I got up today at a glorious 12 noon after a long night watching movies. I made myself a large breakfast and headed out to the movies once again.I saw Sin Nombre, a film by an American first-timer who developed the script at the Sundance Institute. It was a very hard-edged film, about a Honduran girl and a Mexican ex-gangster making their way to the border. It was violent and incredibly rough, but also very heartfelt as a relationship develops between the two of them. Not for the feint of heart.
Afterward the director, production team and a few of the actors came up for a Q&A. The main actor, who played the Mexican gangster, was Honduran himself. He had never been in a film before. When he walked up to the podium to answer a question, the audience gave him a standing ovation. He couldn't get through the answer because he was literally weeping. I've never seen anything like it.
After that we headed to a condo where a friend of Chapman's film school gave us a wonderful home-cooked meal, much welcome after having to fend for myself between movie screenings.
At 11:30 I found myself in my favorite movie at Sundance so far: Black Dynamite. It was made as a loving tribute/satire of old 1970s blaxploitation action movies, complete with bad kung-fu, a funky soundtrack, and brilliant one-liners by the man himself, Black Dynamite. It was exactly my sense of humor, and everyone in the theater was digging it as much as I was.
Afterward I went up and thanked the director and star for making my Sundance experience so far.
