Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Features

Sundance screenings aren't your basic movie going experience. People clap for the opening credits, because, well, the executive producer and all his friends are probably sitting in the audience...

It was a celebrity petting zoo, and while I initially had schemes of autographs, I quickly realized it was a surefire way to be deemed a festival noob. It's just not done.

If you had told me a month ago that I would be attending the Sundance Film Festival 2010, I would have thought you were crazy. But when my dad, a movie critic and inveterate Sundance attendee, told me that he would once again make the trip south, I walked away thinking, "Damn, I'd love to go." And then I realized - what's stopping me? When I mentioned it, he gave me a look and said "possibly," and I didn't really think too much of it. At that point, I had no plane ticket, no accommodation, and most importantly, no passport. I went home from work and forgot about it.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of a new text message. It was from my dad. It read: "Jake, you can come ONLY if you complete these two very difficult tasks - 1: get your passport, and 2: obtain press accreditation for Sundance." I raced out of bed to call him. It was for real. I actually had a chance to go. There was hope.

In my email inbox there was also a note from my dad explaining how to obtain press credentials. The basic plan was to tell the Festival execs that I would be reporting for The Strand and that I'm a 20-year-old film student at UofT. I fired off a very polite email explaining this to the woman my dad had told me to contact, and began researching how I could get my passport.

Early on a Tuesday morning, I trekked down to the passport office and got in line. When it was my turn, I went up to the lady, and so began the most frustrating three hours of my life. When my number was called, I approached a disgruntled woman and showed her my documents. Everything checked out, but then she asked for a second piece of identification and I handed her my health card. "Sir, why does your health card have your father's signature on it?" she said, coldly. "What do you mean? I got that health card when I was born," I replied. "Sir, I don't understand - why does your ID have someone else's signature on it?" "Because he signed it!" "WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU ALLOW THAT?" "MA'AM, I COULDN'T SIGN MY FUCKING HEALTH CARD WHEN I WAS HALF A YEAR OLD." "Fine, you want to argue with me? Go call my manager if you want to argue." "Fine. Give me your manager." "She's not going to help you. If I accepted that health card as valid ID, I would feel morally reprehensible. You'll have to go down to the health card office down the street and obtain it in three to four business days. See you later." "No you won't," I muttered.

I walked to the manager's office and explained the situation. "I understand, sir. That's very frustrating. However, I can't help you," she said. My heart sank. "I can only tell you what you shouldn't do," she continued. "You should not take a bottle of Purell and paper towel and try to wipe your dad's signature off. You should not try that." She handed me the contraband, and I went to work.

I walked out with an evil grin on my face, lined up, took another number, and finally got to a new clerk. "Everything checks out, sir. That'll be $130." I was so happy.

I had secured my passport, but not my press credentials. A few days later I got a reply from the press woman. "Hi Jake, we'd love to have you as press, but you aren't 21. We'd be happy to see you next year, though. We're really strict about drinking here. Sorry!" I was livid with frustration. Why on earth would drinking be related to press screenings of indie movies? Were they really that bad? What was I getting myself into? Fuck you, America, and your backwards drinking laws. Whatever, I said to myself. I wasn't going to let that stop me, so I told my dad the only option I had was to buy an "Adrenaline Pass" at a whopping $400 USD, which got me into any movie screened before or at 11am, and any movie screened at or after 11pm. This would guarantee two movies a day at the cost of my sleep. But let's be honest - I go to UofT. I sacrificed sleep two years ago. The pass meant one early morning movie and one late night movie. Factor in bus rides, question and answer sessions (Q&As) and line-ups, and I would be getting about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Sign me up!

My dad and I touched down in Salt Lake City International Airport, and drove to our hotel, The Yarrow, in lovely Park City, Utah. Some facts about Park City: it's supposedly the richest city in America, it hosted events for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and it claims to have the "greatest snow on Earth." It's also the home of Sundance.

My dad began to show me around, and I got a primer on the Park City bus service, which is amazingly free all year round. Where you would normally put your TTC fare is labeled "Donations," and the drivers aren't the surly characters that you typically find operating a streetcar. I even had a stop right outside my hotel, and there were buses named "SFF THEATRE LOOP," which would take riders to seven of the eight Sundance theatres all day long: the Eccles Theatre for premieres and galas, which seats 1270 people (think The Elgin in terms of TIFF); the Egyptian, a quaint little theatre adorned with pyramids and scarabs, and probably the most famous Sundance theatre; the Holiday Village Cinema, a hotel/seedy theatre that housed many midnight screenings and was my most frequented venue due to its location right across from my hotel; the Library Center, a lovely school transformed into a Sundance venue; the Prospector Square Theatre, which my dad and I visited on numerous occasions because of the great steak house nearby; the Racquet Club, a fitness centre that Sundance had made over; and of course, the Yarrow Hotel Theatre, which was where I was staying. The Yarrow was amazing; along with the slick theatre, it had an excellent restaurant and a heated outdoor pool. And last, but certainly not least, there was the Temple Theatre, a Jewish community centre that had to reached by a special bus. Because it was out of the way, most people didn't bother going, but it wasn't even hard to get to - there was a Temple express bus that took you there in minutes.

