Still Dancing in the Sun

Just wrapping up day 4 at Sundance and have been reinspired by the documentary films. Not just because they're good, but because of the other opportunities that my eyes have been opened to while here.

So far my favorite docs here were "The Reporter" (pic at the top of this blog), a story of a New York Times Columnist as he takes a couple of budding journalists with him into the Congo to speak with a warlord. This film was an exciting journey, but also a larger statement about the current climate of journalism in the U.S. What it should be . . . What it can't be . . . One thing I found particularly interesting was how this columnist was an avid reader of social science and psychological studies about what moves people to action. There is a segment in there about how a group studied how average Americans responded to four different ways of telling the same story about a program that desperately needed funding to help starving children. They found that the LEAST effective way was to show multiple children and ANY statistical data about their situation and the MOST effective way was to focus on one child and that's it. They used this phrase, "Psychic Numbing" to describe how humans shut down emotionally when faced with the suffering of more than one person and how it lowers their ability to care. Crazy stuff, but reinforces a lot of things I've learned in making fundraising videos for nonprofits.

"No Impact Man" was about a writer whose family lived for an entire year in New York City trying to make no carbon footprint. This included eventually turning off all electricity in his home, not using toilet paper, only buying local food and eating whatever was available by season. It was a very humorous piece. I especially enjoyed his wife, a Business Week reporter, who loved him enough to take the journey with him, but "hated nature". She added a wonderful element of levity and reality to his more tortured-activist character.

Beyond these films, I've attended a few panels and had a meeting with a top executive for a major Hollywood film studio (I promised him I wouldn't publicize who he was, as the conversation was for the benefit of my students at Ottawa University, not for a press opportunity). Through all of this, I have really found grounding in my place in the film industry. The realities of working for the big guys and the reasons why that will never be appealing to me. To be cliche, this is a business. If you don't have a star in your doc, narrating your doc, or promoting your doc, you'll never make it with the big studios. But I don't really want to! I've met and listened to a number of innovators in self-distribution and grassroots distribution that are reinventing the model of documentary and small-independent-film distribution. These conversations have made me so excited I can barely contain myself. The possibilities for building audiences are endless and much more my speed. I'm sure I'll write more about these ideas later, but lets just say that this Sundance has definitely shifted my views of my career and future.

Tomorrow, the students arrive and I become Teacher Mikkelson. Also very fun. This also means that I will be staying in Park City instead of Salt Lake. Hallelujah!!!! I'm so ready to stay in one place for a while instead of commuting.