Sundance Live!

Unreal. That’s all I have to say…Just kidding. So I’m here at the Yarrow Hotel hopping from press screening to press screening and wanted to give you guys a good review to whet your appetite. First let’s go over today… I woke up and got my kick ass Press Pass. Highlights of it’s greatness are free shows. Yes, every show here is free as long as I see it in the press screening. On top of that, I get one free public screening per day! So I’m gonna be running around like a nut. One of my goals while I’m here is to get hooked up with some “swag” which is what the press calls the goodie bags distributed by sponsers. I have to share this because I can barely contain it…Tuesday, at 6 am I will be at the press conference ANNOUNCING THE 2008 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS!!! That’s right ladies and gents, I’ve gotten to be a pretty big deal. I also get to attend a filmmakers and producers happy hour (on the house, tho I won’t be doing much drinking, more like chatting everyone’s ear off)

OK. So I got that out of my system. My first show at Sundance was a documentary called Recycle. Set in Zarqa, Jordan, this documentary caught my attention due to it being free and I had liked the idea of a documentary about Abu Musa al Zarqawi (leader of Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia). Now I expected this to be an educational documentary that would teach me how the US had knowledge prior to the attacks (Michael Moore or some derivative). Obviously I was wrong. Mahmoud Al Massad directs, produces, and operates the camera for this true Indie.

It’s an earnest effort to capture a country’s outlook, and that’s about all I can conclude. The problem with Recycle lies in it’s attempt to portray every social problem in Zarqa. In 78 minutes the viewer is baited into thinking this is a film about al Zarqawi. Believe it or not it’s about a guy who recycles cardboard. The main narrative revolves around a man and his sons. He collects and gets paid for this but is having a rough time financially. Bored yet? Yea, about 20 people walked out, but I was giddy as a school boy and would never walk out on my first Sundance film.

Different random characters intervene in our main man’s life. He has tea side conversations about politics, democracy, and jihad. This should be a really moving film, but it only has flashes. The most moving is when the lead watches a TV program called “Open Your Heart”. The show tries to end strife between father and son. A 30 year separation is shown in classic TV fashion (think Maury) in order to amplify emotions (straight cheese). What does work is when Massad cuts to the seperation between the man watching the program and his son. The young man is seen playing with a flame.

So the overall message of the film is flimsy, though I appreciate the effort. It’s nice to see a real indie documentary outside the clutches of Hollywood. If you are looking for immersion into Jihad you should see Meeting Resistance (film previously reviewed showing real Iraqi insurgents and their words)

****Pictures to be posted daily from now on, sorry guys kinda nuts today and tomorrow but I’ll get it done.