Jon won  the best Directing Award, US Documentary at Sundance for his film, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

“A few weeks ago I was just a house cleaner making his first film,” said Foy. “Who knows what can happen in life.”

Check out this interview 

Jon Foy, director, Resurrect Dead

 

That’s right folks, a distribution offer. I think I’m happier than Jon is, because it’s a great way to end the narrative arc of this blog. Always start a story with a question that will have to be answered. Did you notice me doing that 9 days ago? ‘Will Resurrect Dead attract interest from distributors?’ And in my last hour here, Jon gives me an answer. Thanks buddy.

No, I won’t give you any details of this offer. You’ll just have to watch the movie to find out.

In my shuttle to the airport, I meet some more filmmakers. One just got a Time-Warner grant. Another person in the shuttle skied the same mountain that I did, but fell forward and had internal bleeding and a lacerated kidney, spending two days in the hospital. (I myself saw two people taken down in stretchers. I soldiered on.) Another passenger wrote a TV movie that starred Piper Laurie. The writer is really kind and has some great advice – this might be the best connection I made at Sundance. I guess you never know when or how that will happen, if you just show up. I didn’t mean to endorse traveling to Sundance, but this last encounter leaves me feeling good about it. What I mean about traveling to Sundance is this: if you are here with a film, it’s amazing. But how often will that happen? If you can afford to buy credentials, that’s also pretty good. But if you just show up to watch movies, I wonder how much you can get out of the experience. Maybe you can introduce yourself to filmmakers after their screenings. But maybe you’ll just be able to tell people ‘I saw it first’. I only hope it’s worth the cost. Speaking of that, there’s definitely a wealthy class here at Sundance, people that I met often in lines and in screenings. Rich people, not in the industry, for whom the festival is a vacation or a cultural destination. For some, it’s an annual pilgrimage. For others, it’s one of many trips they take in a year. It’s funny, as a filmmaker it never occurred to me that some people would just show up here to watch movies. The more I think about it, the more that seems like one of the best things of all.

Hours later, my plane on the ground in Philadelphia, I turn my phone on and find a text from Jen. “Jon just won the director award for documentaries!” Jon texts: “!!!” What else is there to say?

Congratulations to everyone behind Resurrect Dead and all the other films at Sundance 2011. The only reason I felt comfortable missing so many is because I’m sure they’ll all be available someday, somehow, in this wonderful new Internet-assisted multi-channel on-demand post-distribution world we’re in. Justin and Steve were really affected by ‘The Redemption of General Butt Naked’. Jen was a passionate supporter of ‘Bellflower’. Colin’s girlfriend Becky came home from ‘The Black Power Mix-Tape’ full of energy and conversation. I really wanted to catch ‘Circumstance’ as well. Some of these won awards, and some didn’t, but there’s a struggle behind each one and they all deserve to be seen, so please check them out someday. Thanks for reading. And if you’re still interested, I have a great concept for a film that needs funding…

Meanwhile, everyone else was down in Park City as the festival ramped back up. Mid-week, it felt like everything had trailed off and it was just die-hards and volunteers left in town, and I guess I expected that to continue. But in the last day, I’ve overheard a lot of conversations about people coming into town for the second weekend, people bringing sleeping bags to spend the night in line at the box office, a lot of young people and students. When I went to sell my last ticket Thursday night, I noticed bigger busier crowds again. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t get Thursday tickets – I guess the best chances for seeing movies are mid-week. But that’s also when I’d recommend getting away from Sundance for a day. This festival is very long. I didn’t realize how turned around my head was until I cleared it on the sunny slopes. Darkness fell, and I looked down the mountain to see a long line of headlights coming into town.

When I get back to the condo, I hear that tonight is when the Sundance juries deliberate on the awards. Somewhere in town, Matt Groening and the other doc jurors are discussing Resurrect Dead and its peers. Earlier in the week, Jon caught a glimpse of Groening at the RD screening, but he’d already heard that Groening was being very strict about avoiding interaction with the competitors, to keep the process pure. I think the creator of The Simpsons will really love this movie. But Jon assures us that Resurrect Dead will not win any awards at Sundance.

There’s another Resurrect Dead screening today, which is maybe the best yet. An even bigger group of of people crowds around after the Q&A, and Justin sells even more art. The other night, walking back from a screening, we ran into someone from the audience who bought a poster right there on the corner. This movie seems to be building good word-of-mouth. Someone said they came because it’s “all over Twitter”. In fact there have been amazing tweets from FilmThreat, and really positive tweets from Huffington Post and a writer with the NY Times. There are a lot of little (but very good) mentions out there; the tough thing has been to get a big mention. Only one screening left.

