold on all the walls, or the cars overturned in the streets.
Anyway, Zack was my last interview of Sundance, and this is my last Sundance post. I'm sorry if I'm going out on a downer, but I really thought this was important to throw in here. Mr. Godshall is a handsome, unassuming Southern lad with a slight drawl and a tentative way of speaking. Check out the clips and photos on the movie's site; some of the shots—of empty lots, abandoned warehouses, vast wastelands—will hang with me for a while.
This is your first Sundance—how’s it going?
Showing the movie to people is overwhelming. Just showing it to a crowd of 400 people. I’ve only watched it in a room with like 15 people, so I’m pretty excited about the way people are responding to it.
Are there certain moments people are jumping on?
I think the thing that excites me most is that the film balances some tragic, sad stuff with some comedic elements—the characters are pretty funny, or at least I think they are—and so I guess it makes me happy when I hear people laughing. ’Cause we’re from down around New Orleans, and me and the co-writer, Barlow, wanted to make a movie that would touch on all the different emotional responses, the different ways people are behaving in that environment, and some of the more offbeat, almost absurdist things that are going on. The tragedy is very obvious. But there are moments of comedy you don’t see other places, and that’s something we thought was interesting. Just the fact of a stranger coming into another person’s home and going through all their personal belongings—that’s a very odd situation. So things come out of that that are pretty weird.
Here's interview number two in my ongoing series, "Three Depressing Issues and the Men Who Brought Them To Sundance So I Could Get Really Sad About the State of the World." It's a chat with Daniel B. Gold, who, along with Judith Helfand, directed Everything's Cool, a documentary about the people in the fight to reduce carbon emissions. It's a very everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to the global warming issue—and far less cut-and-dry than Al Gore's Inconvenient perspective—but the overstuffed film did get people talking at the festival (and the free compact fluorescent light bulbs they were giving away could be officially classified as "hot swag" once Year of the Dog director Mike White started bragging that they were the only free stuff he took).
Daniel and I talked at the EW Photo Studio, as he scanned the newspaper for word on what President Bush was going to say about climate change in that evening's State of the Union address; Mr. Gold also left behind a very yummy salad, so I'd like to thank him for that.
So tell me if I'm summing this up correctly: Everything's Cool takes off from the science we learned in An Inconvenient Truth, and shows real people who are actually involved in the debate.
That's heading in the right direction. Essentially, what we ideally hope for is that people who have seen Inconvenient Truth would finish watching the DVD and be angry about why they didn't know this sooner. How is it possible that the situation could be so dire—we're now being told that we're running out of time to do something about it—and we're being told this NOW? Why didn't we hear about this on CNN every night? What happened to the message? Our film addresses that.
During the party following the Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony last Saturday night, I had occasion to ask Jeffrey Blitz -- who’d just won the jury prize for best director for his coming-of-age dramedy Rocket Science, one of my favorite films at the festival -- if he’d had a chance to rub shoulders with any, you know, famous people. He responded with a gentle rebuke: "Well, for me, the real stars of the festival are the other filmmakers."
That statement’s been rattling around in my brain ever since. It reminded me of the John Edwards-esque truism that there are actually two Sundances: the one sprinkled with the Justin Timberlakes, Heather Grahams, Jared Letos, and Queen Latifahs of the world, and the much larger one without.
I mean, what’s more likely: That over the course of the festival you read about a movie called Hounddog, in which Dakota Fanning gets raped, or about a movie called Padre Nuestro, in which two Mexican young men struggle for survival after being smuggled into New York City? Not to leap to conclusions here, but I’m going to guess that it’s the former, and yet Padre Nuestro was no less than the film that won Sundance’s top award, the Grand Jury Prize.
In trying to sum up my entire Sundance experience, I admit I'm struggling a little. How to put a tidy bow on ten days of my life that were simultaneously thrilling and repetitive, inspiring and depressing, much easier than digging ditches but no cakewalk, either? Is it possible to enjoy a week and a half of seeing good movies and drinking free cocktails and hanging out with famous people if you've only slept for about 12 hours the entire time? And should you be drinking the free cocktails if breakfast, lunch, and dinner were a Clif bar? How do you catch a wave upon the sand, PopWatchers?
