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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, January 19-22, 2008 IThe Park Record A-14 PARK CITY'S PREMIER ROOFING SPECIALISTS MORE DOGS ON M A I N STREET By Tom Clyde • Ignoring Sundance again ROOFING Commercial • Residential • Repairs PROFESSIONAL, SAFE & INSURED ROOFTOP SNOW AND ICE DAM REMOVAL LEAKS FAST RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL ROOFTOP ICE MELT SYSTEMS ALL TYPES & EMERGENCY LEAK REPAIRS 435 615-8669 Local Park Citv Contractor SALT LAKE CITY (801) 328-4311 ALL TYPES OF ROOFING SHEET METAL FABRICATION ON-SITE ROLL FORMING Contractor License #4726504-5501 Licensed & Insured Member of the Utah Roofing Contractors Association Park City Chamber of Commerce • Park City Area Homcbuilders Member • Better Business Bureau Locally Owned & Operate^ Now 25% to 50% off! EXOTIC... MODERNMOUNTAIN RUSTIC Sundance. Sundance. I just can't quite get my arms puddle of tears everybody around the idea that it is time for Sundance already, while but there's no denying it. It's here. In a town where else in the theater our regular traffic congestion is degrading the quality was rolling in the of life that drew us here in the first place, we go out aisles, laughing. The of our way to create events that make it worse. copyright date on Official forecasts say there will be between 40,000 the movie is 1982, though I'm not sure if it was at and 45,000 people in town for all or part of Sundance. Sundance that year or maybe 1983. And that was the Some predictions are that the event will be bigger last time I bothered with it. There are always a couple of very good movies than usual because people in Hollywood aren't working on new projects because of the writers' strike. that come out of the festival, and some interesting With a little time on their hands, why not smoke a few documentaries. I'm content to pick them up on Netflix or off the satellite channels. Some of you realcigars in the subzero environment of Park City? All 40,000 of them are trying to make a left turn ly get excited about the whole ticketing process and from Prospector to Bonanza in rented Lincoln work a Sundance strategy for months in advance like Navigators. TAirn signals are optional; cell phones are planning a safari vacation. Rock on. Standing in the not. Snarled as traffic is, I have to give credit to the wait line, battling the crowds, improvised theaters festival planners for doing a very good job of getting with bad sound and worse seats - it's just not worth the People in Black on the buses. For the people try- it for me. I wouldn't recognize a celebrity if one sat ing to get to the theaters to watch weird movies - or, next, to me, and wouldn't care anyway. It's just not my to put it in proper parlance - to get to the venues to event. experience the cinema - the bus is far more efficient City Engineer Eric DeHaan announced his retirethan trying to find parking. The festival gang is large- ment recently. Eric was part of a large group of young ly from Los Angeles, and public transit is as foreign to professionals who started working at City Hall in the early '80s, myself them as it is for us in the . , . , ., , included. There aren't a rural parts of Summit n County. So it's an effort, but / used to read the bundance pro- \Qi Of them stm there, a successful one for the most part. gram to find the most bizarre movie of wf^ch,nls "° ¥furp"^ Still, there are off-bus- " aiter ju years, it was an route parties to attend, the year. YOU COUld almost COUnt On exciting and pressureevents on Main Street that ,. ,, , . -, packed place to work. A, require a proper dramatic entrance from a iimo. Can finding a three-hour epic about midget The change in Park aty c d Paris Hilton really arrive at pete conjoined in professional twins who bullwanted riding."to com- g£ r ™gfs .J™ Harry O's on the bus? I development was huge. think not. So traffic is still a There was probably mess. The ski areas are ^ ^ ^ ^ • • ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ • " nothing like it since the almost to the point of sta^ ^ ^ ™ • ^ ^ ^ • ^ ^ • • • ^ ^ rebuilding from the tioning armed guards in the parking lots. If you get Great Fire. Everything out of a car and aren't wearing ski boots, there are from basic infrastructure to financial management questions asked. had to be rebuilt to cope with the doubling, then douI used to read the Sundance program to find the bling again, of the town's population. The rapid most bizarre movie of the year. You could almost growth we see now is really just incremental comcount on finding a three-hour epic about midget con- pared to the 1980s re-creation of Park City. joined twins who wanted to compete in professional As I look back at it, we were really just kids with bull riding. There's usually at least one major feature big ideas and good intentions, but precious little that is so depressing that members of the audience experience. In many ways, Park City succeeded are killing themselves before the third act. But because we didn't know enough to realize how far Sundance is so far over the top that it's impossible over our heads we were. If I knew then what I know parody. So I just try to ignore it. now, I would have thought it was simply impossible. I was talking with a group of friends the other day. But in large part because we lacked the experience to These guys are