Wednesday was a volunteer theatre shift day. My job was to help people re-enter the theatre after they’d gotten up to go to the bathroom and I saw two celebrities in line to see the documentaries for the day with no fanfare. One of them was Todd Oldham who probably thought I was a stalker because I kept staring trying to figure out the man behind the beard. The other was an actor I’ve seen a ton on television but I don’t know his name. It will take me awhile to figure out who he is. I was also able to sit in on one documentary called Grab, which was very good. It’s the type of documentary I love, giving a glimpse inside a culture the average person would never have access to and to see how traditions are born.
After my shift I stayed at the theatre and queued for a ticket to see Troubadours, which I really loved. David Crosby had some of the funniest lines in the documentary. It was a packed house because folks were hoping that Carol King or James Taylor would actually be at the Q&A but because the premiere had already happened they weren’t there. We did have a Q&A with the filmmaker. The audience was really interested in knowing why Joni Mitchell who is part of the documentary was not interviewed in it and the filmmaker had to explain diplomatically that she declined and she wasn't the only one. He didn't add any additional details.
Before Troubadours I had to wait in the volunteer line and I struck up a conversation with a young volunteer from New York who works for the Food Network. She was super excited because one of the only things she wanted to see at Sundance was a short made by MCA from the Beastie Boys and she actually ran into him, told him how much she wanted to see it and he said, well I’m headed to the airport so have my ticket. She was over the moon. I of course asked her a ton of questions about Food Network (and the MCA encounter) and also the films she was there to see. It’s representative of some of the great conversations I’ve had with other volunteers. There were three young ladies on my shift who had all applied to film school and were telling me about that process. I had to laugh when one of them asked me if I was going to film school. I answered with, “No, that ship has sailed”. Here’s a list of some of the other folks I’ve met. The younger folks all seemed there to make contacts.
A young man from SLC trying to break into the technical side of filmmaking
A woman from SLC who’s been volunteering with the Sundance Institute for many years before Sundance was Sundance
A Dutch woman living in America who came to the festival last year and decided to volunteer this year
A woman from California who has a ski condo here and got interested in volunteering for the first time
A woman from Austin who is here visiting her son and decided why not volunteer during the day while he is at work
A woman from Canada who has worked at the Toronto Film Festival and also works for a repertory theatre company part of the year
A woman from Atlanta who recently relocated with her family to Park City and looked at it as a good way to meet people
Two women from Manhattan who started coming to Park City as a ski vacation and got interested in the festival
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