Later at home, I woke up with a sore throat that felt foreboding. It takes a lot to head out but I really want to catch a Slamdance film this week. I’m going to see a presentation of fragments and films by the little-known avant-garde and trash-filmmaker J.X. Williams. Things seem slower in Park City now – there are lights strung up all over Main Street, but there are far fewer people, at least in the early evening. Little two-man crews run around all over the place with cameras and gear.

Of course Slamdance is smaller than Sundance, but at some point you realize how much smaller, or maybe just how big Sundance is. Slamdance’s box office and all the promotional stuff is in a really small lobby in its hotel. The screening rooms are down a little hallway. It takes a few minutes to shake off the daze of Sundance’s scope and polish, and remember that these guys are really more my speed. The film selection and the whole vibe have a specific taste: a little wild, less concerned with tastefulness, embracing camp and outsiders and violence. Every time I go in the building I see the same people. Once again, it’s a bit shocking to see how small the audiences are, because Slamdance is such a well-known fest, at least in my world. I happen to duck into their filmmaker’s lounge and see they’re having another free happy hour. The mood is awesome – a dense crowd of people my age, who all seem friendly and mellow, and a dim warm space like when you turn off everything except the Christmas lights.

When I get my ticket for the J.X.Williams show, I realize there are signs up all around: This show is for ages 21 and over due to extreme content, please have your ID ready. While I wait in line, a policeman comes to the desk to make sure that ID’s are being checked. Going into the theater, one of the Slamdance folks videotapes us all as proof that we are presenting our ID’s. The show really does live up to all the caution, I have to admit. Most people were averting their eyes at certain points.

Rushing from the J.X. show to my next movie, Lord Byron, was a test for the whole Sundance waitlist system. Lord Byron started around 30 minutes after I walked out of the J.X. show, at the far-away Prospector Square theater. But I got in and got a great seat. I was feeling even worse, definitely getting sick.

Fortunately Lord Byron is my favorite film at Sundance so far (if I ignore Resurrect Dead). This is exactly what I came here to see. It’s a film that takes its low budget as a given and rides its exceptional storytelling, acting and construction. If more filmmakers contented themselves with working in this scope with such straightforwardness, maybe more audiences would accept it. It wasn’t even shot ‘film style’ with film lights, a tripod, etc. In fact, it takes video, with all its commonly-perceived ‘flaws’, as the premise of its aesthetic – it manipulates its base with layering, time distortion, strange sound effects and melodramatic music: this is the movie that Inland Empire wanted to be. The story is minimal but the characters and performances are incisive without aspiring to ‘say anything’ or delineate any social ‘types’. And at the same time, it doesn’t content itself with a good foundation: it really embraces the visual medium. And it’s funny on top of everything else. Its intent seems to be a portrait of people seeking meaning, in various fumbling ways recognizable to anyone who’s been in high school or the suburbs in the last ten years. A lot of people were leaving during the screening; I’m not sure why.

On the way back from the film I buy oranges and chicken soup. At the condo, everyone’s back from Salt Lake City. The screening there was great. There is some discussion of the film’s reception in the press, but people seem to be taking it in stride. Jon, Justin and Steve go to a ‘competition dinner’ – an event for the filmmakers of anything in competition, an event they all really like, citing good conversations. I’m lying at home – dying?

It feels to a few of us like we’ve been here a week, even though it’s just a few days. It would be nice to take a break right now, in the middle of everything, to clear your head, but actually things are just getting started. But I’ve enjoyed the whole time, and maybe one of my absolute favorite things about the experience was getting to know the other Toynbee investigators, who are all such smart and nice people.

Back at the condo, the hour of the premiere approaches. We mill around, debating a shot of whiskey or not, putting on coats. Soon we’re walking to the theater, a big crowd down the middle of the pavement wet with snow-melt. We’re shuffled back and forth between a heated tent and an atrium off the theater, as staff and volunteers speake into headsets, presumably consulting Bob Redford. We’re all talking and snapping pictures in front of one of those big backdrops that they use for red-carpet snaps. Then suddenly we’re heading in to the theater, except for Jon and the director of the opening short, ‘The High Level Bridge.’ Although we have credentials for this film, we still have to present tickets that we’ve received for this screening. There’s a flurry of activity as we try to settle the question of the reserved seating. There’s a section higher up for the jurors. People are brought in in small groups and fill up the small theater quickly. Doug has told us that it’s pretty good to have a premiere on Monday, so hopefully some of the opening-weekend bigshots are still in town, but the film isn’t going head-to-head with any of the giant hyped juggernauts. It’s one of the smaller screens but tomorrow it’s playing again in the huge Prospector Square space.

