Sundance Diary: The First Weekend

"Keep the Lights On" star Zachary Booth & producer Lucas Joaquin.

On Friday night, we attended the worldwide premier of Ira Sachs’s film “Keep The Lights On”, which left me still thinking about it 24 hours later. It is a powerful  autobiographical drama based on Sachs’s  on a 10 year relationship with a lover starting in the late 90s. It is certainly not for the faint of heart in it’s depiction of the sexual relationships and drug use, but is beautiful, haunting and has stayed with me for days after.

"Keep the Lights On" director Ira Sachs

Following the film, we headed to the New Frontiers opening night party. The New Frontiers section is always fascinating in it’s experimental displays in various rooms, this year starting with an avant garde short 3-D film to watch as you passed through into the main rooms. We were joined here by our good friends from NYU Tisch, and ran into many other colleagues sharing what to see or not see.

Saturday morning, we awoke to the first major blizzard of the season. Although the skiers were very happy about it, it did make getting around Park City a little more challenging -all part of the Sundance experience.

After checking in at the NY Lounge, and talking to some people, we joined the masses on the Park City transit, and headed to the annual lunch hosted by Tisch, this year at the Grub Steakhouse. Dean Mary Campbell welcomed over 250 guests, including alumni and current students that have films showing this year. It was a great mix of industry people with whom to network.

Later in the afternoon, we saw the premier of “Robot & Frank” , starring Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon and James Marsden. Langella gave a marvelous performance that I predict will be in Oscar contention this time next year. A lively Q&A followed, at which the director, writer and Mr. Langella entertained the audience.

Saturday evening, we were invited to the party celebrating the premier of “Arbitrage” by producer Robert Salerno. The party attendees  were in a very festive mood because early reviews were raves, calling it Richard Gere’s best performance. Mr. Gere was in attendance, donning a baseball cap, with his lovely wife Carey Lowell. It was a fun evening, followed by a very difficult trip back to our condo in the blizzard.

Sunday morning, we had a 9am screening of “Arbitrage”, which truly lived up to the hype of the night before. Richard Gere & Susan Sarandon (again) are terrific in this fast moving, New York centric thriller that is everything “Bonfire of the Vanities” should have been years ago, with a little Madoff spin to it as well. First time director Nicholas Jarecki  has a very bright future ahead of him. As of this writing, rumor has it that Paramount is considering picking it up.

The annual “Queer Brunch”, hosted by Outfest proved once agin to be the place to see and be seen. Filmmakers, actors, and future filmmaker all gathered to celebrate the films that represent gay & lesbian story lines, as well as drink and catch up.

Sunday evening was a real treat, as we were invited to join IFP at their celebration dinner at the exquisite Montage Hotel in Deer Valley. It was hosted by Rebecca Hall, and the meal was prepared by Top Chef Marcel Vigneron. It was a beautiful evening in celebration of the filmmakers that had come throughout IFP’s programs and were showing at the festival. Supporters of the organization and more experienced producers such as Ted Hope & Anthony Bregman were among the guests.

The final event of the weekend was arriving at the HBO- Blackhouse Foundation party at Blue Iguana around midnight. Brickson Diamond and Dolly Turner of Blackhouse were making sure all of their guests were having a great time dancing and chatting on the multilevel venue with the house music blasting. This after hosting at least three different events that day that included an interview with Ice T and a discussion with Common.