DAY 1-Park City:
Sundance Film Festival 2014 is winding down in Utah this year as it approaches the end of its 10 days of movie premieres, concerts, celebrity panels and parties. I was lucky enough to go three different days, at three of the four locations of the festival (Park City, SLC, and Ogden). Last Saturday me, my roommates and our good friend Ethan ventured to Sundance in Park City. After seeing just how many celebs flew in on Friday and would be there opening weekend, we decided to go up and make a day out of stalking celebrities and roaming all of the fun shops and restaurants that Park City Main Street has to offer.
Our celebrity sightings this year were significantly more impressive than last year. But aside from going in the hopes of meeting celebrities, Sundance is easily one of the best events to go to people-watch. So. Many. Fur. Coats. I will admit that I do eventually want to own a fur vest, and Sundance is one of the few places it is socially acceptable to wear one. So now I just want one even more. But seriously, the get-ups at Sundance are like none other. You see some of the most stylish and hip-looking people, but then you also see half-naked girls sitting on top of cars with massive wigs resembling ice cream on top of their heads. I spotted the following A-D list celebrities along Main Street, and I even shook hands with Mark Ruffalo as he walked by!
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I may or may not have crept on Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana through
a glass door until they were done with an interview outside on the balcony.
they had to come inside at some point, right? hehe |
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| one big, happy, polyg family (it's okay, we can joke about it because we're mormon. what?) |
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AirBNB Haus. this fun little lodge/cafe looked pretty cool from the outside, so I ventured inside to
a). use the bathroom
b). get a closer look at the vintage/country/cabin-inspired décor |
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Olive & Tweed. suuuper cute clothing store along Main Street.
it's like an anthropologie/francesca's mash-up of wonder.
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| oh yeah, and then we stumbled upon some of Banksy's artwork too. |
DAY 2-Salt Lake City:
When the announcement of the Sundance line-up and schedule came out, I was prepared to do whatever it took to buy tickets for at least one movie. After many stressful minutes on my work computer and panicking with Abby on the phone while the site repeatedly crashed on us, I bought four tickets for "Happy Christmas," a movie directed by
Joe Swanberg starring two of my favorite female celebs:
Lena Dunham and
Anna Kendrick. Let me tell you, it certainly did not disappoint! Joe's movies typically do not have much of a script, so a lot of what you see is totally improv, which makes it that much funnier. All of the actors were so hilarious and candid and I loved every second of it. Best part of the evening? After the movie, Joe Swanberg himself came onstage to answer questions from the audience and afterwards, we bolted out of the theater in the hopes of meeting him. AND WE DID. He was so friendly and humbled that we even knew who he was, much less asked for pictures with him. Cori was brave enough to ask him a question and she did so quite eloquently. You could totally tell he was impressed because she actually knew what she was talking about. Go Cori! Also, shout-out to Abby for introducing us to Joe Swanberg in the first place. She has been trying to get us to watch another one of his movies, "Drinking Buddies" and has been raving about his work and the mumblecore genre as a whole for months now. We continued fangirling on the ride home and it was totally worth having to wake up four hours later for work the next morning. It was the perfect ending to my MLK weekend.
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| necessary |
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| illegal spy pics in the theater |
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| Q&A with Joe |
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OMG [JOE SWANBERG] I LOVE YOUR WORK.
(10 points to gryffindor if you can name that quote with the correct celeb) |
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| roommates that obsess over indie films together, stay together |
DAY 3-Ogden:
Sadly, tomorrow is the last day of the festival, but last night me, John, Desireé, and Garrett were able to go for one last screening and saw "Mitt," a documentary about Mitt Romney. After watching the trailer (five times), I was so excited that I snagged tickets to watch it at Sundance. But don't fret, it's now streaming on Netflix and I advise everyone to go watch it. It was such an intimate look at his life during the 2008 and 2012 elections, and shows how brutal a presidential campaign (much less TWO) is on the candidate as well as his family. At certain parts I felt as though I was re-living the election, so I became sad all over again. I loved the scenes that showed the Romney family talking and joking with each other, and there are several scenes of them praying together. The documentary has been said to have a 'humanizing' effect on Mitt Romney, and one friend of mine even said "if I watched this movie before the election, I might have voted for him." I loved it and I wouldn't be surprised if future candidates release their own documentaries
before election night.
Sorry for the novel, but I had such a wonderful week at Sundance and I feel so lucky that I attend BYU and I can go every winter. My goal for next year is to meet Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I am determined to do so before I graduate/leave Utah. I had such a fun time with friends and I loved having the opportunity to watch these amazing films and see the talent of everyone involved in them. I just love movies a lot. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
