A Slice of New York At Sundance

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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Alex Rivera is getting used to the cycle — crisscrossing the continent, losing track of time zones, always aware of the clock ticking down to January 17. Back and forth he goes, from San Francisco to Brooklyn, rushing to get his movie finished in time for its world premiere at next month’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. When he’s out west, he says, he’s mixing the sound at Skywalker Ranch; when he’s in New York, he’s in his Chelsea editing studio finalizing the special effects for his sci-fi immigration epic “Sleep Dealer,” which is set on and around a futuristic American–Mexican border.

“Sleep Dealer” was submitted to Sundance screeners in a vastly unpolished state, and now the countdown is on. “Nobody’s seen the finished film; not even me,” he said over the phone from the Chelsea studio. “But we’ll get it done. We didn’t know if we would make it into Sundance, but like the other thousands of filmmakers out there, you run on faith and let Sundance drive the calendar. No, there’s not much sleeping now. Sleeping’s in February.” Mr. Rivera is not alone. When the Sundance Institute announced its selections for the 2008 festival last week — 121 feature films, 32 of them competing, from some 3,600 submissions — another year of independent cinema began, and hundreds of filmmakers shifted into overdrive to try to secure that precious Park City stage for their labors of love. For New York-based filmmakers such as Mr. Rivera, however, who are stationed 3,000 miles from Tinseltown and are trying to do via phone, fax, and e-mail what many in Los Angeles are doing with face-to-face lunches and run-ins at the gym, Sundance means much more. Call it the great equalizer: Sundance unites West Coast pocketbooks and East Coast creativity, putting New Yorkers on an equal playing field with their California counterparts.

“Speaking for myself and my colleagues, I do think it feels as if New York independent filmmakers are disconnected from Hollywood, and from the industry — and we love that,” said Mr. Rivera, who has spent years developing “Sleep Dealer” through the Sundance Institute, the organization that first put him in contact with the producer Anthony Bregman, who signed on to Mr. Rivera’s project. “What Sundance really represents is a platform for this motley crew of New York filmmakers — whether they are doing experimental, avantgarde stuff, or documentaries, or political films, or major indies — to be seen and heard in a very high-profile way.”

Michael Clancy, a screenwriter and director who has defiantly remained in Manhattan through the years, has repeatedly experienced this journey. In 1992, Mr. Clancy went to Sundance with a script-in-progress; in 1996, he went with a short film, and in 2004 he arrived in Park City with his first full-length feature, “Eulogy.” He was hoping to earn a Sundance spot for his latest film, a reality TV-inspired comedy called “Thunder Geniuses,” but he wasn’t able to complete it in time for submissions. Mr. Clancy said that for New Yorkers who can wedge their way in, Sundance offers an ideal backdrop to forge a conversation with their West Coast colleagues.

“Sometimes working with Hollywood from here, it’s really difficult, just because most jobs take place through face-to-face meetings, and for anyone to meet with me they have to fly me out and put me up,” Mr. Clancy, who originally found his California-based agent through an inspired mass-mailing campaign, said. “They can have 500 meetings with people out there immediately, so it’s hard to stay on the radar with the whole country between them and me. At Sundance, though, you know you’re going to get the attention, that your film is going to be seen by a packed audience of film-literate people. If you’re a director with no other access to the entertainment industry, here’s where people will see it. Even if they don’t see it during the first screening, they’ll hear about what’s hot or what’s interesting, and it gives you a real chance.”

New York’s 2008 Sundance roster has a lot to live up to. Last year, the Gotham contingent cleaned house. James Strouse’s “Grace Is Gone” (which finally hits theaters Friday as a major Oscar contender) took home the Dramatic Audience Award, while Christopher Zalla’s “Padre Nuestro” won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Jason Kohn’s “Manda Bala” took top documentary honors.

This year’s lengthy slate of New York-affiliated projects — Sundance organizers compiled for the Sun a list of 17 in-competition titles that were made by filmmakers who either reside, attended school, or shot their films in New York City — seems equally ambitious. Leading the way are “Sugar,” directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (2004’s “Half Nelson”), about the Dominican baseball star Miguel “Sugar” Santos; “Choke,” directed by Clark Gregg and adapted from the Chuck Palahniuk (“Fight Club”) novel, covering such varied themes as mother-son relationships, sexual addiction, and historical theme parks, and “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson,” directed by Alex Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”), a documentary about the most fruitful decade of the journalist’s life (1965–75), that features newly discovered home movies and recordings.

Mr. Fleck, who, along with co-director Ms. Boden, is being closely watched for his follow-up to the hugely successful, Brooklyn-set “Half Nelson,” said he has seen the Sundance Film Festival become an unlikely rallying point for New York creativity. Ironically, hiking the 2,000 miles west afforded him the opportunity to build a certain solidarity with other New York filmmakers.

“There are a lot of filmmakers who live here, in Brooklyn specifically, but I’ve met a lot more New York filmmakers at Sundance than I’ve actually met in New York, so maybe that’s telling,” Mr. Fleck, a four-time Sundance attendee, said. “‘Half Nelson’ didn’t come out theatrically until that August, but Sundance allowed us to get it in front of industry people in January, to set up meetings. Given the difficulty of even getting films seen these days, there’s no doubt the venue really helped our careers.”

ssnyder@nysun.com


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