Sundance 2008 Part 1

Day 1 (Friday): My shift starts at 2pm so I leave work around 1:30. I'll be there until midnight. It's the opening night Gala and will be very busy. Both showings are the same film--"The Great Buck Howard." For the first couple of hours, we're not sure what we're supposed to be doing. The movie begins at 6:30, the starts are supposed to show for the press line around 5:30. The governor to arrive at 6 pm. But there's already a few die-hards for the waitlist and we let them line up downstairs. Skip a few hours. Myself and the other volunteers do crowd control while we watch John Malkovich, Tom Hanks, Colin Hanks, and Adam Scott go through the press line and do some quick interviews. Malkovich has on a killer velour orange blazer type of jacket. And a green scarf. He can wear anything and be cool. The HB brings me some spaghetti with mizithra cheese and I sneak him into the second screening of the movie and he loves it.

Day 2 (Saturday): The HB and I watch the Animation Spotlight before my shift begins. They are great, my favorite is the first one, a sort of eerie stop-motion called "Madame Tutli-Putli." I head over to my theater for my shift 5-midnight. I see some friends from my day-job at the screenings. I get frustrated at volunteers that just want to watch the movies on their shift and not help out. I think I must be a really bad manager even though I always thought I was good with people. I say hi to a member of my former singles ward bishopbric who is there to see the movie "Good Dick." I think he was hiding from me at first, but he should know I'm not about to judge another person for their film choices, and from what I saw, it was a great movie.

Day 3 (Sunday): I bring the HB to watch "In Bruges" before my shift starts again at 5 until midnight. It's totally hilarious and full of obscene language. We love it.

Day 4 (Monday): I have the night off and decide to go see a show with some work friends. We see "What Just Happened?" and I"m not that impressed. Plus I can't stand it when movies end with the main character giving a quick run-down of subsequent events in the lives of the other characters. It seems really weak, like the ending wasn't good enough and the directors have an urge to sort of "wrap things up" more, even though the audience has no need. Just make a good ending.

Day 5 (Tuesday): Shift begins at 5, ends at midnight. One of the box office volunteers quit because she was offended by the nature of some of the films in the festival. It's our first slow night, the first screenings that we haven't completely packed every single seat of the theater.

Day 6 (Wednesday): I'm pretty exhausted at work. My baby is now the size of a lime and I'm 12 weeks along. I go to the Outdoor Retailer show at the Salt Palace during the day with my co-worker. I get my picture taken with the Naked Cowboy. After work I meet my sister, mom, little brother, and little sister at the Broadway for a documentary. It's called "Stranded" and is about the rugby team that crashed in the Andes mountains in the 1970's. My sister and I have read both the book "Alive" and "Miracle in the Andes" and are huge fans of the movie "Alive." We're excited to see real interviews of many of the survivors, but unfortunately don't get into the showing. Out waitlist numbers were 26-30 and they cut it off just before we could get in. I'm mad the movie was so popular that we couldn't get in. My first couple of years at Sundance I worked the Broadway and I thought the first 30 in the waitlist line were a sure bet. I feel like I let them down after convincing them to come.