Sundance: Silver Screens In The Snow

<p>Nestled amongst the snowy ski slopes of Park City in the heat of Utah, the latest edition of SUNDANCE, one of the world’s most famous film festivals, is well underway.</p> <p><img src="http://www.thegayuk.com/communities/8/004/009/928/388/images/4618032996.jpg" width="461" height="307" alt="" title=""/></p> <p>This premiere showcase for independent movies attracts all the leading lights of the industry including a fair sprinkling of headlining stars, and the world’s press to report on all the comings and goings and review the movies that hopefully will be in our cinemas sometime in 2015. Amongst the latter is THE GAY UK’s very own Contributing Editor <a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/RogerWalker-Dack">Roger Walker-Dack</a>, and we are the ONLY UK gay publication to have a man (or woman) on the ground there. Here is his initial sneak preview from Day 4 of the Festival.</p><p> </p><p><img src="http://www.thegayuk.com/communities/8/004/009/928/388/images/4618032993.jpg" width="460" height="460" alt="Roger Walker-Dack" title="Roger Walker-Dack"/></p> <p></p><p>Even with a coveted Press & Industry Pass I still need to get in line for any movie I want to see an hour ahead of its screening time, and then it still doesn’t guarantee me a seat. Several of my colleagues have been locked out of seeing some of the more pre-hyped movies, which is no fun when you started queuing, Starbucks in hand, as early as 8 am.</p><p></p><p>I get to see on average 5 to 6 movies a day and I actually feel if I only make it to watch 4, then I am slacking. Every single movie that is being shown here went through rigorous vetting and selection process, as the competition to participate is extremely fierce. It doesn’t however mean that everything in the schedule is to all of our likings, but hopefully in the main if we watch something that is not too our taste there is at least some redeeming feature that validates its selection.</p><p></p><p>Sundance is famous for routing out excellent quirky movies and one such one this year was FINDERS KEEPERS. It’s a documentary about an amputee who kept his old leg in an a storage unit that got sold off in an auction, and then developed into a well publicized and hilarious public fight as to who owned the leg. It was one of the funniest movies I have seen so far. </p><p> </p><p><img src="http://www.thegayuk.com/communities/8/004/009/928/388/images/4618032994.jpg" width="459" height="323" alt="" title=""/></p> <p>I have also been far from amused with the very latest misguided offering from <a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/tags/JamesFranco">James ‘Gay For Pay’ Franco</a> as he continues his somewhat unhealthy obsession with all things gay whilst reminding us constantly how very straight he really is. In ‘I AM MICHAEL” based on an obnoxious true story, Franco plays a leading gay activist who very publicly turns ‘straight’ and becomes a Christian Pastor whilst publicly condemning everyone from his old life. It is a sensitive subject handled clumsily with a very stilted performance by Franco that will not enamor him to either the gay community or the Religious Right if the film ever sees the light of day in cinemas.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, yesterday I was as happy as Larry too. <a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/tags/LarryKramer">Larry Kramer</a> that is. In the first documentary that he has ever allowed to be made about his eventful life we are reminded how very grateful we were/are that his unceasing anger fuelled his activist work when the AIDS epidemic exploded, and his actions saved so many lives. It seemed fitting watching this the same day that <a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/tags/MarkRuffalo">Mark Ruffalo</a> won a SAG Best Actor for portraying Ned Weeks aka Larry Kramer in in the movie of Larry’s groundbreaking play THE NORMAL HEART.</p><p></p><p>There is a not a great deal of specifically LGBT programming this year but one outstanding one is NASTY BABY. Written and directed by openly gay Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva who, in this his second American feature, is in front of the camera too. Silva plays Freddy a gay video artist desperate to become a parent but this cosy baby-making scenario unexpectedly develops into a brutal melodrama that really blows your mind. Not in quite the same way as in Silva’s 2013 hit movie CRYSTAL FAIRY AND THE MAGIC CACTUS where it’s a totally different, but equally wonderful trip. More on this later.</p><p></p><p>We are just halfway through the Festival, so look for my full report in THE GAY UK very soon.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p>