Sundance Diary

Julia Kwan, director of Eve & the Fire Horse. Photo by Steve Carty.

Vancouver-based filmmaker Julia Kwan attended this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Utah to promote her first full-length feature, Eve & the Fire Horse. The picture explores the religious awakening of two Chinese-Canadian girls living with their parents in 1970s Vancouver. The festival, which is held in both Park City and Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City, and ran Jan. 19-29, is one of the main events of the annual festival circuit, and is traditionally known for breaking new, independent talent. During the festival, Kwan kept an online diary as she attended all the hot parties and chatted up all the necessary contacts in the hopes of garnering international attention for her film.

January 20

Park City, Utah

On the plane ride to Salt Lake City on Thursday, there were eleven of us: the cast and the crew and the producers and I. We sort of commandeered the plane. It was an orgy of photo-taking. So much so that the flight attendant had to make an announcement telling us to sit down. We were just overwhelmed with excitement. That day, I had a spread in the Globe and Mail, a nice article, so some passengers recognized me.

On the shuttle from Salt Lake City to Park City, I already got two calls with party invites. It’s happening already. Apparently, there are 7,500 people who live in Park City. When the festival comes around, it’s 60,000.

When we got to Park City, we had a meeting with our team of publicists. They’re all from Toronto and L.A. It’s such an overwhelming thing. When the film project started, it was a very solitary existence. I was just writing in a room by myself. And all of a sudden, there’s this huge team of people, and they have so much promotional material. The producers came up with posters and buttons and toques (although nobody here knows what “toques” are). I was in a dream state. Also, there’s the high altitude. Two of my producers had headaches that whole first night. My head is swimming; it’s sort of like a half-awake, half-dream state. It’s very surreal.

Last night, we had a three-hour dinner, so we missed the opening gala party for the Jennifer Aniston film, Friends with Money. I’m glad not to have seen Jennifer Aniston, but I’m a huge fan of Catherine Keener, so I regret not having seen her in person. We ended up going to the party at midnight, but by that time, most partygoers were jumping into taxis and leaving. There were a few stragglers. It was fun talking to the volunteers. These positions are really hard to get, and really coveted. These volunteers come from all over North America, and they get room and a little bit of money for food, and they have the most stylish volunteer jackets I’ve ever seen. I was coveting their jackets, actually.

Tonight is our premiere night. It’s a sold-out screening, so that’s exciting. I feel nervous. I hope Eve & the Fire Horse will be warmly received. I’ll be too nervous to sit through the screening, so I’ll probably be pacing in the hallway. I’m just excited that Vivien Wu and Phoebe Jo Jo Kut, the leads, are here, to share this experience with me, and go through the Q&A with me. I’ve thought about calming myself with alcohol, but with this high altitude, I don’t know if it’s a good idea.