a new frontier

i had no expectations, visual or logistical, going into sundance.  in fact, it has never in my life occurred to me to attend the festival.  i like movies as much as the next girl, but i tend to spend my time seeking out music, not film.  i was asked to come to sundance this year to  take photographs for a blog.   when i got my press credentials approved, i began getting at least about 10 press releases per day from various filmmakers.  i mostly ignored them, because it was going to be my job to just go where the writer wanted to go and take pictures of what she told me to take.  i left the scheduling of films and press conferences up to her.  i was given a guide with all of the films and music and things to do, but i didn’t read it, i flipped through the pages and looked at the pictures, and quickly scanned the list of bands that would be playing.  i pretty much went out of my way to not prepare for the trip.  i wanted to just go and experience it in a hands on, organic way – at least as much as possible.

the first morning there, we headed out to two press conferences – i had no idea what they were for.  the first turned out to be for new frontier on main.  i thought we’d hear about a single film, or a director, or a company, i guess.  we went down into the basement of what looked like a strip mall on main street, and when we walked in i felt like i’d been transported to los angeles in the middle of the night, to a swank hotel like the standard in hollywood.  the light was red and clubby, and there were leather cubes all over to sit on.  press people were walking around recording everything with flip video cameras, or had two or three gigantic digital slr’s hanging around their necks. there was an open bar and a spread of food.

bordertown

as i started to wander, i found a miniature town with tiny video screens in the windows.  tiny model buildings of a liquor store, a cheap motel, a topless bar.  when i peeked inside the tiny topless bar, i saw a little stripper pole and a little screen the size of an iphone playing a stripper video.

the cheap motel was larger, about waist height, and in all the windows – people having sex on screens.  the video playing in the window of the liquor store was ghost world, one of my all time favorite movies.  but, why was ghost world part of the marketing behind a film being shown at sundance?  it’s like a million years old.  behind all of this, three large walls with various images from films projected.  in another area of the room, unrelated, a google map that you could walk in to move around was projected on the floor.  i was able to focus on that for one, maybe two seconds before a wall of fast moving images of dancers mesmerized me.  one of the people from my group asked if i’d gone inside the black curtain yet and gestured to another area of the room.  no, no . . . i haven’t.  how long have i been down here?  when would i have done that?  how did he have time to have gone in already?  he asked how much i could see without my glasses, because you have to wear night vision goggles (post global warming survival kit) to go behind the curtain.  umm, maybe later.  i have a coffee i’d like to finish first. kthxbai.

cloud mirror

i found a long hallway and someone else told me that as you walk by the flat screens, they would film you and create captions and put them in a thought bubble next to your head.  really?  oh!  oh yes it does.  as i walked by, my thought bubble said, “damn i look good.”  there was a computer next to a box of badges on lanyards, and i really wanted one.  isn’t the point of being here to collect as many badges on lanyards as possible?  resist it.  you don’t know what those badges do yet.*

i went into a room off the hallway – every wall had video playing floor to ceiling and there was a group of press people interviewing that guy . . . that guy from the t.v. . . . . what’s his name?  he was on a show.  i used to watch it all the time.  i can’t think of what show it was.  that 70s show?  no.  damn.  i can’t think of it.  i’ll just take a few pictures of him, because he’s two feet away.  i’ll think of it later.**  it’s sweaty in here, must get out of this room.

so i went back down the hallway and found an enormous – enormous!! room with very cozy cushions all over the floor.  very dark.  low ceilings.  very wide screens covering two walls and playing a repeating, hypnotic film with just the right music, at just the right volume.  you could sit in there for hours.  observe:

Lobe of Lung (The Saliva Ooze Away to the Underground) from e. rader on Vimeo.

but how does this all fit together?  what film is this about? what company? i came back out into the main part of the room – where it was clear that the press conference would be held, and it was about to start.  they introduced the main woman behind new frontier, she gave a little speech, and then she introduced all the artists.  it was only *then* that it finally clicked in my tiny brain: i am at an art exhibit.  i am seeing installation pieces.  these are not a bunch of marketing things set up to promote a single film.  i am in the basement of a strip mall that has been converted into a really cool art space with interactive exhibits set up.  oh!!

because of my non-preparation for sundance, i was completely blindsided by this, and then i felt kind of stupid, but oh so happy.  it isn’t often anymore that you can be one hundred percent surprised by something you go to see – so thoroughly unprepared that you don’t even know what it’s called.  it’s refreshing, startling, and disorienting – in the very best ways.  i had forgotten what that experience can be like because i have an iphone and twitter and news feeds and email and text messages with information coming at me every minute of the day.

i took away the reminder that you can turn it all off and just walk into an art gallery that you pass by, or go to a movie without researching it first . . . and experience something new with your eyes, and your mind, and your emotions – not with your preconceived notions.  i hope it takes a while before i forget this again.

* cloud mirror.  when you take a badge and register it on the computer, it looks up all of your personal info on the internet.  it pulls quotes and pictures of you from facebook, twitter, wherever you’ve been.  when you wear the badge and walk in front of the screen, your generic thought bubble becomes actual quotes, things you’ve said.  hi, creepy?  no thanks!

** it was joseph gordon-levitt and the show was 3rd rock from the sun.  his installation was about hit record.

joseph gordon-levitt