Well, I'm not sure. But I do know that my first film festival was an experience I'll not soon forget, and I hope these blogs—in all their spazzy self-involvement—have given those of you not yet lucky enough to attend Sundance or its fellow festival brethren a little bit of insight into what the process is like. I certainly wasn't expecting to be as tired/hungry/emotional as I was the entire time, but I didn't expect to get a hug from Barry "Tequila" Zito, either, so I guess it all evens out.
Hello, PopWatchers! I am back in New York City, trying to come down off the Rocky Mountain high of Sundance, and while it's great to be home I must confess that I'm going through a bit of withdrawal. Thus, the Utah-related posts will continue here for the next couple of days, as I dispense my last bits of info. Here's the schedule, if you want to pencil it in:
Later today: My recap of the fest, including the obligatory list of things.
Tomorrow: The final two interviews in my award-winning series, "Three Depressing Issues and the Men Who Brought Them To Sundance So I Could Get Really Sad About the State of the World." (See the first installment here.)
But now, because I need a quick break from all the thinking, I am happy to present the transcript of what happened when I sat down with the lovely and talented Anna Faris (pictured), star of Scary Movie and Waiting, who came to Sundance with Smiley Face, which is, I believe, the first-ever stoner comedy to star a chick in the lead role. Think of it as Harold and Kumar Go Inside Anna Faris' Brain. Think of her as the Dude, abiding. Think of this interview as the least professional thing either of us did while we were there. I bring it to you largely because I need something to break up the existential torment and pain that every other movie I watched for the last 10 days seemed to visit upon my fragile mental state. And because honestly, I just think Anna Faris is funny as pants.
Is this your first Sundance?
Second.
What were you here for?
May? Did you ever see that movie?
Oh. No. Don't be mad.
[silence]
Is this interview over now?
It's a funny little movie.
I'll check it out. How is this Sundance comparing and contrasting to last time?
Last time I had a supporting role, in a movie that wasn't in contention. This movie isn't in contention either, but last time was much more low profile. This, I'm like the lead...
You're not "like" the lead. This entire movie is 2 hours of your face.
Do you know what that's like to watch? Especially when I'm slack-jawed, and double-chinned, and like uhhhhh... It's painful. It's painful, definitely. Like, why couldn't I just close my mouth? Just once?
What were moments especially that you were mortified by?
You know, it was a combination of being mortified and being proud. 'Cause I was also like, well, good for me. Good for me, then, for showing my butt crack. Twice.
In order to talk about Charles Ferguson's terrific documentary No End in Sight (pictured), I think I first have to talk about the Sundance shuttle buses. They're the best mode of transportation for us out here, and after a while you start noticing the different personalities of the drivers and how they relate to your bus-riding experience. Some like to use the intercom to announce stops, some just holler. Some listen to Jack-FM, some prefer country music, and one dude was blasting Godsmack the other day. Some drive in total silence, broken up only by the coughing of passengers. I've heard a rumor that there are some drivers wearing pink puffy skirts, but I haven't seen them yet. Mostly, I tend to get on buses where the driver is about to go off shift, and so I've spent a lot of time sitting at the depot waiting for a new driver to arrive. Not sure the statistical probability of that happening to me every single time I'm in a hurry out here, but I'd say it's pretty representative of my entire life.
Anyway, so as we drive around the same roads day after day, the soundtracks to the bus experience get stuck in our heads, relax us, drive us crazy. But no bus ride has stayed with me more than the one I took after seeing No End in Sight, a film in which the U.S. walk-up to and subsequent mishandling of the Iraq war is explored in immense detail via interviews with government officials, policy experts, Iraqis, and U.S. soldiers, amidst graphic footage of the chaos in the streets of Baghdad. I walked out with my head swimming in a pot of confusion and despair over how the greatest military in the world could have botched this thing so badly, and when I stepped onto the shuttle bus back to Main Street, all I could hear was the engine running and cars whipping by us on the slushy street.
But then, of course, the driver announced we were going to the depot to change drivers, and as he pulled the bus over and left it idling quietly there on the side of the road, I could hear what was on the radio: President Bush giving the State of the Union address. I couldn't make out everything he said, but I heard him say the word "enemies" twice... and I started to cry.
