Sunday, August 08, 2004

The 1998 Mini-Doc INDEPENDENT'S DAY Now Out On DVD


This documentary about the booming world of independent film in the late '90s is currently available on the popular DVD format:

INDEPENDENT'S DAY
(Dir. Marina Zenovich, 1998)

"It's like taking the worst part of LA and the worst part of New York and just jamming it into Park City." - Tressa Von Bargen (Park City Resident) 

This fascinating albeit brief (54 min) doc, sporting the subtitle "The Ultimate Insider's Look at the Crazy World of Sundance," gives us an inside glimpse into the fun of film and the stress of competition that goes on in the most notable of American film festivals, Sundance.

Indeed, filmmaker Jay Chandrasekhar laments "everyone I talked to said Sundance is a blast unless you have a film in it." 

Unfortunately the lack of background info, and absence of Robert Redford (Sundance founder) make it to be not as intensely deep a documentary as I wanted, but still an intriguing walk through.

Worth watching alone for an amusing set-up sequence involving Parker Posey, this film is begging for a sequel. So much has happened in the years since 1997 in independent film, and in digital video that I hope Zenovich returns to Park City some day with camera in tow.

More later...