After a few more minutes of chaos, a spotlight came up in the front of the theater and Jon headed down with the director of the short. The other director said Hi, and then David Courier from Sundance film festival introduced Jon with an incredibly proud and glowing endorsement of Jon and the film. I think the phrase “soon to be acclaimed filmmaker” was used. He mentioned the fact that Jon had submitted the film cold at the last minute – a sort of ‘it can happen to you’ moment. Then Jon went to the mic.

You couldn’t miss how completely overwhelmed Jon was. He sort of stood there with the mic for a long second, then pulled out his phone and took a picture of the audience. “I just want to capture this moment.” Then he thanked everyone and thanked Sundance for taking the movie. It’s clear when talking to Jon that he feels so fortunate that things have happened the way they have. He knows what his chances were, and how many other filmmakers are out there shooting for the same thing. But no one could have worked harder than he has and sacrificed more. He deserves all of this.

The short film went by quickly, a tonally interesting piece about a bridge in Canada sometimes used by suicidal jumpers. It had a wry, cynical narration and a video grain that enhanced the chilliness of the snow and floating ice, and ended with a camera dropped from the bridge into the river. Then… Resurrect Dead started. Immediately with its soft focus, rich dark colors and questioning music, it draws you into another side of reality, where mysteries reveal themselves to the ready, and strange minds reach out with desperate acts of creativity and communication. My sense, having been in enough festival screenings including my own, was that the audience was gradually wrapped around this movie until it held us all rapt. It was a big relief that there were no technical problems, and the audio and visual were in fact all very high quality. This in itself should be kept in mind by filmmakers considering whether to get that $10K audio mix or professional color correction that people will say is necessary before a fest like Sundance. Jon did it all himself on his computer.

When the film finished, there was a moment when it seemed like a lot of people were streaming out of the theater during the credits. I wasn’t so bothered by it because I had seen that at every other screening, and I think a lot of those people were overprogrammed exactly as Jon has been. But I could imagine it was disturbing to some others in our ‘entourage’. When the lights came up, there were still a LOT of people in the theater craning their necks to see Jon come down to the mic. He thanked everyone again, and then announced to the audience that they had some special guests in the room: Justin, Colin and Steve. There were gasps and a real sense of excitement in the audience, and I could feel it as well, in a kind of cognitive dissonance: parallel to my knowing these people, I had just seen them enact their amazing journey and I felt the audience’s shock that the real people had stepped off the big screen and were now going down to the microphone. The film makes you root for these guys, and revel in their accomplishments, and respect their ethical decisions. You feel in a strange way like you are their friend although they don’t know you, and seeing them suddenly appear in the crowd is like realizing that a good friend was there in the room all along.

Jon Foy and David Courier, Sundance premiere of Resurrect Dead

The Q&A had such positive vibes – the people in the audience were so engaged with the film, and had really understood the messages it had. An older guy asked a kind of crotchety provocative question about one decision that the investigators made, but someone else had already told the filmmakers that they felt it showed real depth of character. I think most questions were about the subject and content of the doc, as opposed to the making of it, as I expected. Maybe I’m used to audiences made up mostly of filmmakers, or maybe the movie is just that intriguing.

When the Q&A ended, people came down and swarmed around the Toynbee team, and people were instantly next to Justin asking where they could buy his art. He said that he had some with him – he had a tube with a checked-luggage tag still attached, with huge prints rolled up inside. Within a minute he’d sold four. People were hanging on him and the whole team until we were ushered out of the theater by the staff. Outside the sun is setting behind the snowy ski slopes and the air is still and fresh. We walk to a brewpub called ‘Squatters’ (ironically, the movie deals with the fact that Justin was a real-life squatter).

It occurs to me at dinner that this is a film which would appeal to journalists. There are so many scenes of delving into old articles and source materials; parsing different accounts of true events; and even one character’s fixation on the media itself. It’s the kind of epic-feeling investigation that kids dream of before they grow up to be reporters. Could this film save print journalism? Over dinner, someone says that the film critic Kenneth Turan was in the audience. It’s a strange world up here in the mountains.