So here's an interview for you, PopWatchers, sort of the first in a series I'm going to do here over the next few days, tentatively entitled "Three Depressing Issues and the Men Who Brought Them To Sundance So I Could Get Really Sad About the State of the World." Today's is with No End in Sight director Charles Ferguson. He's a Brookings Fellow and an MIT grad, and -- amazingly, given his talent -- this is his first movie. This interview is long, but I'm hoping some of you will bear with me. Imagine him talking in a quiet, confident, slightly grave voice, choosing his words with care. I could have listened to him all day. And then probably cried more.
Overheard on the Main Street Express shuttle bus, 10:15am, Jan. 25: "And then Cuba Gooding Jr. started screaming, 'A free piss! A free piss!'"
Howdy there, PopWatchers.
Usually I'd put an exclamation point at the end of that, but the fact is, I'm pretty depressed today. It's these Sundance movies -- why are they all so sad? War, death, global warming, death, unpleasant sex, war, drugs, death, death, death... Why is it so hard to make a movie about bunnies, Sundance? Where is that exposé on the fluffy cuteness of bunnies??
The EW Photo Studio is wrapping up today, with only a few shoots left before this crazytown comes to an end. It's not an overstatement to say our headquarters has been the most exciting place on Main Street, and there's one man who saw it all -- from Access Hollywood interviews to crabby entourages to the sleepy EW staff's desperate attempts to nap in the Netflix beanbags: our bartender, Corey. Who needs famous guest bloggers? This guy can type, and he makes a killer bloody mary.
"Hello everybody, this is Corey Baca the bartender for the EW.com photo shoot/hub for all the celebs to hang out at. I've seen just about everybody that's made it up to Park City for Sundance and I'll have to say I've got more than I bargained for. I was a bit saddened Mandy Moore didn't remember me from her MTV show ages ago in Key West where I got to talk about why men don't like to talk on the phone, but I got over it. Some of the big names I was syked to see up here were Cheryl Hines from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Justin Timberlake, Christina Ricci, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, and of course Heather Graham. This has been an amazing experience and I think everyone should make it up to Sundance at least once in their life, even if you have to row a boat across the Atlantic. The only thing I have a problem with is there aren't enough drinkers, I guess all the partying is going on into the crazy hours of the morning. Let's just say I've got the same bottle of Absolut that I started with on day one. I hope to make it up here next year for another awesome time, oh and people at EW kick tail!"
So do you, Corey. So do you. Now fix mommy her special drink.
All right, PopWatchers! I have gotten my jeans back from the laundry (thanks for ironing in that Mom Crease, Marriott friends!) and I've got time for one last blog post before I crash. It's like 2 a.m.; I gotta be up to see Black Snake Moan at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, and I am determined not to sleep through another morning screening, dammit, because I am a professional and now's as good a time as any to start acting like one.
Also because I am a professional, I am way late with this EW Party wrap-up. I'm really sorry about that -- blame the celebrity-blogging hijinks, as well as all those damn movies I keep having to see -- but better late than never, huh? You knew I'd come through, didn't you? After all, I made a promise, and I keep all of my promises, PopWatchers. Except for that one tonight where I promised I'd beat someone at Ms. Pac-Man, and then got my ass kicked. (All I can say is the crappy resolution on the machine at Pizza Hut really threw me off. I can't work under those conditions.)
Anyway, without further ado -- and oh, has there ever been ado here at Sundance! -- I present to you: Whitney's Night Out At The EW Party Fun Time Happy Place!
Ah, well, dang. Paul Rudd just left. He said he'd come back... but I think now I'm suffering from a bit of a self-esteem problem. You tell me how you'd feel if Justin Timberlake, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Jackson, and Aidan Quinn had all turned down your very generous offer to give them an open forum in which to explore their innermost thoughts. I mean, sure, it's a blog. And they're all very busy and important, whereas I am just, you know, busy. But it's all I have, people. It's all I am. Oh, my heart.
Now the question on the table is: To see Hounddog, or not to see Hounddog? The time for today's screening is nigh, but Antonio Banderas is on his way in here to do an interview for Summer Rain (he directed it), and Rudd swore he'd be back, and I could use this time to transcribe my interviews with Anna Faris and Daniel Gold and the super-cute cast from The Great World of Sound, and finally (JEEZ, WHITNEY!) blog about our party last weekend, and write up that No End in Sight post, and I could also eat something, and help EW ninja Neil Drumming celebrate his birthday, and, frankly, I'm a lot more interested in Hounddog from a train-wreck perspective than anything else, and that's not nice. Also, I figure the picture can only benefit if I wait and let the hype die down. I know Dakota's a terrific actress (and her sister's a great blogger), and that's enough for me.
