Destin and another Sundance beast
There wasn't too much to do today, since the kick-off wasn't until the evening. So, I spent most of the time walking around on Main Street, taking pictures with statues of wild beasts.
The opening night film was a really weird, hilarious, touching, emotional, quirky, dark, claymation movie called “Mary and Max” (www.maryandmax.com). The story was incredibly moving and the animation was some of the best I've ever seen, and having Philip Semour Hoffman as one of the lead voices was a nice bonus. I won't give away much, because I'm sure you'll see it sometime, but I was in tears by the end, so prepare yourself.
After that, we went to the opening party, which was packed with young people with bleached hair and tight pants, bouncing to 80's pop and spilling alcohol on each other's shoes. We retreated to the upstairs lounge and chatted with the old ladies with big teeth who were really into movies, and young directors. We also got to meet some of the short filmmakers in our block (Shorts #4), who were all really cool. And now it's almost 4am, and I feel like I'm going to die. Good thing I only have nine more days of this stuff.
Destin Cretton is a San Diego-based filmmaker whose short film Short Term 12 was selected to screen at this year's Sundance Film Festival. He will be guest blogging about his experiences there.