prominent business people in town, know it was impossible, it became possible and Park not my usual unemployed ski bums. They all make City is what it is, good and bad, because of an unusupretty good money off the event. Kind of sheepishly, al group of people at City Hall who managed the one of them asked the group if any of us ever went to development. a movie. Much to my surprise, I was the only one at In that whole tumultuous process, Eric DeHaan the table who had ever been to a Sundance movie always stood out as a voice of reason, calm, and realduring the festival. I remember it pretty well because ity, with a sense of humor that could relieve the tenthe whole scene was kind of a Sundance movie with- sion. When I heard him on the radio the other day, I in a movie. sat in the Deer Valley parking lot listening to the end The movie was "Eating Raul," which is actually a of the interview, remembering what great fun it was pretty funny movie about a couple who finance their to work with him so many years ago. Good luck with restaurant dream through a kind of kinky extortion what comes next, Eric. We'll miss you. plot that ends badly. When they have to dispose of a Tom Clyde served as Park City attorney in the 198Of body, well, stay away from the blue-plate special. My and is the author of "More Dogs On Main Street." He companion for the evening was a friend whose mar- has been a columnist at The Park Record for nearly 20 riage had just collapsed. She was an unconsolable years. Before it was 'Sundance' By STEVE PHILLIPS -*£' DISCOVER UNIQUE FURNITURE, RUGS, ACCESSORIES, FOUNTAINS AND ARTIFACTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD... KAYA Furniture Co. Monday - Saturday • 10 - 6 • 435.649.6489 . 6400 N. Business Park Loop Rd. Park City (Take the Silver Summit exit off 1-40, we're one mile north of Home Depot) www.kayafurniture.com centered around western movies. We created what we called the "John Ford Medallion" award, which was to be given to John Wayne. The ailing star was not able to travel so we arranged for his wife, Pilar, and son, Patrick, to travel here to accept the award. Wayne died not long after the festival ended. We screened just about every Recalling the film festival before Redford rode to the rescue Record contributing writer The genesis of what is now the Sundance Film Festival began 30 years ago, in 1978, when the Utah Arts Council created and funded the first "Utah/US Film Festival." That year, Robert Redford and a handful of dedicated, passionate dreamers fashioned the first festival. I went along for the ride when I answered an ad in the paper for a temporary job with a statesponsored film festival. I'd made a couple of short films with my brother, so thought I'd give it a shot. I was • immensely underqualified for the job, but shared the vision of its charismatic founder and leader. Sterling VanWagenen. As publicity director, my job was to work with local and national media to promote the inaugural event. I was also tapped to structure the independent film competition and choose the films. Our offices were in the old Carriage House of the Governor's Mansion on South Temple in Salt Lake City, which at the time was undergoing extensive remodeling. We toiled tirelessly amid a maze of scaffolding and ladders, peeled paint and sawdust. We hired Laury Smith, a young energetic guy with a passion for film, to help find films for the competition. I think we screened a total of 16 independ- ent films that first year. Smith went on to become an integral part of the festival, organizing and growing the independent film competition for almost 20 years. Smith, along with Sharon // • • Redford, who'd been in on the early western , planning . , A stages with . . t the Arts made, as wen as a Council, graciously agreed to shepherd | ^ s o f hls g ^ the big event moderating some film Redford was in . . . , . , ,. the middle of screenings and hosting a lavish dinner things, we of the venerable Cornersthe Theaters. during festival at the old Trolley course western,screened "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Katherine Ross and Paul Swenson, respected flew in to attend, as did a bevy of Utah film critics, writers and lesser stars. I was star-struck. When the dust settled after teachers, and Barbara Bannon formed the creative nucleus of the first festival, state officials the festival that year and for were chagrined to learn that we many years to come. Sterling had gone grossly over budget. VanWagenen went on to After nearly foundering, the fesHollywood and produced several tival was revived after Redford and Sundance stepped in and successful films. Redford, who'd been in on the essentially took over. The rest, as early planning stages with the they say, is history. Borrowing from a line in the Arts Council, graciously agreed to shepherd the big event, mod- classic film, "Jeremiah Johnson," erating some film screenings and one could say of the Sundance hosting a lavish dinner during the Film Festival, "you've come far, festival at the old Trolley pilgrim." Corners Theaters. Not much different from what he still does Steve Phillips is a Park Citytoday, only there are a lot more based writer, actor and balloon pilot/instructor. films and parties. The theme of that first festival ^^^^^^^^ Check out The Park Record Blog at zuzuzu.parkrecord. blogspot. com JOIHTHE Now 25% to 50% off! that John Ford ever |
