The night before my flight to Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival I attended Nnamdi's birthday party. While at the festival, I went to a couple screenings, snowboarded, drank Johnny Black, and ate ice cream. Many of the Sundance pictures below were taken by Pooja.
Stan!
Pickens taking a shot while a girl grinds on him, which is about par for the guy.
Me and the birthday boy.
Sunset somewhere over the Midwest. I ended up sitting next to the wife of the co-producer of Spike Lee's Passing Strange, which was showing at Sundance. I asked her "I presume you're heading to Sundance?" "Yes...why else would anyone go to Utah?" she replied. Boom! Roasted!
The (amazing) ski lodge I stayed at in Park City thanks to Pooja! Note the mountain directly behind. THANKS POOJA.
Main Street where a good chunk of the festival action takes place.
Paparazzi chasing Ashton Kutcher. Pooja's friend Mary ran and followed as well while trying to snap photos with her small point-and-shoot digital.
Pooja had to wear this ridiculous Nestle outfit. JUST KIDDING, POOJA.
Me, Mary and Tara after the screen of Max and Mary, the one of two films I saw during my entire 6 day stay. I am the worst Sundance attendee ever. Oh, I also fell asleep during this film, a quirky claymation which opened the festival.
Indie producer MRod taking answers from the imaginary audience during the make believe Q&A.
Pooja! Hiding from the sun! Although their web designer, Pooja was sent by Sundance to photograph the events and films. Check out her cool press pass. Show off.
I liked these bike racks stationed near the main bus depot off Main Street.
We woke up early to watch the inauguration.
Pooja photographing party goers at the Sundance Channel's "official" party. The open bar starting at 4 pm was kinda aggressive though. Also: Robert Redford was there!
Pooja!
All the beers had this sticker on the neck that said "Unlawful to Remove."
My old college friend Jesse's director buddy Justin was there attending with his short film.
Pooja made me keep her wine glass filled at the open bar. Drinking on the job!
Gobama!
Some of Pooja's Sundance team members.
Ari and I are a bit tipsy I think.
Not knowing too many people, I sat at the bar and befriended also sortsa interesting film-y people.
After the party: Jump!
Me and the bear.
Tze took us to the mellow EW tent. Thanks Stella for sponsoring.
Pooja with her boots with the fur. The whole CLUB WAS LOOKIN AT HERRRRR.
Then we went downstairs to some other party that Tze's friend Michael took us to.
Michael!
Tze posing so Pooja could snap a photo of that girl in the blue's short dress. I am ready for summer in NYC.
Then we took a cab about...3 blocks to this condo-party.
Karaoke! Michael was killing it.
Tze's turn on the mike.
SINGING!!! He didn't even have to look at the screen for the lyrics.
Jumping up and down on a bed....
Leads to a broken bed.
Not sure why but this guy wanted to put this empty box on his head. FUN!
Downstairs was a dance party...with this really low hanging chandelier.
The next night Pooja's brother Chirag arrived. He's posing with all the FREE SUNDANCE SWAG. Uh, wait, that's my snowboard.
Sundance sponsors and us.
The highlight of the trip for me was the sweet credential I had (Thanks to my work related affiliation with MySpace) that allowed me access to the MySpace Cafe which was essentially a restaurant that was fully branded by MySpace. What made it so great was that the full service menu was completely free! And it was also where a lot of the celebrities would hang out and grab a bite. Thanks TOM!
The wait line for extra tickets to Sin Nombre. The second of the two films I saw while at the festival.
Sin Nombre's director ended up winning the Best Director award.
The worst thing about Park City is that there's this area near Main Street that just stinks.
I bought a thing of ice cream at the grocery store and made it my goal to finish it before I left. So...I ate rocky road ice cream every single night.
And lastly...Pooja made me take photos of the last two items. Apparently she's never been to Burger King before. That said, I've actually never seen "French Fry sauce."
Also, these are the following people I recognized at the festival.
Benjamin Bratt, Virginia Madsen, Mike White, Zach Gilford, Harvey Weinstein, John Krasinski, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Pierce Brosnan, Denise Richards, Joe Francis, Seth Green, Christina Milian (she could get it), Ashton Kutcher, Christopher Meloni.