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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Still ‘Dancing

The evolution of my festival experience is… odd. I’ve done more on Twitter than on the blog. Pushing out half hours feels premature (especially without a production person doing it while I am busy on other things), but finding 3 hours to edit a package of interview highlights has been impossible. Today is a slow day… with a radio appearance, 3 movies, and DP/30’s first-ever hot tub interview.

This is probably the least flexible Sundance for me in my long history of coming here… yet I do feel like I am underdelivering to the readers. I also feel like I am getting some perspective that I haven’t over recent years. Damn the treadmill!

My apologies – especially to Glen Kenny – for navel gazing. But the truth is, I’m not sure there is a ton to say about the festival this year that is profound. It hasn’t been groundbreaking, though there are a few trends in films I have mentioned. Was it worth leaving the “real world” for ten days? Well, frankly, covering Demi Moore’s 911 call, Academy nomination reactions, and the mostly meaningless crap in Hollywood this week is no great shakes either. Festivals are sustaining. Spending time with interesting talent is sustaining. Thinking about the show and not the business sometimes is sustaining.

Trying to find balance is hard… especially these days when the speed barrier for meaningless chatter gets broken daily.

Doing DP/30 was, initially, about letting you see what I see while I do my work. And this week, I have not really achieved that goal. I’m not writing enough, long or short (140 characters). I’m not bring you into my interviews within hours. I’m not trying to read your needs.

This too shall pass. And hopefully I will learn from the experience. After 15 years, I am often reminded… the beat goes on… even if you’ve hit a tree.

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5 Responses to “Still ‘Dancing”

  1. Breedlove says:

    I guess I need to be following you on Twitter. And a bunch of other people, for that matter. I’m generally about a decade behind when it comes to this stuff.

  2. Hallick says:

    Why does it seem like the bloggers who go to Sundance lately have the least to say about it other than, “just got out of movie X, have a half hour to jot some thoughts down before getting to movie Y, then an interview and an after party. Hopefully I’ll get some sleep tonight! Another big day tomorrow!”. It’s all reference to something that happened, something that’s going to happen later, and how much stuff there is to do tomorrow. Who’s out there going to the movies and actually writing something about those films instead of the interstitial trivialities of their personal itinerary? It kind of sucks that the only concrete info I can get about what’s playing there is off of the festival website’s schedule.

  3. sanj says:

    just saw the 15 minute sundance clips … lots of
    new people doing dp/30 …some old people came back ..

    DP – how about posting all the interviews in .mp3 format
    so people can download them to mp3 players ..

    but the faster you post the videos – faster people can watch them ..

    however – unlike the tiff 2011 videos – i have no requests
    which video is put up first …

    also – did you get some world exclusive interviews
    the rest of the movie bloggers didn’t get ?

    also those Duplass brothers – shouldn’t they have 3 dp/30’s from this festival … and i’m not a huge fan.
    i had no idea one of them is married to Katie Aselton.

    fun interview .

    Five questions for Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivev2eFvxZM

  4. grandcosmo says:

    Hallick,
    Rabin and Murray do a good job of writing about the films over at the AV Club. Very little of the, “guess who just walked past me” stuff that you get on twitter.

  5. jtagliere says:

    I definitely agree with the request for MP3 as well. So many times I’ve wanted to hear your interview on a long bus ride or something like that.

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