tuesday: forgiveness and redemption

• my 7:00 a.m. pickup becomes 7:40. we still get to ogden in time, as the guys are only planning to do the Q&A after their movie. they want a place that has coffee and internet and i take them to a gandolfo's down the street. they take a table in the corner to do whatever sundance directors do. from where i'm standing, it looks like facebook.

• finding the common ground of us both being from utah, the guy behind the counter asks me a little about what it's like working in the festival. like most people, he seems to think that my life in "the movies" must be more interesting than his. to be fair, i do think my life is pretty cool. but running a sandwich shop seems kind of interesting, too.

• the movie this morning is called bilal's stand, about a kid in detroit who need to choose between helping his family's coffee stand and staying in school. so it's showing for a theater full of high school students who seem to respond to the movie for more than it just being a chance to get out of school. i'm kind of sad i didn't get to see it.
  

• the director, sultan sharrief, makes a good point during the Q&A: "a lot of people don't tell you this, but pursuing your dream, and even living your dream, can be really stressful."

• in describing it to the students, he refers to the film's style as "neorealist." i think that's pretty cool, since today is the day that criterion is releasing roberto rossellini's "war trilogy", the quintessential films of the genre. i think this is kind of cool and try to talk with him a bit about his film on the ride home, noting his stylistic description of his film. kindly, he tries to enlighten his driver about movies: "a lot of people think my film is a documentary. do you know what a documentary is? it's a movie that doesn't have acting." i'm so amused on different levels with that response that i just let them talk amongst themselves for the rest of the ride.

• there's a lot of downtime that afternoon. we hang out in the hotel room, laughing at jesse's story of getting bounced back into a bathroom by michael moore and watching mark try to see how high he can pour a can of pop into matt's mouth.

• that evening i give a ride to a lady who's the festival director (or something pretty high up). i introduce myself to her and she asks if i'm the same jeff who drove lynn shelton. i tell her i am and she says lynn raved about me, asking if i could be her driver for the whole show. it's nice to know that i'm making a good impression.

• walking out to my car, i'm singing "here i go again" by whitesnake. i get in my car. the song is on 80s on 8. today has been a much better day.