There are three things to do while attending the "Dances" (aside from skiing, boarding, restaurants)

1. movies
2. parties
3. work

Most try and accomplish all of the above but this is a very difficult task, even for those who are successful with time management.

The opening night film, MAD HOT BALLROOM, is the second film to sell to major distributor.

Described as the “little film that could”, the opening night movie of the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival sold today to Paramount Classics who will distribute it along with Nickelodeon.

“We are so delighted for Marilyn and Amy (Director Marilyn Agrelo and Writer Amy Sewell),” commented Festival Director Kathleen McInnis. “This movie reaffirms so much the joy of life and I can’t wait for the rest of the country to see what we saw. We knew we were making some bold moves this year, focusing on the truly independent and documentary films, and we’re thrilled it paid off so handsomely.”

ThinkFilm has acquired Canadian rights to the Mark A. Lewis tragic-comic adventure ILL FATED.

The deal went through following the film’s U.S. Premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival.

ILL FATED is the Coen-esque tale of a recent high school graduate who’s desperate attempt to leave his small town is complicated by his troubled girlfriend, promiscuous mother, and the return of the father who abandoned him 17 years earlier after impregnating his best friend’s wife.

Slamdance Film Festival Director Kathleen McInnis said, “We are delighted with the news; ILL FATED is a craftily-woven tale with dozens of twists and turns, and I couldn’t imagine a better company than ThinkFilm to bring it to the public.”

The Slamdance Film Festival is sure keeping filmmakers and audiences alike busy from morning through night. Their line up of events as well as their family atmosphere keeps everyone on their toes with a variety of options involving films and Slamdance-style, outside-the-box events.

For example, Slamdance co-founder Dan Mirvish and Film Threat's Chris Gore, had an intimate conversation in the outdoor Jacuzzi of the Treasure Mountain Inn yesterday. It was a conversation for all to attend, clothing optional. Dan & Chris opted for the liberal film community chat.

On Sunday night was Slamdance's awesome Opening Weekend Party at Suede, aside from their programming, Slamdace is know for mastering the party Park City party scene...they have it down to a science.

Four Eyed Monsters had its BIG premiere on Sunday at 6:30pm. The evening couldn't have worked out better for the co-directors, the cast and the crew. The exciting debut sold out and Slamdance had to turn people away. In addition, everyone waiting on line looked great wearing the Four Eyed Monster stickers, which were handed out.

Fortunately for the people turned away, there was another screening on Monday and there the last screening of the week is on Friday at 12pm.

The audience was amazing and everyone really receptive to the film. Host, Dan Mirvish, had to finally cut off the Q&A and throw everyone out.

Co-director, Susan Buice arrived with part of the entourage on Wednesday and co-director, Arin Crumley arrived yesterday (Thurs) after a few mishaps with the airlines (delays, cancellations, etc…)

Arin, Susan and many of their cast and crew...about 10, had their promotional materials shipped to the condo office. They're postcards, stickers, business cards look really great.

As first-timers it's exciting to see them outdoors in an environment they had only dreamed about up until now. But here they are; wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, excited and in love with the opportunities which Slamdance has offered them.

Getting in on Wednesday, the 19th.before most was the best decision.

Leaving the insanely cold, 200 degrees below, add the wind chill factor and it must have been 300 degrees below New York City to fly West into what feels like a tropical island surrounded by beautiful snow covered mountains was amazing.

Able to rest, take care of the schedules, relax, chill, take advantage of 16-hour long vacation in Park City before the masses arrived was a beautiful thing.

Since then it's been smooth sailing, bumping into friend after friend etc... etc...

I recommend this game plan, which by all means was not planned, for everyone year after year.

The Slamdance Film Festival's opening night is tonight and RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS, is not their opening night film, but it is a highly anticiapted doc which will be playing at the Treasure Mountain Inn at 11pm tonight.

Directed by Carlene Cordova, Ringers: Lord of the Fans is a feature length doc exploring the The Lord of the Rings and how it has influenced popular culture for the last 50 years.

The cast includes Peter Jackson (of course), Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Philippa Boyen and many others.

Elijah Wood and Billy Boyd will be attending the screening this evening, maybe they'll have their pointy ears on?

This morning Slamdance had their annual press conference at the Treasure Mountain Inn on Main Street, only this year Kathleen McInnis is the new festival director.

They introduced the filmmakers, the sponsors, the BRAND NEW gamming competition and their brand new On-The-Fly Filmmaking Challenge. The focus of the challenge is to spotlight the creative talents of filmmakers. A hat (not Dan Mirvish's) was held high in the air, inside the hat was pieces, each with a word written on the paper. The filmmakers reached in to draw a piece of paper, and the word on the paper would determine the subject of the film they will be making over the course of the next five days.

The On-The-Fly filmmakers will have to conceive, shoot, edit and screen a five-minute documentary based on a word drawn out of a hat.

The three filmmakers who were chosen and who actually agreed to do participate are Amy Elliott, Karin Hayes and Paul Willis. The chosen words were snow, vein, and art...if I remember correctly.

