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.

The wrap-up

Vancouver, B.C.

On Saturday night, Eve & the Fire Horse won a Special Jury Prize for World Cinema Dramatic! I sort of suspected something was up when I was told I shouldn’t introduce the film in Ogden (an hour away from Park City) and instead show up early at the awards ceremony. Nevertheless, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. 

There was an exciting list of jurors at the ceremony. The American competition jurors included Alexander Payne, Miguel Arteta, Terence Howard and Alan Rudolph — all of whom were present.  The jurors in my World Cinema category included Thomas Vinterberg, director of Dear Wendy and The Celebration.  Wim Wenders came on early as one of the presenters. As much as I wanted the film to win, I was more terrified of going up on stage and speaking in front of this accomplished audience! Thankfully, my prize was announced early on in the ceremony. When they began to read the jury statement and describe the film, I heard murmurs of recognition from the audience, and they broke into a warm applause when the name of the film was announced. I brought Tom, the executive producer, Eunhee, the associate producer and Shirley, one of the actors, up on stage with me. I remember seeing Terence Howard and Roger Ebert, camera in hand, sitting in the front row of the auditorium. I hardly remember what I said. I just stumbled my way through the speech.

It was the eve of the Chinese New Year, and I had the presence of mind to wish everyone a Happy Year of the Dog, though. Then, we were whisked off backstage to have our photos taken and to sign posters. I did a few phone interviews backstage. Again, it’s all a blur. I remember the security guard smiling at me and offering his congratulations.

I received lots of hugs that night — from the excited programmers and other filmmakers.

Sunday was the opening night of our Canadian release in Toronto and Vancouver.  I called my producers, who were doing a Q & A at the Tinseltown cinema in Vancouver. Erik broke the news right there to the Tinseltown audience and they applauded enthusiastically for this local film.

In the end, I got to see four films at Sundance: Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep, Ham Tran’s Journey From the Fall, a great documentary — The Trials of Darryl Hunt — and The Secret Life of Words.

Got back to Vancouver yesterday afternoon. Still digesting the whole experience at Sundance. Sunday morning, my hard-working and enthusiastic producers were out on the streets, marching in the Chinese New Year’s parade. They had a banner and a team of friends armed with buttons, hats, stickers and fortune cookies to hand out. Phoebe, our young lead actress, also handed out fortune cookies and signed autographs.

Being back in Canada, I am surprised and touched by all the media coverage E&FH has gotten. A friend jokingly calls it “Kwanzapalooza.” A novice to media attention, I am kind of discomfited by how much my personal life is now out there for public consumption. I try to avoid reading reviews, but they are too tempting to ignore. My favourite review/article headline for the film: “Are You There Gods? It’s Me, Eve.” I’m learning not to take the criticism personally, but sometimes it feels akin to someone picking on your baby because he/she has lopsided ears!

As for the future of the film, our talks with U.S. distributors continue and everything looks promising. I’m also more open to the idea of getting a U.S. agent. At Sundance, a development exec told me about how one filmmaker, whom some consider a sell-out, made enough money directing a franchise film to retire his father, who ran a grocery store for twenty years. I would love to be able to do something like that for my parents one day. Also, I hope I can continue to tell my stories.