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 22

Park City, Utah

Yesterday was a very exciting day. First, we were invited to the directors’ brunch that Robert Redford holds every year. It took place at a beautiful resort 45 minutes outside of Park City. On the bus ride up, I got to talk to all kinds of interesting directors, including Bruce Alcock (from the production company Global Mechanic), who has a short called At the Quinte Motel in this year’s festival. At the brunch, Robert Redford talked to us about how to handle the pressure; he recalled how critics totally slammed one of his early pictures. He’s a very eloquent speaker. As predicted, many of the directors assembled there started taking pictures of him. And yes, at one point, I found myself doing the same — though as it turns out, my camera didn’t work. It’s probably a good sign.

Later in the day, we heard a rumour that Paris Hilton was going to be in town. She’s one of many celebrities who come to Sundance just to be seen, not because they actually have something to promote.

In the afternoon, we went to the second screening of Eve & the Fire Horse. I was actually more nervous this time than I was at the premiere. I think it’s because of the buzz that the film is getting. Apparently, people waited outside for an hour to get tickets to this screening, and some people didn’t end up getting in. The film seems to be getting strong word-of-mouth, but I’m starting to worry now about the buzz. What if people are disappointed when they see it? It’s funny, at first you want the buzz, so the film gets greater exposure. But then, you start to worry that the film can’t live up to the hype. Anyways, one of the cool things about the screening was that apparently Roger Ebert was there.

That night, one of my producers, Eric, managed to score us a table at this really cool restaurant. (I forget the name now.) What’s neat about this place is that every dining party gets its own room and its own chef. Ours was Chef Armstrong, who used to work at Table 8 in L.A., and apprenticed under Wolfgang Puck. The food was phenomenal: beef tenderloin, salad, bread pudding… While we were there, I saw a couple of “stars.” One of them was Kelly Osbourne, another one of these celebrities who descends on Sundance with nothing to promote (but herself). I think I also saw Stewart Copeland (ex-Police drummer). Oh, and producer Harvey Weinstein was there.

After dinner, we just went back to the condo. First, though, it took us about an hour to get a cab! It’s crazy: with 60,000 here, most of them here for the festival, getting a cab becomes just about impossible.

Tomorrow, I hope to see my first movie (as an audience member): The Science of Sleep, by Michel Gondry.