After doing a vlog confessonal with filmmaker Benedict Campbell at the FIlmmaker lodge, we were suddenly greeted by the news of Heath Ledger’s tragic passing. But being Sundance, there was no time for too much discussion; Danielle and I then jetted to the Yarrow Hotel to attend a press and industry screening for Short Docs. I have to say this was one of my favorite screenings at the fest; the closing short, LA CORONA, directed by Colombian filmmaker (and a fellow alumni of Danielle’s alma mater, Wesleyan) Isabela Vega, was a riveting short about a trio of female prison inmates vying for the yearly beauty pageant.

A soothing stop at the Heineken Lodge for a private reception for the International Documentary Association gave me a healthy amount of sushi, but we made an exit before another serving, as we were running late for the upcoming Stella Artois dinner, where Indiewire’s Brian Brooks took a snap of Danielle alongside feted filmmakers Matthew Lessner and Brian Davila.

Since I wear many hats (and layers of clothing) I am also at Sundance as press, covering on the L Magazine’s blog. My first post, which discusses a few films in depth, can be seen here

As Jordan writes below, Cynthia Wade’s Freeheld was nominated for the Best Short Documentary Academy Award. Well, guess what? So was Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello’s Salim Baba (which Ryan Harrington, Robert Stone and I awarded “Best Short Documentary” at the Woodstock Film Festival this past October. And best of all, now Tim Sternberg owes me a dinner!!! Finally, Isabel Vega a fellow Wesleyan alumni who I met on Day Two of Sundance, has her film La Corona nominated as well. Congrats all !

We had the chance to sit down with director Cynthia Wade at the Woodstock Film Festival this past October, and when I first saw the trailer for her stunning short, FREEHELD, I knew I was in the presence of an ideal documentarian. Cynthia pursues a very difficult subject with not just your typical documentarian’s zest for facts, but also with delicacy and compassion. Please do check out our interview with Cynthia as soon as you can! We have high hopes she’ll be going home with an Oscar soon enough.

The announcement of the nominees for the inaugural Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction went off swimmingly on Sunday, with most of the nominating committee, lots of press, and filmmakers galore in attendance. Karina Longworth of Spout wrote this great post
and even The Orlando Sentinel weighed in with a sort of odd commentary here

Targetwire picked up the
press release.
Here is AJ’s more in-depth recap and a copy of the Indiewire Buzz announcement:

BUZZiW NEWS | Cinema Eye Honors Announces Inaugural Nominees

Nominations for the inaugural Cinema Eye Honors For NonFiction Filmmaking were announced today by 2008 Award Co-Chairs Thom Powers, Documentary Programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, and filmmaker AJ Schnack, director of “Kurt Cobain About A Son.” Films nominated for best picture include: Philip Groenin’s “Into Great Silence,” Tony Kaye’s “Lake of Fire,” Jason Kohn’s “Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)”, Pernille Rose Gronkjaer’s “The Monastery – Mr. Vig and the Nun,” and Charles Ferguson’s “No End In Sight.” “Into Great Silence” and “Manda Bala” lead with six nominations each, while “Lake of Fire” has five. The full nomination list is available on the indieWIRE Insider blog. The Cinema Eye Honors, named for the revolutionary group of young filmmakers led by pioneering documentarian Dziga Vertov, will be awarded on March 18, 2008 at a ceremony at the IFC Center in New York City. The event will be presented by IndiePix [Peter Knegt]

THE WEEKEND – DAYS 3 and 4
At the Sundance Resort, Robert Redford, Quentin Tarantino, Sandra Oh and Morgan Spurlock stopped by for the Directors’ brunch. According to Redford, “you, the filmmakers, are the reason why the festivals and industry are happening, and nothing else matters.” Redford also stressed the importance of differentiating between Park City and the festival. “Park City is not Sundance”, quipped Redford; “this is just the place where we hold it.” Redford then told a riveting anecdote highlighting the spirit of independent film.

