Oh my. My poor, neglected, dejected, pathetic blog. I haven't been by here in what feels like a lifetime. Of course, it hasn't been a lifetime, not at all, but it just feels that way what with days blending into nights blending into later nights blending into early morning sunrises where I am bleary eyed and stumbling about wondering if I really should suck down more espresso (the answer is always yes! yes to the espresso, never say NO to the espresso) before heading back into that dark theatre to watch yet another person's hopes and dreams and sweat and tears of perhaps the last twenty four months or years or lifetimes, even, unspool magically on the screen before my eyes.
Last night, between the final of the Sundance Festival films, (yes! there were two!!), my dearest of sisters, NeverNakedBeth, asked me if I might put together for her a directory of sorts, a catalogue, a personal and specific guide that would allow her to know which of the films screening on The Sundance Channel really were worth plopping in a comfy chair to watch all the way through?
She shared that the film we had seen at the previous year's festival, "Interviews with Pathetic Men" (which, honestly, is NOT the title of the film, but is what we both have decided it really should be called) always seems to be on and she knows, insists really, that all the festival films find their way there but how do you sort the good from the bad, the ones that you really do want to see from the things that are just, well, pathetic?
I agreed that perhaps my talents might be most useful as a sort of person who puts together just such a guide. Especially for NeverNaked types who tread rather carefully in the Sundance waters. Who have an open mind, but don't want things to be too shocking or revolting or disturbing. Who appreciate good film and at the same time want their own little world to be "just so". You know, the kind that want to go to Sundance and see a musical.
I will be putting together just such a specialized sort of movie guide for her. She's my sister, I love her dearly, I have spent all of her 43 years on the planet absolutely loving her to bits. It will be a joy to do this for her.
As for the rest of you, I have more words coming. Soon, hopefully. I want to share with you my absolute best and favourite moments of the Sundance festival. It was, positively, my most cherished festival yet. I also hope to share with you a small and brief review of all those films that I did manage to see. I do realize what I think about the films is of little importance or relevance to all of you. I know this. It is very important to me, however. I need to save, and to savor, and to help myself remember in the coming years, the beautiful small important stories that were entrusted to me by all those talented filmmakers.
Isn't that really the reason any of us writes, though? To cherish, to savor, to put things right in our upside down lives? To remember the moments that caused us to suck in our breath, hold it and realize that we were truly alive? Because we know, without question, that we may simply perish if we do not? For me, next to loving with utter abandon, it may be the singularly most important thing I ever manage to do.
