The 2011 Sundance Film Festival officially began last night: for the staff and volunteers, at least.

Arriving at the Salt Lake City airport yesterday, I overheard conversations that were sparsely peppered with the keywords: “Park City” and “films”.  I’m thinking they may be filmmakers, or maybe patrons visiting the festival. Then riding in the airport express shuttle with a group of people deep into the snowy mountain resort, each one of us was discussing the festival. One couple was part of an experimental film art project that was exhibiting at the New Frontier space. When I disclosed that I was a full-time volunteer, they relished at the thought of me being a promotional outlet, so they quickly gave me a stack of bumper stickers so I can hand it out to customers. Here it comes, the film selling begins right there in the airport shuttle. It seemed confusing, however, since the stickers just displayed the name and call letters of some fictional radio station. Apparently it supposedly ties into their art project.

Finally arriving at Sundance HQ at the Park City Marriott, the flood of excitement immediately hit me as I entered those doors. That hubbub and rush just made me realize why myself and hundreds of other volunteers do this–for that bustling experience of watching fresh cinema with enthusiastic ticketholders and those Sundance Volunteer perks that draw us back.

Now we have some preparations to do for the opening night screenings, so let those films roll.

Images of Sundance:

Categories: FilmTags: Sundance Film Festival