As your time in Park City stretches on, you enter a sort of cinematic fatigue where all the films you've seen start blending into one gigantic bowl of indie chow mein. When you do get some sleep, the good films rise to the surface of your snow-battered consciousness.
We were shooting a Somali pirate film in Mombasa, Kenya. We needed real Somalis from Somalia, and of course, we needed real AK-47s for the pirate scenes. You don't go half way around the world to shoot with fake guns.
Each year, there are a few great films that get Park City buzz, only to disappear into a sea of megaplexes and blockbusters. I submit that many of these would have fared better on TV.
My day at the movies in Park City took some of the sting out of the Oscars' mundanities. I saw two outstanding documentaries and one dramatic feature that undoubtedly will be Oscar-bait at this time next year.
If it were possible to cleanse the planet by watching a movie, this would be the place to do it.
In 2006 this city's showcase event, the Sundance Fil...