Sundance Independent Producers Conference Begins
We arrived at the Sundance Institute at 11:04 a.m. Registration began at 11:00 a.m., so I was fearful that one of the small group sessions that I wanted would already be filled. We went inside to find hardly anyone in the Creekside room. Apparently, the IPC is NOT like the Sundance Film Festival. You don't have to arrive everywhere an hour early to ensure your place. I got all of the small groups I wanted. Cathy Schulman. Ricky Strauss and Micah Green. Marcus Hu, Kevin Iwashina and Mark Urman. It looked like it was going to be a very informative weekend.
It took about 15 minutes to register. It was 11:30 a.m. We were told we couldn't check into our houses until about 2pm. The first gathering was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. We had a whole lot time on our hands. So, we sat on the picnic tables behind Creekside and read all of our many handouts. There was a bound book of participants and panelists. There was an enormous reference package and another small set of addresses and contacts. We enjoyed the strong wireless signal (although the firewall made it impossible to get my school email).
We watched all of the folks arriving. While I'm a relatively social creature, I don't enjoy these forced networking experiences. I end up thinking about what I should be working on, what I might be able to blog about or what I should be doing for the film project. The one thing I know I don't want to do is "crawl up some industry professional's hinder" in the hopes of making a deal. It leaves me feeling too crappy for words. So, I dive into reading my materials and hope they talk with Jabbes or Alec. They tell us we can go to our accommodations and I am relieved to go elsewhere until dinner.
At five, the Sundance Screening Room (pictured above) is full of participants, panelists and film pundits. Geoffrey Gilmore tells us that we should spend the weekend talking to these incredible industry professionals. He tells us that some will be wonderful and some will be jerks. Welcome to the real world. "If you're too afraid to walk up to someone and ask for a meeting, you don't deserve to call yourself a producer," he says. They turn us lose for dinner and and networking.
I meet a fellow that I will come to love over the course of the weekend. He turns out to be the nicest fellow! He was one of the people I really wanted to meet. He produced IN THE BEDROOM and LOST IN TRANSLATION. His first film (as a member of the crew) was RESERVOIR DOGS. We're in the beverage line together and we introduce ourselves. I tell him that he was one of the people I was looking forward to meeting. He asks about our project. I tell him about the FilmZambia projects and he gets so enthusiastic and excited, he pulls Geoffrey Gilmore over to our group to tell him about it. He tells us a funny story about his mother at the screening of IN THE BEDROOM. I just love this guy. Ross Katz tells us to come to his screening of MARIE ANTOINETTE on Saturday. We tell him we wouldn't miss it.
Then, there is a screening of BAGDAD, E.R. and a Work-In-Progress screening of HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI. Both were produced by the Grande Dame of Documentary, Sheila Nevins of HBO. I'd heard her name many times before. Prior to the screening, I bumped into Sheila and her HBO cohort, Sara Bernstein. Alec and Jabbes had already spoken with them and told them about the Zambia projects. She said they sounded really interesting. If I'd had my wits about me, I might have asked her if HBO would be interested in the doc but it's hard to be witty in the bathroom. Sheila favored cargo pants in shades of yellow, tan and khaki. She has this great mane of hair and easy laugh that is totally disarming. I was completely captivated by her.
