On the flight home from Park City, I tried really hard to reflect on and process all that had happened over the past 10 days. I attempted to weed out the real and genuine from the “buzz” and hype. I wanted to focus on all the new faces I met, all the incredible minds I was so lucky to be around, the million perfect moments spent with such wonderful friends, old and new: hearing Mike’s pitch of his futuristic Will Ferrell movie, seeing the premiere of Mary & Max with Bekah, watching Ryan try to talk to the girl from Teeth [Editor's note: Jess Weixler who we love.], experiencing the premiere of Short Term 12 alongside Brad, Phoenix, Katelin, Michelle, Ryan, Bekah and 600 other strangers, taking a bus into the mountains with all the other Sundance directors to hear a speech from Robert Redford, trying to take a picture of Adrian with Redford behind him, videotaping our bus hit that guy’s SUV, seeing Damien Rice at night and Obama in the morning with Joy, Adam and Katie, doing the Q&A at Windrider with Michelle, hanging with Finlay and Adrian on his birthday, sitting with visual artist Maria Marshall as her beautiful images moved across the screen, hugging my sister and talking to my family after winning our award, dancing in the streets with Joseph Gordon-Levitt after the inauguration, playing Rock Band with Topanga, eating every meal in Albertson’s with Brad and Jared, crying in the premiere of Push, taking a drive with Michael up the mountain for a better perspective of Park City, reading emails from strangers who were touched by our film, trying to get through that last Q&A, getting to spend time with such talented filmmakers as: Joseph, Rashaad, Conner, Rob, Annie, Coley, Teemu, Carlo, Julius, Kai, Olivia, and so many more, getting to know the pure and dedicated team who make Sundance move (Trevor, John, Kim, Marcus, Dylan, Todd, and on and on and on).

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I woke up pretty exhausted this morning and grabbed a croissant and coffee with You Wont Miss Me‘s original score composer Will Bates and his lady friend Sarah Bereza. At all the Q&A’s so far people ask me about the score; I think a soundtrack is in order here!

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Rite lead actress Tabitha Morella and director Alicia Conway talk to audience members after Rite/Grace screening at Kimball Junction.

Our third screening was yesterday afternoon, and in my absence, actor David Bickford did the intro and talked to people afterward. Production designer Cassie Allebaugh was also there. David tells me that the Egyptian was packed, with waitlist people being turned away — very good news for a screening during the second half of the festival.

Our last screening is tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Salt Lake City. David won’t be able to make that screening, so the plan was that Cassie was going to do the intro and talk to people after. She just called me, however, and told me that it started snowing yesterday and just stopped “two minutes ago,” and she’s staying up at Snowbird. Luckily, her plan today is to ski, because a park ranger told her he was sliding down the mountain in his 4×4. In other words, during a Sundance noteworthy for its mild weather and lack of snow, Cassie is snowed in!

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The crowd gathered on Main Street for the Inauguration.

I am the walking dead. My eyeballs feel as heavy as croquet balls, like they’re falling out of my eye sockets. I have old woman posture, shoulders slumped forward and legs shuffling, head dropping as I nod off mid-sentence. It occurred to me much too late (like, yesterday), that I should’ve done a photo series of my eye bags: what they were like the day I arrived, fresh and perky, last Thursday, and then every day how they deepen and darken and look more and more like I’m being repeatedly socked in the face. Alas, missed opportunity.

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THIS MORNING I stood in the snow on Main Street with Joy (my sister), Adam Shapiro and Katie, watching the broadcast of the inauguration. We laughed and cried and hugged and screamed as our new President took his oath and gave a speech of realistic hope. When the broadcast was over, Sundance played “Beautiful Day” by U2 and we all danced in the streets like hippies. It was a moment I will cherish for a long time.

THIS AFTERNOON I sat in a theater with 1,000 other people to watch the premiere of Push.  It was so real and honest and raw and definitely the best film I’ve seen here so far. I think I cried about five times throughout the film. And if that wasn’t enough…

THIS EVENING Short Term 12 won the Best Short Film Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival!

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The festival feels like it’s starting to wind down a bit, my schedule is not as busy as it was and everyone is pretty tired. So today I saw a bunch of movies starting at 11:30 a. m. with We Live In Public (pictured above). It’s about a guy who created an artificial society under 24-hour surveillance in an underground bunker in New York City.

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Today I noticed that the only clocks that I’ve seen that seem to tell the correct time in all of Park City are the ones I carry on my person. In our condo, on the street, in restaurants and shops, all the clocks are stuck at various times or are just ticking away on some alternate reality time of their own. I think that’s a great metaphor for what I’ll call “Sundance Time.” No one ever seems to know what day it is. Despite the fact that today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and is a holiday, and tomorrow is the inauguration, for crying out loud, inevitably someone still says, “Wait — I thought it was Sunday!” about once an hour. It’s weird. Where do the days go? For that matter, where do the hours go? I’ve been up since 7 a.m., and since then, it’s been a blur of brunch, lunch, screening, meetings, party wristband acquiring, art viewing, handshaking, and postcard exchanging.

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Day 3. Or maybe it’s Day 4. I’ve completely lost track. I’ve learned that you don’t sleep much here at Sundance. The inordinately large bags under my eyes can vouch for that!

I have to say, it’s been an incredible experience thus far. After a hellishly long and crowded ride on the local Park City shuttle and a quickie at the ICM/VitaminWater party, Boutonniere premiered late Friday night in Shorts Program 5 and the reception was astounding. The audience was laughing in places I’d never even anticipated. Unfortunately, I had to miss the Saturday screening so that I could attend the Directors’ Brunch at the Sundance Institute where Robert Redford gave us a very inspiring pep talk. But my producer reported back that that screening went even better than the night before.

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I can’t believe it’s day 4 already. It feels like I’ve been at Sundance forever and also like it’s going to be over before I know it. This morning I saw a film in the dramatic competition called Don’t Let Me Drown, a teenage love story that takes place in Brooklyn. The director’s name is Cruz Angeles (a great name). Then I went to Salt Lake City screening of You Wont Miss Me. I didn’t watch the movie this time, instead I walked around Salt Lake. Everything was closed and desolate; there was one store with a bunch of old school board games in the window including one of my childhood favorites: Candyland.

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Right now, I’m blogging from the New Frontier on Main. I just watched the most amazing piece of video art, by Candice Breitz called Mother+Father (Mother). I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s pretty amazing and involves six screens of video clips that intertwine to create an almost narrative piece of emotional tapestry that paints a picture of motherhood and family relationships and crises. Pretty incredible.

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