I saw a lot of movies in the span of 10 days. 22: to be exact. Sundance screenings aren't your basic movie going experience. People clap during the opening credits, because, well, the executive producer and all their friends are probably sitting in the audience. There are Q&As, tons of camera flashes, and lots of excitement. And while I was guaranteed two films a day with my pass, I managed to see lots of movies through the Salt Lake City Craigslist, some generous festival-goers, and sheer dumb luck. Oh, and waitlists. You may be familiar with TIFF rush lines; Sundance is a little different. Two hours before a screening, Sundance staff hand out waitlist tickets, which are essentially numbered slips of paper. If you have number one, you will be let in first if there's room. However, if you don't get back in line half an hour before your screening, they no longer respect your number and you are displaced to the back of the line. So, say you want to see a movie at 12pm at the Egyptian. Knowing that they give waitlist numbers out at 10am , you'd head over for 9 or even 8am, and camp out. If it was a low-key doc or foreign thing (often where you'd find the best hidden gems!), you could probably stroll over casually 15 minutes before the screening and get a ticket because not many people would be interested. That's the silly thing about film festivals: sure, Kristen Stewart had two movies at Sundance this year, but you knew they would be released theatrically. So why waste $400 - yes, two tickets to The Runaways were that much on Craigslist - to see it at Sundance? Instead, I spent my time trying to see movies that sounded interesting to me, not the "buzz" flicks that I had researched before attending. And with the 22 screenings I picked, I saw some amazing films and met the inspiring filmmakers at the Q&As. I would usually see upwards of four films a day: two guaranteed with my Adrenaline and two through waitlists or other means. My favourites were generally the docs - go figure. But most of them were fantastic.

That's how I spent my days in Park City. If I wasn't lining up waiting or praying for a ticket, I was eating or sleeping. My dad told me that fine dining and skiing generally go together, and Park City is a skier's haven. A few nights we even got invited to some Sundance parties, and wow, they are surreal. There were Hollywood execs, actors, producers, directors, and an open bar. I'd like to thank both James Franco and Harvey Weinstein for the free booze at their respective parties (that sentence may be the strangest thing I've ever written). It was a celebrity petting zoo, and while I initially had schemes of autographs, I quickly realized it was a surefire way to be deemed a "festival noob." It's just not done.

That's not to say you won't get the celebrity experience out of Sundance. Hell, I had Josh Radnor (from CBS' How I Met Your Mother) hand me his last ticket to happythankyoumoreplease, in front of 150 waitlisters. My waitlist number? 201. I ducked out of the waitlist line because I knew it would be pointless with 200 people ahead of me, so I went outside to try and find scalpers or people willing to sell. There were 15 others with similar designs on a ticket, and after I invaded a few perches ("This is my turf, bro!") I decided to try and find someone inside. That someone was Josh Radnor and his publicist, who had an extra ticket. They handed it to me 30 seconds before the theatre doors closed. It was pretty much a film festival miracle.

Many people have asked me my favourite movies of the festival. It's difficult, really. I saw 22 movies and I loved a lot of them. But what about the ones I hated? The Company Men: a boring Up in the Air, but from the opposite perspective. Expect it to see the light of day, but don't bother seeing it. The Killer Inside Me is another film that I hope you do not see. I joked to my dad that they should call it The Casey Inside Me, because the entire movie is shots of Casey Affleck having sex with women and/or punching them in the face. And the camera does not cut away-even after 10 direct face shots on Jessica Alba. It's disgusting. Anyway, here are all the movies that I saw:

Favourite US doc: 8: The Mormon Proposition. A courageous, pro-gay marriage movie (premiering in Mormon country, no less) about how the Mormon Church contributed millions of dollars to pass Proposition 8, and the lives that were ruined because of it. 8 was the only movie I attended that received a standing ovation.

Favourite World doc: The Red Chapel. Two Danish-Korean comedians and a Danish filmmaker enter North Korea under the guise of a comedy troupe with interests in cultural exchange. North Korea believes them, and the troupe deliver a stand-up act, but they are really only there to document the horrible things North Korea hides. People were laughing, but uncomfortably so. It's shocking and somehow hilarious.

Favourite US drama: happythankyoumoreplease. If you like How I Met Your Mother, you'll love this movie. Josh Radnor stars, writes, and directs this unusual romantic comedy about six couples in New York. It's heartwarming in a Lost in Translation kind of way. Please see it. Oh please, see this movie.

Favourite World drama: I didn't see any, sadly!

Favourite "Park City at Midnight" movie: Splice, a Canadian monster movie. I guarantee that you have never seen this type of movie before. At the Q&A, someone yelled out, "That was the most fucked up thing I've ever seen." He was right.

I have so many Sundance stories, but not enough space to tell them. The majority of my time at the festival was spent discussing, watching, or waiting for movies. I can say, however, that I think it changed my life. I was in the presence of filmmakers only two to four years older than I am who had feature films at the third biggest festival in the world (Cannes and TIFF hold spots one and two, respectively). It was really inspiring, and while I was armed with only a dinky little Flip camera, I still felt like it could one day bring me back to Sundance. 2011? 2012? Who knows? But I think next time it will be up to me to make it happen.

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