Leaving Park City.

It's in the name. "Film Festival," with the expectation that the emphasis is on "Film" and yet some festivals seem to gravitate more around the parties than the films. Indeed, there are plenty of folks in Park City that never see a single film during January. Wait, drink, sleep, repeat. I would wager that there are more people that attend the opening night party of Slamdance, for instance, than actually attend all of the Slamdance films combined. It's a shame, honestly, because the line-up at Slamdance this year was truly exceptional.

For instance, Sundance is known for its documentaries and yet the Slamdance fare was equal to (or, in several cases, superior to) the selection of its big brother. Take Big City Dick, a film about the fantastic composer Richard Peterson, more widely (and unjustifiably) known as a street musician in Seattle. Perhaps I could relate a little more with this film than most filmgoers, given a lengthy conversation with Peterson several years ago about the television show Sea Hunt, one of his many obsessions. Then again, maybe not - the doc received the Audience Award for Best Film (congratulations to the directing trio of Scott Milam, Ken Harder and Todd Pottinger).

Another award winner, this from the jury for Best Documentary Feature, went to another Seattle-based subject, Bruce Bickford, for Brett Ingram's Monster Road. If you're familiar with Frank Zappa's surreal animated films from the 1970s, you're somewhat familiar with the outrageous work of Bickford (who even made an appearance at the festival to support the film). Among other documentary highlights on the program this year were Mark Neale's exilerating MotoGP film Faster and the Japanese fetish photog-doc Arakimentari, featuring interviews with "Beat" Takeshi and Bjork!

The 'dance of Slam also strays into fictional territory occasionally. Fest co-founder Dan Mirvish's new film (a musical, oddly enough) Open House received its work-in-progress premiere at the fest. Star Sally Kellerman and nearly a dozen other members of the cast and crew were on hand for the screening. Expect it to make the festival rounds to other cities in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, back to where we began - there are twenty or more parties every afternoon/evening in the snowy hills of Utah. It isn't possible to attend them all (although some will try). Parties for products, parties for films (some of which should be considered "products" as well), parties for celebrities, parties for filmmakers, parties for the thinest of excuses.

One fantastic development at this year's festivities was the introduction of the Queer Lounge, where TLA (and others) held their fabulous get-togethers. Let's face it, this was the most consistently worthwhile place to make a (nearly) daily appearance and the one venue I look forward to visiting next year.

Other events were circulated to the usual restaurants and businesses along Main Street (or in the outer-reaches at lodges in Deer Valley and elsewhere). Riverhorse was the spot for some of the better (if more crowded) occasions, for IFC/Target (an odd pairing, admittedly) and Showtime on consecutive days. One festival known for its parties, GenArt, combined with FCUK to throw a little gathering. You'd think an organization that prides itself on its celebratory shindigs would arrange for something a little more interesting - despite an appearance from The Roots, the evening was lackluster.

Chance arrangements will occasionally find an unusual assortment of characters together in the same room. Left to right: JD Ashcraft (Director of Marketing & Advertising, indieWIRE), Miles Shozuya (Western Regional Sales Manager, Fujinon Inc.), Craig Yanagi (Market Development Manager, Sony), Jonathan Wells (Editorial Director, RES Magazine), Shannon Gee (Film Critic, Seattle Times), Naomi Nito (Product Planning, Sony), Jonathan Marlow (Content Acquisitions Director, GreenCine), Andy Spletzer (Film Critic, The Stranger).

The same could be said of the nightly Premiere gatherings where, amazingly enough, you wait in a lengthy line to get in only to wait in another line to pay for your own drinks (with the world-famous "Utah pour"). Of couse, you could have paid for the privilege to attend the Democratic National Committee fundraiser (at $1000 dollars a head) or $60 bones to see Macy Gray at Harry-Os at different points during the week.

Among the folks that get it - UTA (along with Amazon) put a show on at the Palms Lounge that had me winning thousands of dollars of fake money at their gambling tables and (finally) dancing like nobody's business with woman-of-many-talents Shannon Gee, along with Mario Van Peebles and fifty other folks crammed into a shoebox of a room.

Finally (although earlier in the week), a few words on the Crown Royal party that was mentioned earlier (and documented in photographs) by Dennis Woo. The American public does itself a diservice with its fascination with no-talent "celebrities" who can only claim name value, wealth and stupidity as assets. Considering that I saw this joke of a lady and her similarly lack-of-worth entourage at a number of these events can only suggest (I would hope) that her 15 minutes are nearly up. Clearly, there is no accounting for taste in America.

-- Jonathan Marlow

The full list of Slamdance award winners.

Posted by dwhudson at January 24, 2004 2:34 PM