I then stopped by the NYU Alumni dinner; as last year, it was incredibly well attended and almost impossible to get into without a proper invitation (aka, a Student Loan Bill of more than 40K a year). I did manage to connect with several alumni – among them, the hilarious Sean Donnelly, who’s documentary on 80s pop icon Tiffany, I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW, was apparently a hit over at Entertainment Weekly (the film is at Slamdance).

The Indiepix Press Reception for the first annual Cinema Eye Awards was presented by Danielle DIgiacomo, AJ Schnack, Thom Powers, and filmmaker Margaret Brown(BE HERE TO LOVE ME, THE ORDER OF MYTHS). Those in attendance were clearly in support of the potentially polarizing concept, which highlights the craft in documentary filmmaking. Though a few expressed concern that films in general should be judged on equal terms, the majority of the crowd (made up largely of festival programmers and industry reps such as David Nugent, Andrew Mer, Sky Sitney and Matt Dentler) showed their excitement for this promising venture. AJ Schnack continued to express his gratitude to Indiepix, beginning the press conference by thanking us “for our continued enthusiasm.”

We followed the reception with a trip to a beautiful lodge off of Main Street in honor of the Fledgling Fund. The fund, which has assets over $30 million, is interested in making grants and investments that help primarily social-issue projects “take flight”. One of this year’s most riveting films was a short film documentary aimed at gay rights by the name of FREEHELD, shortlisted by the Academy. We met fearless filmmaker Cynthia Wade thanks to Woodstock FIlm Festival co-director Meira Blaustein, who facilitated an interview with Cynthia up at Woodstock this past October (please do stop by our special Indiepix-at-Woodstock page to view our interview with Cynthia!) Jesse Epstein of Shooting People was also on hand to present her short. Keep an eye out for Jesse’s soon to be published article on Indiepix, conducted in the near-impossible Park City fracas.

MONDAY – DAY 5
After finally recovering from a vicious bout with the common cold last night, I attended the Utah FIlm Commission meetup, where the goal of the evening was to draw more filmmakers to producing films in the area. We caught up with KAMP KATRINA director Ashley Sabinand Daniel Rabinowitz at the New Frontiers lodge for the first batch of Indiepix Filmmaker Confessional Vlogs, which we are most excited to introduce, by the way. With not much time in between, it was then off to the Stein Erikson Ski Lodge for the Top 10 DIrectors to Watch ceremony hosted by industry mag Variety. In attendance were Jodie Foster, Dennis Hopper,Saffron Burrows, (among many others) and Andie Macdowell, who introduced this year’s Top 10 (and fittingly so; it was Macdowell who starred in one of Sundance’s first indie hits, SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, back in 1989). The Top 10 and their respective films were: Ben Affleck “Gone Baby Gone,” Daniel Barnz “Phoebe In Wonderland,” Tony Gilroy “Michael Clayton,” Seth Gordon “King of Kong,” Nadine Labaki “Caramel,” Anna Melikyan “Mermaid,” Cristian Mungiu “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days,” Jose Padilha “Elite Squad,” Johan Renck “Downloading Nancy,” and Alex Rivera’s “Sleep Dealer”, (which interestingly enough was a project brought to us for potential funding last year by Hector Meza).

But the night didn’t end there. While Danielle ventured into the well-guarded Cinetic party at the Robert Redford-owned ZOOM restaurant, I stopped by the meet-and-greet for new company Indie Gogo, a new service which claims to be “the social marketplace where filmmakers and fans connect to make independent film happen.” Though that vague definition may not answer all of your questions, I can tell you that after speaking with one of their reps, it is basically an online promotional tool geared to nabbing those ever-elusive eyeballs: “Founded on the principles of opportunity, transparency, choice, and action, IndieGoGo launched in 2008 to address the fundraising challenges and market inefficiencies affecting independent filmmaking today. IndieGoGo enables this “filmocracy” by providing filmmakers an open platform to pitch their projects to the world, and giving the fans a vehicle to experience and influence the once inaccessible world of filmmaking.” Perhaps not surprisingly, most of their projects are currently listed as “open for funding!”…