Sundance!

Am lucky enough to be spending a few days in Park City, Utah with friends to take in a few movies. I've seen 2 movies so far, and 2 more movies this afternoon and evening. There are many ins and outs to negotiating this event, and our friends have been extremely helpful. Today in PC alone there are 47 movies showing at 9 different venues between 8:30 am and midnight. 18 other movies are being shown in Salt Lake City and 2 other ski area venues, one of which is the Sundance Resort.
We got in line at 6:15 am at the Main Box Office in order to get tickets for today's movies. A list of all the movies with available seats (and the no. of seats ) is posted on the door of the box office. We had plenty of time to scope out the list and make our decisions. The box office opened at 8 and because we were there early we were about 15th in line and we got in and out quickly. We were back on the street at 8:10 am (BO opened at 8) with all the tickets we were hoping to get for today. Will do the same for tomorrow. I imagine that there were at least 150 people standing in line when we left the box office.




Inside the ticket office




Last night I went to see a documentary called "Dinner With The President:A Nation's Journey". It was made by 2 Pakistani filmmakers who requested to have dinner with President Pervez Musharraf and he agreed. The film explores the contradictions of democracy and seeming dictatorship. I thought it gave a lot of insight to the situation in modern Pakistan and why democracy is such a foreign concept to most of the people there.
The second movie I saw was "An American Soldier: The Recruiter." It follows an Army recruiter (one of the top recruiters in the country) through a year of his life and his recruits as they go into basic training. It really humanizes the soldiers and what they go through. It also points out just how young these soldiers are and what a huge task we are asking of them.
Another interesting facet of the film festival is that the director and sometimes the actors are available after the film for questions and answers (known as the "QandA"). The questions from the audience run the gamut from thoughtful to arcane.

So far, everyone has been extremely helpful, polite and friendly. Haven't seen huge crowds, but we've also managed to steer clear of downtown at peak times. Watch this space for more updates!