Chapman students celebrate independent cinema at Sundance Film Festival
Chapman students who attended the 40th annual Sundance Film Festival sat down with The Panther to recall the films they watched, the films they missed and the celebrities they encountered walking down Main Street in Park City, Utah. Photo collage by EMILY PARIS, Photo Editor
One of the appeals of a small film festival like Sundance, which takes place all on the same long street, is brushing shoulders with celebrities. From shaking hands with old Hollywood stars to taking selfies with film social media content creators, junior creative producing major Alexis Golin was ecstatic to be a part of this year’s Park City festivities. She happened to run into Reece Feldman (@guywithamoviecamera) on Main Street and got a photo with the popular content creator as he was doing social media coverage for the festival.
“All of Hollywood essentially migrates from L.A. or New York to Utah for five days,” Golin said. “The town is just popping. It feels like Hollywood moved towns all the way to Park City, Utah.”
2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the very first Sundance film lab. The festival has changed a lot since its humble beginnings, but every year, in the cold of Park City’s January snow, people from across the globe gather to showcase their new work, meet other filmmakers and breathe in the creativity flowing through the air. The Panther spoke to a handful of Chapman attendees about what they saw, loved, missed and hope to catch the rest of the year.
Golin and senior creative producing major Chris Bohme both traveled to the festival this year with the Interterm travel course hosted by associate professors Travis Knox and Russell Schwartz. There were two full days of class prior to the trip where Knox and Schwartz talked about the history of the festival, acquisitions and case studies. They brought in Mickey Duzdevich, the film festival coordinator for the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, to talk about how films are programmed at Sundance.
“Shout out to week one of the travel course,” Golin said. “The group was awesome. At the end of the night, we would debrief on stuff we saw, who we met and what we were doing the next day. I feel like I know a lot more people in Dodge coming out of this trip.”
This year's Sundance slate was stacked with films ranging from the sci-fi romance “Love Me” starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun to Will Ferrell’s cross-country road trip documentary with his best friend Harper Steele, titled “Will & Harper.” Senior screenwriting major Maggie Vetter got tickets to see the unique “Sasquatch Sunset,” directed by Nathan and David Zellner and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough as… sasquatches. Vetter described it as “unique” and “not for everyone.”
Vetter, who is from Park City, has grown up around Sundance her whole life, but it's been a couple of years since she has got to experience the festival in person.
“I think Sundance is quite unique because I know a lot of other festivals are in bigger cities. It just feels really cozy. Everything is pretty much on Main Street. You just get to interact with a lot of people. It’s really friendly and so much more casual than a lot of the other festivals as far as I’m aware.”
Bohme agreed with Vetter, calling the festival the “forerunner for independent cinema in the U.S.” He had attended Sundance virtually the previous two years but knew he was missing part of the experience by not being in person. His favorite film of the festival was “I Saw the TV Glow,” played during the midnight screening section, which screens movies that often turn into cult classics.
“It was directed by Jane Schoenbrun, who did ‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.’ It was so out there, and the fact that A24 is backing it is really a bold decision,” Bohme said. “I think it will be really interesting to see how it plays to a wider audience, but Sundance was a perfect first stepping stone because it was great to see the crowd's reactions to it.”
Golin’s watches skewed towards the documentary realm. She did get the chance to see her favorite actor, Glen Powell, in Richard Linklater’s “Hitman,” but didn’t predict that she would end up seeing a large amount of documentary screenings.
“I started gravitating towards documentaries,” Golin said. “I was always a narrative girl, but watching docs like ‘The Greatest Night In Pop’ (and) ‘Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story’. ‘Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza’ was totally an eye-opener for me that I do like other forms of content other than fiction.”
Over the years, getting tickets to screenings at Sundance has become more difficult for attendees. All festival tickets are completely digital QR codes, removing the need to go to the physical box office and purchase tickets for screenings. Vetter had wanted to see Jesse Eisenberg’s ‘A Real Pain’ but was only able to see it online due to the film's popularity.
“(Sundance) has gotten more star-focused in the past couple of years. I think after COVID-19, people are more excited to get back out and go see everything at festivals. I remember the last time I went was right before COVID-19 in 2020, and we got a bunch more tickets than we did this time around.”
Even with immense amounts of planning and knowing the films that are playing like the back of your hand, Vetter, Bohme and Golin all recommend anyone planning to attend Sundance or any other film festival in the near future to expect the unexpected. Bohme described the festival as being similar to a choose-your-own-adventure book.
“Anticipate that you aren’t going to see everything you want to see, but that is okay. There were a lot of films that maybe were peripherally on my radar that I wasn’t super interested in, and by going to those, I discovered something I really liked. There was a film called ‘Suncoast’ that wasn’t really on my radar. Then my friend had this extra ticket, so I was like, ‘Why not?’ It became one of my favorites.”
Some of their best collective advice: start getting tickets as early as you can, especially if you are buying single tickets to individual screenings. There are also ticket packages that bundle together certain films. It all depends on what kind of festival experience you want.
“Sundance is a whirlwind, so try not to do everything, everywhere, all at once. You are just gonna miss some stuff, and that’s the name of the game, but don’t be bummed out by that. You’ll have a great time regardless.”