All good things...

...must come to an end. My wonderful friend Annette was able to get an extra ticket to the best of fest showing of Alive Inside, so I was able to see that on Monday night with her, Melanie, Dave, and his Dad. It was literally the perfect end to my 2014 Sundance experience.

This year, I ended up seeing 22 full-length films, and 9 short films. Not too shabby. :) It definitely felt different this year. I think partially because Kate was in LA until the festival itself and Melanie was out here this time. Also, I actually saw famous people this time! Glenn Close actually came into our office (the. best), I saw Ethan Hawke (!!!), Mary Steenburgen (!!), Anne Hathaway (!!!), and David Cross (!!!!!) at Q&A's for films, and I saw Felicity Huffman, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, and William H Macy at the awards ceremony. Also had seen William H Macy at the screening of Whiplash, just chilling in the audience. Totally normal. Very cool. :) I also feel like I saw a lot more comedies, and generally funny movies, and less really depressing films. Which was sort of nice for a change. Though there are many more serious films I wish I had seen. Hopefully I will get to see them at some point in the future. I'd like to see Return to Homs, Imperial Dreams, Camp X-Ray, and Lilting. Sure there are more too, but I can't think of them off the top of my head right now.

If you want to keep track of the Sundance 2014 films and see when they might be available to view near you (or online), check out this site: http://gowatchit.com/channels/sundance-film-festival-2014

Anyway, it was a good third year. With any luck, this will be my final time at Sundance (at least working it) and if that is the case, then I think it was a good way to go out. Thanks for another fantastic winter season Park City! I had a blast :)

Alive Inside
About the film
Part of the US Documentary competition. One of the films I really really really wanted to see, but was able to get a ticket to. I hoped it would win something, and it did. Audience award for US documentary category. But it was playing on Sunday right when I needed to bring my friends back to the airport. I was most sad. And then Annette came in and saved the day, by getting me one of the best of fest tickets! :) So incredibly grateful. Such a beautiful film. Really well done. Definitely a tear-jerker. But happy tears. Not a dry eye in the place, I'm pretty sure. Very moving. Amazing that it took us so long to realize that music could be helpful. In so many ways. Really helps to explain why I love music so very much, why I think it is so incredibly important, and why although it would pain me greatly, if I had to choose a world with bats or a world without music, I would choose a world without bats. There is just something fundamentally, universally important about music. Love. It. If you want to learn more about the music and memory project, or see how you can help, check out this site: http://musicandmemory.org/.