Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sundance 07: Musings in Rewind
A general rule of thumb that I like to tell friends is that journalists blog between deadlines. To readers of “Flyover Online,” I would like to point out that numerous daily deadlines kept me from blogging throughout this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
This morning, an ice cold Sunday, the various filmmaker victors and might-haves put the Saturday night Awards Ceremony behind them and head to the Salt Lake City Airport.
With every deadline completed, I can finally exhale and comment on Sundance 2007.
In past years, I have scratched my head over jury prizewinners but this time the jurors and I are completely in-sync.
“Manda Bala” (Send a Bullet), director Jason Kohn’s stunning and fascinating omnibus film about the culture of crime in Brazil, won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize.
The drama I praised the most, director Chris Zalla’s Mexican immigrant drama “Padre Nuestro,” won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.
Now, I could say something silly about the jurors being influenced by my “indieWire” reviews but I’ll leave that for my overly proud mother. I’m just happy for the two deserving filmmakers.
As far as more musings on the busy and colorful festival, I promise to post my hindsight commentary regularly, or at least between gulps of cold medicine. Not everybody leaves Sundance with a trophy, or even gift house goodies, but almost everyone I know has a cold.