Thank god I’ve stumbled on this perfect segue to talk about my mission at Sundance. I am trying to see the films that are the most adventurous, the most hard to categorize, the most easily-overlooked, the least likely to be pre-sold or to show up in theaters later. (I’m not going out of pity; in fact I hope that these are the best films here). Admirably, these films do exist at Sundance alongside several other categories: A-list Hollywood faux-indies; docs whose fates are ensured by their pre-existing access (the NY Times doc ‘Page One’); ‘serious’ films that have a niche or a hot topic that will feed them attention and viewers. I don’t have unlimited funds, in fact the fewer movies I see the less I will be in debt after this trip, so I will focus my attention on the films that may need it the most. That leaves me with a curious gap on Saturday, but on Sunday I’ll be back in the theaters.

With nothing to do right away, I resolved to finally learn how to buy tickets to movies. The festival headquarters is at a Marriott even further out from town, a low lodge-like building in a dense labyrinth of strip malls. The circular drive is a traffic jam of minivan shuttles, the lobby a constant flow of prosperous-looking people in parkas, some settling for a moment by the fireplace. The volunteer at the info desk didn’t think that tickets were sold there, but I pressed on upstairs. Down a long hotel hallway, past the Press Office and the Industry Office, I found the Film Office. Tickets! I could buy tickets! The deal: every day you can get tix for that day and the following day. A chart on the wall has stickers for the showings that are sold out, and there are a surprising number open, even for today’s films. I immediately feel a lot better about my Sundance chances; I’ll be able to get into pretty much whatever screenings I want, if I show up regularly to get morning tickets. In a euphoric haze I buy my Sunday tickets and screw it up royally. My plan was to leave a hole in my schedule to get in line for a music event with Lou Reed, but I manage to buy a ticket for exactly that time. Thirteen hours later I realize what’s happened.

I snag a ‘Variety’ (everyone says you have to read this if you want to make movies) and sit down with a complimentary Shasta to people-watch. I hear an announcement for directors in the building: the busses to the directors’ brunch are leaving. Jon is on his way there, where Robert Redford will speak.

Later our whole ‘Resurrect Dead’ entourage is walking down Main Street, taking in the circus that Park City has become. It’s almost unrecognizable from two days ago, except for the thick layer of ice and slush on the streets and sidewalks. They’re too much like the ski slopes hanging above us; this sidewalk could easily be a double-black-diamond. There are very few ‘Film’ credentials like ours to be seen; there are hordes of tourists and people of uncertain function. We see a twelve-foot-wide mob being herded off the street, with cameras held in the air pointing inward – murmurs indicate that James Franco is in the middle.

Sundance Channel HQ, right on Main Street, offers one of the few alternate-life experiences for those of us who aren’t (yet) famous and rich. Inside we get some free food, free espresso, then go upstairs for free cocktails and swanky merch and lounging, courtesy of a Vegas hotel. Fun stuff – a photo booth with funny hats; cookies and milk; boot cleaning and waterproofing, and some freakishly attractive people. We stood around in the warm lounge sipping ‘hot mules’ and watching giant snowflakes plummet past the windows, hiding and revealing the mountain peaks. Across the street is the ‘Sundance Co-Op’, a collection of free stuff from vendors; the only explanation we can think of for the name of it is that it’s where indie film is being ‘co-opted’ by various corporations.

It strikes me that the presentation of Sundance to the rest of the world is a lot like the creation of a film’s narrative world. To manifest a fictional time and place, you put a frame around certain things and block out others. It doesn’t lessen what Sundance is, but it’s not a sort of movieland Biodome filled with movie stars – it’s laid out in a suburban town filled with the same kind of things you find where my parents live in Michigan. The streets are gross and there are lots of regular folks around. But you put a frame around the Hollywood sparkles when you send your live feed. The notable thing about this is that I stopped being intimidated by Sundance after being here an hour, which is maybe valuable in itself.

Jon and Doug return from a long day of networking; Jon tells stories of meeting a whirlwind of people he can barely remember. He did a series of interviews, including Popular Mechanics for some reason. Doug has been leading him around introducing him to everyone. Tonight they went to the Oprah party, where Jon met Rosie O’Donnell and gave her a screener of the movie.

Colin and Steve, the other members of the Toynbee Tile investigation team, arrive in Park City. Everyone gathers in the condo, reminiscing about the tiles and speculating on the future of the film.