I will never be the same person again. Sundance marked a transition in my life, and there is no turning back. I cannot escape the vortex which I have fallen into. That vortex, being, of course, film. I have always liked movies (I rarely ever saw one I did not like) but never realized that they would be my life's ambition. And that is how Sundance changed my life: it opened my eyes.
I did not try to go star gazing. I did not try to make it into any fashionable parties. I threw away all the bull that goes along with Sundance and got to its essence. I completely immersed myself into each film I saw. So much so that I do not know if I could remember all the films I saw. Some stuck in my mind: a gay zombie movie [Otto, or up with Dead People], a great baseball flick [Sugar], and a documentary outlining the country's economic collapse [IOUSA] ("hate to say I told you so" comes to mind), but the entire experience changed me. I thought, "wow, not only is this the greatest thing that has come into my life, but I can do it too." And so it began, my rocky but enthused trip into trying to make films. How will it all turn out? We will see.
This article appears in Dec 31, 2008 – Jan 6, 2009.