The following morning I was going to have a breakfast meeting with one of the "first kinds of people I wanted to meet at Sundance": someone in a position to acquire and fund a feature film that I've been developing.  Before that gentleman arrived I met, now get this, two volunteers from the Sundance Film Festival, so we shared some great stories and some good fellowship. Good thing I had the HP camera with me and hadn’t forgotten about the diary project.
I compared for them the two different kinds of Ion pens -- the red one was mine and the blue one belonged to one of the volunteers. I asked to also borrow his glasses for this photo because I thought they looked very attractive on him and I wanted to try them on.  He must be legally blind because I could barely see the pens in front of my face when I put his glasses on.
This meeting was the most blatant example of networking or schmoozing or pitching or whatever happens between filmmakers.  Jack Turner is an executive at United Artists and we were put together by my agent at Writers and Artists agency.  Jack and I first met the night before, after he came off the ski slopes, as I rushed between a dinner and another event, so I sorta "pitched" him my project -- that means I very briefly explained the feature film I've been developing for three years.  Jack agreed to meet me for breakfast, where we could go into more details.  I told him about this photo project for my scrapbook and he agreed to pose.  Jack, if you happen to wander across this website, correct me if I'm wrong, but in this photo you and I are "acting" out a pose of a power breakfast meeting at Sundance.  I subsequently submitted my film to him and it's my firm belief that he is a world-class executive and I look forward to submitting projects to him in future that he might actually make.

I went to the Awards Gala and had a fascinating time learning about all the projects that were in the running, and listening to all the people who were honored with Sundance awards, and feeling the disappointment of having my film not even making "runner up" (there's a smile on my face as I think about how winning wasn't really what was important -- having the Sundance experience was.)  Afterwards I ran into Elvis Mitchell again, who was kind enough to scoop me up and take me to a party in a place made up to look like the inside of a coal mine shaft.  I was given a lovely party favor of a "Sharper Image" version of a coal miner's lamp -- this (and other swag) I gave to Jennifer, who was going to be driving back to Los Angeles, to deliver to my wife Christine when they met to talk about working together on my short film.

Lots of people were asking for autographs and to take pictures and to ask about Lord of the Rings, and I was very tired, and my throat was getting sore, and it was getting late, and the place was getting a little too crowded for comfort (as many Sundance parties can be) but one particular fellow shook my hand.  He seemed to be very drunk because the smell of alcohol around him was so potent, and he kept squeezing my hand so hard I was afraid my fingers would break, and I have a pretty meaty grip I must say. He kept saying "Park City local, man, Park City local" louder and louder, closer and closer to my face.  I tried to navigate the conversation in a way that would both honor whatever it was he was trying to communicate to me about being a local, and at the same time not get unwittingly involved in some kind of potential bar fight -- so what I took away from that moment was that the man wanted me to know that, as a local, he was there before I got there and he would be there after I left, and not just me but all the folks involved with the Sundance Festival.  I think he wanted me to remember him, and he squeezed my hand just hard enough to make sure.  When I finally demonstrated that I needed to leave, I got a sense from him that he was content that I had received his energy, in the way he was communicating it to me. 

That point was brought back home to me when I made one final visit to the Media Room at the hotel where the Sundance publicity folks were stationed, and this young woman shook my hand and I noticed that when I was ready to stop shaking hands, she held on to mine just a little bit longer -- it seemed like the feminine version of the same thing and, as it turns out, she is a Park City local as well! I found it very poignant that I was blowing into town, jetting in from Vancouver and jetting back out, but there are people who are from that place and whose families have lived there for generations.  It's important for people like me, who  take advantage of all the festival offers, to remember there are human beings who help keep the city alive and well year round when the festival isn't there.  So I asked this young lady to pose for a second photo, with me pointing at my hand so I would remember through this scrapbook about the importance and the sanctity of each human interaction.

Vancouver, BC
March 2003