On Film Festivals

The guys at Cyan Pictures are back from their location in Kentucky and have some hi-larious and endearing accounts of the shoot. Check it out, and compare it to the folies we had in France during the shooting of Souvenir. Ahh, the memories. Cyan & Co. are editing for the 9/27 Sundance submission deadline. I’ll be taking Diet Coke to their editing suite in the middle of the night.
This article has an archetypical Canadian aura, basically about how the hype of (competitors for the admirable Toronto Film Fest) Sundance and Cannes aren’t good predictors of success. (not as good as Toronto’s audience awards, that is). But Sundance never sounded so bleak as when it’s described by Premiere film critic Glenn Kenny. Here he talks about seeing a typical (and unworthy of hype (?)) Sundance film, In the Bedroom:

“The film is long, it’s got really great performances, and it’s definitely something that is conscientious…You walk out of there and it’s dark and it’s cold, and you’re thinking about how profound the movie is and the fact that you’re staying at a [bad] resort, and you think about how lonely you are, and about the human condition, and how you don’t have anyone to be in the hot tub with.” [emphasis for exaggerated effect]

To be honest, I haven’t yet strategized how to play Souvenir with any critics; I’m still trying to finesse the festival selection committees. But now I do know to saunter over to the pale, lonely-looking guy (or the darker, dreadlocked one) in the hot tub and give him the feelgood experience of the festival.
Thanks to Rick McGinnis’ Movieblog was the source of the Toronto article. He’s quite prolific on the subject of film, cranking out reviews with such volume and quality you’d think he was getting paid for it…