Plus, someone just showed up with Thai food. Decision made.
Overheard, Jan. 24: "We've had two glorious reviews. It's like we paid the people."
Okay, it's calmed down a little here at the EW Sundance Photo Studio. Paul Rudd and the boys from The Ten are here and I'm stalking them for the guest blog, but in the meantime, let's talk about yesterday! I'm much better today, first of all-- I got 4 hours of sleep after losing $20 in a poker game despite Ten director David Wain's attempts to save me from myself (it should be noted that I clearly retained nothing from my lesson with Jamie Gold this weekend) -- and I can totally feel Sundance slowing down. People are leaving, Main Street (with the exception of the freaks outside our studio waiting for Gwyneth) is emptying out, and we're all running out of time to see the movies we've heard so much about. I have one last chance to catch Waitress tonight; keep your fingers crossed.
So after I got up and went to the foreign policy discussion first thing yesterday morning, I came over here to the photo studio to grab some guest bloggers -- Rainn Wilson's post is the talk of the festival, by the way -- and do an interview with one of the directors of Everything's Cool, Daniel Gold. Everything's Cool is a documentary that kind of takes all the global warming science we learned in An Inconvenient Truth and makes it personal by following the lives of people actually in the fight for awareness. I'm going to transcribe our chat and get it up here as a Q&A in the next couple days, because I thought everything he had to say was great, and he's got some really solid advice for how we can all put our drops in the energy-saving bucket. (Have you switched to compact fluorescent bulbs yet?) Nothing better than talking with someone who's engaging and interested in the conversation, rather than just trying to plug their movie and then get back to the snowboarding. Those folks might be famouser than Mr. Gold... but they're way less interesting to me.
Just checking in -- it's crazytown here, because celebs keep showing up with these big groups of people, and Access Hollywood is here, and there's a flood of paparrazi downstairs, and Gwyneth Paltrow just left in a car and there were some near-misses with other cars who didn't understand what "BACK THE F--- UP" meant, and I want to apologize, PopWatchers, because I couldn't get anyone to guest-blog. Everyone was in such a hurry! But I saw Gwyneth and Justin Timberlake bonding, and Sam Jackson was wearing a very fetching purple fur hat, and they all lent some time to the EW.com video staff, so look for those interviews up on the site soon.
And I'll be back with a real post about everything I saw yesterday soon!
I am so glad I've finally got a chance to sit down and tell you about the EW party. Man! This place has been en fuego! But I've taken a deep breath, and gotten out my trusty notebook so I can remember all the amazing people I talked to on Saturday night, and...
... what's that, Rainn Wilson? You are feeling the seductive call of the guest blog?
"Hello everyone on the Internet and in the world of entertainment. It's me, Rainn Wilson, international superstar (hugest of all in Malaysia) promoting myself as un-official "spokesman of a generation" and gynecologist to the stars (Whoopi Goldberg, Katie Couric). I'm here because of the greatest movie ever made, The Last Mimzy, in which I star. I am actually raped by Dakota Fanning in this film. It was very disturbing and is causing quite an uproar in the blogosphere. [Nice word, Rainn, thanks. No problem. You're so smart. Oh, go on.] She was wonderful to work with and very giving. So anyhoo, check out the family sci-fi epic adventure The Last Mimzy, and you will see my thighs. Good-bye."
Okay, now I'm distracted.
Okay! Things are really hopping here at the EW house! Tara Reid is here, Zooey Deschanel just left, we're all on pins and needles awaiting the arrival of Antonio Banderas, and EW's Missy Schwartz just referred to Hounddog as "Snakes on a 12-Year-Old." I'm telling you: life is good. So is this bloody mary I'm drinking.
Wait! Tara Reid: wanna blog?
"HI its Tara Reid and i'm in Sundance its freezing here but alot of fun and alot of work my movie premieres tonight and i'm really excited."
Thanks, Tara! (She's in If I Had Known I Was a Genius. Look for it!)
