Casino Jack and the Sundance Kid

I'm a big fan of film festivals, indie movies, and artistic towns with character. And about this time every year, slightly over an hour away, there just so happens to be an event that incorporates all these things. Yes, my friends, Sundance. And thanks to my pal (and my pal's pal), I finally got to see a movie there this year.

The film we saw was a documentary called Casino Jack and the United States of Money. It was about (drum roll please) corrupt politicians.

{Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. Did I hear that right? Corrupt politicians? No!}

So the subject matter wasn't anything new and inspiring, and I think the director could have used less partisan storytelling, but it was somewhat informative and more importantly... it was SUNDANCE.

Even through the pretentious air of rich yuppies and bearded film students, I was so happy to be there.

I was happy to sit in the theater drinking my overpriced water. I was happy to ride the shuttle with the filmmaker standing in front of me. I was happy with my friend's boldness to keep talking about the movie with the filmmaker in front of me. I was happy to walk in the crisp, bitter, January night air down Main Street. I was happy to see the Banksy street art on a dumpster. I was (especially) happy with the delicious pizza we had for dinner. And I was happy to be up after 3AM knowing I had an early shoot the next morning because I knew I was at Sundance.

I find it funny that when returning from the festival, it is hardly asked "what did you see?", but "who did you see?". Sundance is an independent film festival, not a celebrity stalking festival. I've never been one for star gazing. I'm far more interested in hearing what filmmakers have to say about their labors than I am in maybe seeing an annoyed celebrity dodging gawking locals. Just because someone is famous doesn't make them interesting to me.

{That being said, we're pretty sure every limo that passed by had Zooey Dechanel, Daniel Craig, Casey Affleck, and Natalie Portman in it... just because deep down we knew if we saw any of them in real life we would suddenly take an interest in star gazing.}