I'm Baaaaack
We made it back and it's time to get back to work. I moved a copy of the Alastik blog onto my server space so I'll have it in the archive. If you want to see our daily blogs, you can read them here on the Alastik Blog link. It contains a complete list of the Sundance 2004 winners.
One of our favorite films was the Documentary Audience Award Winner Born Into Brothels. It's the story of nine children born to prostitutes in Calcutta who were given cameras to document their lives and learn a marketable skill. The photograph above was taken by Suchitra. Amnesty International made a calendar of their photos.
Another favorite was Matt Mahurin's I Like Killing Flies about New York restauranteur/philosopher Kenny Shopsin and his family. Mahurin has directed numerous music videos for performers such as U2, Metallica and Tracy Chapman. His wife, Lisa Desimini, is a children's book author and illustrator. Great people and a great film.
It was a great trip. The panels were awesome. The digital center was great. And, of course, the films were terrific. The winning film was shot with a PD150 and edited on the desktop using Final Cut Pro. It was called Down to the Bone. Nearly all of the documentaries and many of the shorts were shot and edited in miniDV format. And, the winner of the cinematography award was for November, a film starring Courtney Cox and James LeGros, that was also shot with a PD150.
We went to several Sony seminars and presentations. They now have the PD170 (a nicely improved PD150) and an amazing projector with a brilliant 100% bulb that projects progressive scan beautifully and runs almost silently. That was sweet, too.
I also met the fellow who wrote the program for Waking Life. He was a shy fellow who had a short in the festival AND had also helped Jorgen Leth and Lars von Trier with a portion of The Five Obstructions. I was really excited to see TFO while Alec was more excited for Dogville, another Lars von Trier film starring Nicole Kidman. Both were amazing.