Another day dawns here at Sundance, and I stop by the EW photo studio to write up the blog item I didn't write last night because I ran out of time. Yesterday, I think I hit a wall, and when -- after two parties, a discussion with EW's masterful Greg Kirschling about the News & Notes story he's writing on the first weekend of Sundance, a check of my e-mails, and a viewing of the last hour of Hear and Now -- I finally got to turn off the lights, I was out. For all of an hour and a half.
Part of the problem was that I had to get up this morning to attend a foreign policy breakfast pegged to No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson's documentary about the mismanagement of the Iraq War. I've heard the movie is great -- An Inconvenient Truth for the "war on terror" -- but I haven't seen it, and 7:30 a.m. is not the time to ask me to think about the parallels between Iraq and Darfur, or whatever. At 7:30 a.m. I am pretty much prepared to think only about ponies. I ask you, PopWatchers: Where are the damn ponies? (Luckily, I don't need to interview Mr. Ferguson until later in the day tomorrow, so I should be fine.)
But as I sit here and listen to EW movie critic Lisa Schwarzbaum do a video blog for us in the other room, I am thinking, a) that Lisa Schwarzbaum is brilliant and b) that she's right when she says you have to get into a rhythm. I mentioned something about that yesterday, which then turned out to be the day my rhythm fell apart. For example, I didn't see a movie. I slept until about 10 a.m. (sorry about that, Grace is Gone), got up, came in here to blog, interviewed Heather Graham for Adrift in Manhattan, interviewed the cast of Smiley Face (Danny Masterson and the incomparable Anna Faris, pictured), stopped in to the Fred Segal swag shop and picked up the VERY SAME PAIR of Earth Shoes clogs that Katherine Heigl snagged (OMG IT IS LIKE I, TOO, AM FAMOUS), interviewed Billy Baldwin, ran into my friend Josh Bearman (whom I didn't recognize at first because, you know, why in the hell would Josh Bearman be here?), ran into EW's Missy Schwartz and stopped into the Gibson lounge to hear some open-mike performances (a chick did a really nice acoustic "Take On Me" that I plan to steal), came back to the photo studio, typed Billy Baldwin's blog item, transcribed my interview with Smiley Face director Gregg Araki and sent it to the Kirschbomb, went back to the hotel and dropped off my Heigl clogs, checked my e-mail, and scheduled some interviews for later in the week.
Notice that nowhere in there does it say "ate food."
Billy Baldwin is dictating the following to me, while he prints a script here at EW headquarters:
"Sundance. Well. Let's start with, obviously, I'm the darling of the festival. One film at Slamdance, one film at Sundance. What can I tell ya. [Long pause.] I don't know what bothers me more about Sundance: all of the free s--- that they give to the rich and famous who don't need it, or the way that I behave when thrown into the den of swag. I can sit here and pretend that I'm above it all, but in reality, after being given free iPods and Razr telephones, jewelry and vacations, if my grandmother -- may she rest in peace -- stood between me and the last Philips flat screen television, I'd lay her out right on her ass for that bad boy.
"I hired a publicist to come here with me because I had two films in the festival. I figured because I had two pictures I probably would need somebody to wrangle all of the various media outlets -- print, electronic, etc. She wound up becoming my swag mule, schlepping the hoards up and down Main Street so that I didn't look like the gluttonous whore that I am in front of the throngs of media and paparazzi. Sure, I threw her a bone for her troubles -- tossed her a couple of t-shirts, a hat, and a digital picture frame. I've got a heart. And in the final analysis, those thousands that I shelled out for this publicist turned out to be a windfall because not only did she organize my press schedule, but she also sheltered me from embarrassment and humiliation in front of the cameras by doubling as my swag mule.
"Look for American Fork and Adrift in Manhattan at a theater near you."
See? Told you I'd get Billy Baldwin.
Hey, kids. I'm posting this direct from EW headquarters on Main Street, where the Fanning family has just arrived to drench us all in cute. And of course, seeing Elle Fanning (pictured at Sunday's premiere of The Nines) in the flesh isn't helping me get over my obsession with The Nines any -- WHY HASN'T ANYONE BOUGHT THIS YET -- and now I'm being swept back into that world, all those rich colors and the warm humor of Melissa "Sookie" McCarthy and the abs of Ryan Reynolds and the way the last instant exploded into my stomach and made me remember why we live, why we put up with all this, excuse my French, bullcrap... jeez, I can't say enough about that damn movie.
