Sundance or Bust

This past weekend, there was an alumni event down at Sundance Film Festival. I've never been to Sundance before and so I rounded up some friends to go down to the weekend. Early Saturday morning (would have been earlier if my alarm had gone off!), Yosh, Sam, Mike (also known as Bobcat) headed down the I-84 to Utah, armed with some good music and gorgeous views. And of course, a lot of laughter. Our views were only slightly marred by Yosh's windscreen which was a little dirtier because of a broken windshield fluid mechanism. This brought about some off the side of the road window washing.



We made it down to Ogden in good time and headed straight to a restaurant called Bistro 235 where a prospective student event was being held. There were only two students (well... one really, the other one only had one question: Is there a ballroom dancing club. So she didn't count) but we got to talk a little about our experiences and talk up the college that we all loved so well (except Mike, obviously, as he's from Montana but his older brother Nick went to the college so he had some perspective). After the lunch and chatting with Will, the admissions counselor in charge, we headed over to the Hampton and went over to hang out with Emma and Candice in their room. We all got to know each other and chatted and discussed whether we wanted to go up to a pre-dinner reception but ended up just deciding to get changed and head over to dinner.

We walked past the Peery Egyptian Theatre where the movies were going to be played that night and down to the famous 25th Street where Roosters was located. When we arrived upstairs, one table was taken by the "grown-ups" (all those over 40), so we started our "Kids" table. It was the more fun one anyway.


Then we headed over to the theater. Tom, the alumni who set up this event, is the finance manager for the Eccles Conference Centre that connects to the theater so he set us up with a board room for a reception and drinks and also booked us the VIP boxes. It was pretty swanky. I've never been in a private box before, especially not one with free wine, beer, water, sodas and free popcorn. We got our tickets and headed in to watch the first movie.

The first movie was called Project Nim. Nim was the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. He was taken from his mother practically at birth and given to a family living on the upper west side in New York. He grew first at the house with this family and then eventually moved to a house in upstate New York owned by Columbia University. Teachers worked with him to teach him sign language and how to communicate and attempt to dissuade him from chimp-like behaviour, including lashing out in anger when he was frustrated. However, the project was not done with scientific protocol, there weren't too many logs or data and several teachers left after having affairs with the lead "scientist" or because of being attacked. Five years later, the project was abruptly shut down and Nim was sent back to the place of his birth- basically a chimp prison. After those horrible conditions, he was taken to the NYU Medical Experimentation Lab for chimps and was tested on with various vaccines. Through the hard work of a handler at the chimp prison, Nim was able to make his way to a ranch for abused animals and eventually live with several other chimps. Nim had an extraordinary journey through human society, and made an enduring impact on the people he met along the way. The film was an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal they tried to make human and the result was comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.

The best part of this movie was that James Marsh, the director, was on hand and he brought up several "stars" of the film- Bob, the hippie handler who was Nim's biggest advocate; one of his teachers at the house upstate (whose name I can't remember), Laura, Nim's "second mother" and a four-year teacher on the project who was possibly the biggest influence on Nim and his education, and Stephanie, the woman who took Nim into her home, without the consultation of her family or husband. It was great to hear them talk about their experiences today and how they remembered Nim and Bob got the biggest round of applause.
During "intermission", we went back to the board room for more drinks and some delicious desserts and chatting. President Marv and Laurie were there and I got to chat with Laurie for a bit before we headed back in to the second movie. This one was called "In A Better World" and it was a Danish film. The main character, Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. Their older, ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has just moved from London with his father, Claus. Christian's mother recently lost her battle with cancer, and Christian is greatly troubled by her death. Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger. Elias and Christian decide to pull off a large-scale plan of revenge against a man who several times hit and belittled Anton. Anton continually stresses the idea of turning the other cheek, but Christian ignores. In the end, Elias ends up becoming injured which is Christian's "come to Jesus moment" where he decides he should just end himself so that his father won't be burdened with him any longer. It's up to Anton to coax Christian off the edge of the building, literally and figuratively and is the real turning point in all of their lives. Ultimately, it is their parents who are left to help them come to terms with the complexity of human emotions, pain and empathy. It was a very intense movie that forced all of us to look at our definition of morality and ethics and right and wrong.

After the movies the young crowd relaxed in the hot tub a little before heading to bed. The next morning the guys and I headed off to Park City about an hour away. We found a great, free parking spot maybe twenty minutes away from the main area of Park City and had about two hours or so to walk around. Sadly the only famous people we saw were gone by the time we registered who they were but Isabella Rosselini and Cheryl Hines are now checked off the list of celebrities seen. Park City was definitely a quaint little place with some great shops and restaurants. I would have loved more time there but it was a six hour drive back home and it had already been a long two days. Next year, we're definitely going to spend more time in Park City. Maybe even ski down the hill that ends in the middle of town.



The great weekend was topped off with a visit to In 'N Out on the way home. Delicious and way closer than having to go to California for a double-double, fries and a shake.