The Slamdance sponsor BAWLS, an energy drink with 3x the caffeine as coffee will definitely come in handy this week for these folks.

You can catch these 5 min docs at 6:30pm on Thurs. Jan 27th.

Karen Wilson from cinecultist.com introduces When Brendan Met Trudy

When: Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 7:30pm

Brendan and Trudy is an unlikely relationship that forms between a Dublin schoolteacher and a free-spirited woman with a hidden profession. Brendan spends his off hours watching old movies and singing in a local choir. One night, he meets Trudy in a pub, and they agree to meet at the cinema later that week. When Trudy stands Brendan up, he tracks her down....

About Cinecultist.com: Karen Wilson is a film writer and editor living in the East Village of New York City. She holds a master of the arts in cinema studies from New York University. She started Cinecultist.com in May 2003 as a way to keep track of all of the movies she watches each week and as an easy reference for friends and family who asked "what have you seen lately?" When asked "what is your favorite movie?," she always answers, "Annie Hall."

Where: The Millennium Theater on 66 E. 4th Street, between 2nd and Bowery.

Next Event: On Monday, January 31st with AIVF.

"A NASA spacecraft - Deep Impact - blasted off on a mission to smash a hole in a comet."

Is it possible the rocket scientists in Cape Canaveral have a sense of humor?

What will they name their next spacecraft...'Mary Does Mars'?

Arin and Susan are working on their trailer "we're struggling, do we give away the whole movie, will we scare people away with abstract experiments, does the trailer being so hard mean the movie sucks?"

It seems as though they are having some anxieties between the trailer, designing postcards, stickers, business cards and posters.

It's kind of cute and entertaining. Hey, it could be worse...it could be me.

Not even in Park City yet and Susan already has problems with her new Park City orange coat.

The zipper was badly stuck, the manufacturer Tripple Five Soul suggested that she bring the new coat to a tailor, she did and the tailor fixed it by destroying the zipper, Tripple Five Soul said to to bring it back to the tailor only the tailor doesn't speak English.

It looks like Susan will be doing the button thing from now on.

(excerpt from Greg.org)

Or maybe it's greg.org: the videoblog. It's a veritable greg.orgy: everybody come! [uh...]

On Monday, January 10th, I'm presenting a program of short films (including one of my own), video art, scenes from features, and other stuff, as part of The Reel Roundtable's Film and Blogs series.

But more than an elaborate excuse to show and talk about my own work (don't get me wrong, it IS that), I'm interested in seeing how a weblog functions over time as a programming/editorial/curatorial venue. The program re-imagines the weblog as a movie, or as movie-like, an event that you experience in a movie theater.

There are several ways a weblog's video/audio content could be transmitted as a program: as you find it (serendipitously, or chronologically, as you read it (reverse chronologically) narratively, categorically, or thematically. If this had remained only a production journal, it'd become a DVD extra. I took the thematic path.

I sifted through every film, short, animation, video, video art, and TV reference on greg.org, looking for common threads and recurring themes. I narrowed the list down to the ideas--and the works related to them--that I thought would make an interesting, entertaining, and representative evening.

Arin and Susan were scrambling for the Fed Ex deadline to send out some press kits before they shot a pick-up which was needed for the rotoscoping in the animation scene.

Susan worked on the finishing touches of the animation sequences while Arin went to an audio post production house to get sound effects and to work on the mix with their "amazing pro tools sytem."

He was thrilled with their sound booth, awesome drum set and great mics. He's going to add some real live drums to the score and replace the synthetic sounds.

Good day all around.

Susan and Arin have only 2 and a 1/2 weeks until Slamdance; first time filmmakers, first festival, first time in Park City...how exciting!

Yesterday they were preparing their colors.

It starts with the winter coats, Susan went with the long & orange and Arin went with the ugly green. Arin bought his over the telephone because he was busy color correcting the film all day. I'm sure he'll do much better with the films' colors.

Last time we spoke Arin was working on the credit sequence.

The Wilco/ Flaming Lips show at Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve was overwhelming, entertaining and so much fun.

While hundreds and hundreds of enormous sized colored balloons were bouncing around the audience, The Flaming Lips were partying on stage like true rock stars with streamers, confetti, projections, blood, and champagne.

There was so much going on between the trippy movies playing behind them to the Donnie Darko-esque bunnies dancing with naked women who were wearing only paisleys with tassels.

All along playing incredible music.

In one of their trippy short films this kid walks into a nightclub, makes his way through the crowd and into the bathroom, locks the door behind him, gets down on his knees, places a razor blade & a $20 bill on the rim of the toilet bowl, peels his skull back, takes his brains out from his skull, cuts lines of his brain, rolls up the $20 bill, snorts his brains, licks the razor, licks the bill, rubs the bill on his gums, his pupils become dilated, he gets up, struts out and then screen the reads:

DON'T SNORT YOUR OWN BRAIN: ENJOY THE FLAMING LIPS!

Wilco followed and was just as incredible and sounded just as amazing. Jeff Tweedy, the lead of Wilco was in his pajamas singing their originals before midnight and brining in the new year with cover songs like "Love Will Keep Us Together" and the Judas Priest song "Living After Midnight."