OH! PopWatchers, get excited... I'm gonna pass the mike to a very special guest...
"hey i'm elle fanning. Yesterday I went skiing for the first time and it was the funnest thing I have ever done!!!!!! Picabo Street and Jonna Mendez taught Dakota and I. I would love to come back to Utah again!!!"
Overheard at press screening of Rocket Science, Jan. 19, 7:10pm: "I would never disrespect the Alamo Drafthouse, but the Arclight is the greatest theater I've ever been to in my entire life."
Howdy there, PopWatchers, and greetings from the snowy streets of Park City! I'm still here at Sundance, and you're still in my pocket, getting a first-hand glimpse at what it's like to report from a film festival when you've never been to a film festival before and are doing all of your writing between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m. We've got a whole weekend to recap, so this is gonna be long -- grab a cup of tea and settle in, won't you?
First, I want you to know how lovely it was to check in here after my post from Day One -- in which I basically had a small nervous breakdown -- and find your encouraging words. I'm hanging in there. (Insert photo of cat clinging desperately to tree branch here.) I've figured out where everything is, I've made it to plenty of screenings, I've hit some parties, and I even got in a couple hours of snowboarding without hurting myself. I have gotten used to surviving on a diet of Clif bars and water. I no longer spend hours hysterically highlighting schedules. I may even be having fun.
Also, I met Roger Clemens today.
Yeah, that's right: It's the biggest film festival on American soil, and I'm gonna lead with sports. I'd like to send a big shout-out to my friends at ESPN for having the brilliant idea to set up shop across from EW's headquarters on Main Street, stocking a three-story club with very few fest-tards but plenty of big screen TVs, comfy sofas, and Shiner beer, a.k.a. The Official Beer of Whitney. And you couldn't beat their guest list: I took a poker lesson from reigning World Series of Poker champ Jamie Gold on Saturday afternoon while sitting next to Brian Westbrook and Donté Stallworth, or approximately 64 percent of the Philadelphia Eagles' offense. Two interesting stats: Westbrook's biceps are the size of my head (and his watch is the size of my apartment), and Stallworth carries around a Razr, a Blackberry, and a Sidekick decorated with flowers that he kept insisting to me were trees. (When asked why he needs three phones, he responded, "I like phones," which makes sense.)
Hello, PopWatchers, and greetings from Sundance! It is 2 a.m. Park City time, and I'm finally settled in at the hotel after a long day of traveling, stressing, organizing, unpacking, and a little more stressing.
Today was really just about getting here and figuring out the lay of the land at this, my first film festival; all the screenings and interviews and whatnot start tomorrow. But I've already learned perhaps the most important lesson of all, and it is this:
Film festivals ain't easy.
No, seriously.
Here, I'll respond to that so you don't have to: "Oh, Whitney, quit whining. You have a totally cush job, especially considering the fact that you are a no-talent loser. What's so hard about hanging out at a ski resort and watching movies? You suck. I don't want to be in your pocket anymore."
And you're completely right. This should be a totally cush job, and I really am completely devoid of any worthwhile qualities as a human being. But that doesn't change the fact that on Day One of Sundance 2007, I didn't really do much of anything except freak out.
Tomorrow marks the start of Sundance, Robert Redford's storied swagfest independent movie festival, high in the mountains of Park City, Utah. And for the very first time ever, PopWatchers, yours truly will be there. In fact, tomorrow marks the start of Whitney's First Film Festival of Any Kind. (Sometimes I watch Coyote Ugly, Center Stage, and Bring It On back-to-back-to-back, but I suspect that doesn't count.)
So to commemorate this special occasion, PopWatchers -- and because of my undying devotion to you and all that you are -- I will be posting daily blog wrap-ups of my experience, right here on EW.com. Yes it's true: Now you can see Sundance through the eyes of a hyperactive, easily distracted, occasionally drunk solipsist who cannot pronounce "Iñárritu." It's gonna be phenomenal.
I'll write something up every night to let you know what I'm up to -- What movies did I see? What celebs did I chat with? Have I done irreparable damage to my already-weak ACL by trying to snowboard for the first time in 8 years? -- and my blogmasters will post it in the morning. The point is to give you an up close and personal look at this annual entertainment juggernaut. It'll be like you're in my pocket. Join me, won't you?
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