Complications

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN LAX AND SLC

As it turns out, my wife ran into huge complications after making the trek from terminal 5 over to terminal 1 to catch her "confirmed" US Air flight. Seems the faceless entity on the other end of Delta's "black courtesy phone" not only neglected to get someone at the Delta ticket counter to print the appropriate vouchers to authorize travel on US Air, but also had only put a seat hold in for the LAX - PHX flight and not for the PHX - SLC flight. By the time US Air (who kindly provided a physical person who was actually interested in "helping" a frustrated traveler) sorted out the voucher issue, all seats on the second leg were book (presumably by those displaced from the Delta flight and who had been fortunate enough to stumble upon the "secret password."

Right now her plan is to fly to Phoenix and see if she can wrangle a seat on a flight to Salt Lake. At least she has tickets... so that's a step in the right direction.

Apparently the "official airline of the Sundance Film Festival" doesn't exactly go out of its way to ensure you're actually able to go to the fest.

Score one for Delta.... or not

LOS ANGELES.

So we get to LAX at around 5am this morning. I check in for my flight. My wife checks in for her flight... Or at least tries to. The kiosk says it "can't find" her reservation. Technical issue? No... Her flight's been canceled. Guess that boarding pass she printed at home eight hours ago is worthless.

So now what? Self checkin agent to the rescue! We're kindly told, in that fantastic "I'm not equipped to fix your problem"/"I'm too busy"/"I couldn't give a shit" way that's likely to win prestigious customer disservice awards, that we need to make our way toward one of the "black courtesy phones" down somewhere over yonder. Yup... The giant FU. Now... I've had the privilege of using these "black courtesy phones" before and I can tell you they're definitely not "courtesy" and barely pass for "phones." At least they're black.

So we manage to fight our way through the mob of displaced Sundance travelers (what airline cancels a 6:30 flight from LAX to SLC on the opening day of Sundance and doesn't plan for an angry Hollywood mob?) to one of the three "black courtesy phones." Yeah... In one of the busiest airports in the country you offer up only three phones for those requiring assistance? Good call.

We wait "on hold" for a good ten minutes.

Finally a person who's here to "help us!" Our phone agent deftly offers up the next possible flight option:

We can get you a seat on a flight that leaves a bit later... On the 19th

On the 19th?!

Yes.. THE 19th.

That's two days from now. Unacceptable.

Are there other options?

Well... I can get you a flight at around 9am on the 18th?

That's more than 24 hours from now.

Sorry... We're all booked. Didn't you know that a lot of people were traveling to Sundance today?

I had no idea.

So... Can you get me on another airline today?

- on hold -

Everyone is booked.

Every single flight on every single airline out of LAX that could possibly connect to a flight that ends up in SLC is booked?

Apparently.

Okay... I'll take the flight on the 18th.

So now we're on hold again. Me being the diligent person that I am I jump onto the Orbitz website on my phone and check flights to SLC for today. Hmm.... There are five US Air flights to SLC via Phoenix before 3pm today with available seats.

The agent on the "black courtesy phone" returns...

Okay... We have you going out tomorrow morning.

I checked online and found four US Air flights today that have seats available (the first US Air flight was too close to reasonably make). Here are the flight numbers and times.

- on hold -

Okay... We can get you on the 9:40a US Air flight.

Great.

So apparently there were available flights... But you have to know the magic words. The person on the "black courtesy phone" was not so lucky and had been sentenced to a flight on more than 24 hours in the future. Wanting to stay her fate, I quickly threw the "secret password" US Air info her way. Another soul saved.

Delta definitely wins major awards for this one.

My flight (now massively overbooked and bleeding passengers) is boarding. Catch up with you when I get to Park City.

Escape from LA

LOS ANGELES

So here we are again. Another January is upon us and it's time to head off to another round of cinematic excitement at the Sundance Film Festival. With the WGA work stoppage still going strong after a full ten weeks, it's high time to escape the confines of LA and the "studio system" to catch up on filmic fare of a more independent flavor. As with last year, I'm going to be blogging on a regular basis from the festival, using cutting edge technology (aka mobile email) to magically beam postings to the world in near real time. Yes, it'll be Sundance like you've never seen it before. If you think this is exciting... well.. it really isn't, but it sounds cool and I'm all about spin. But, suffice it to say it's going to be worth your while to continually check back here over the next few days for myriad new waxations as I depart for the Fest at the ungodly hour of something like 4:30am tomorrow morning. The Festival itself goes into full swing starting tomorrow evening and runs through the 27th.

See you bright and early tomorrow morning.

Coming to a close

SLC


So that’s it for me at the 2007 Sundance film fest. Over seven days I managed to see four short films, twelve dramas and eight documentaries. So… 24 films in all. There was a lot of phenomenally good stuff this year. Wish I had another week to see all of the other films that I wanted to check out but didn’t have the chance. But… now it’s back to LA and real life…

In other news, I just learned that The Weinstein Company and Lionsgate came together to buy the rights to Teeth, so hopefully it’ll find some kind of theatrical distribution without too much being cut.


So... the rundown on films for yesterday and today:
Teeth – Wow… definitely one of my top films of the fest. NOT a film for everyone (read my thoughts above)
Songbird – One of the better dramatic shorts I’ve seen.
Hounddog – Panned by critics and slammed by the media. But… very well received by the audience. I thought it was quite good.
Blame it on Fidel – Fun to watch. I enjoyed this one quite a lot.
Welcome Europa – Great documentary. Totally immersive in the world of illegal immigration to Europe.

Haunting

SLC

We just finished our last screening of the festival with Welcome Europa, a visually poetic portrait of several young immigrants to Europe. It’s a devastating story of Kurdish, Moroccan and Romanian immigrants who come looking for a better way of life, hoping to make enough money to send something home to their impoverished families. What’s revealed is a community of men who move from city to city, hoping that each will be better than the last. Instead, they’re left destitute and struggling to survive, most sleeping in boxes and turning to male prostitution as a way to simply survive. Before embarking on the project, Bruno Ulmer spent nearly a year living with these men and getting to know them before turning on the camera in an attempt to show the world their amazing story. The documentary that was born from his experiences blurs traditional lines and immerses the audience in this gritty world, using vivid, sometimes impressionistic imagery. Sorrowful, humiliating and emotionally powerful throughout, Welcome Europa is a documentary with a lot to say. Highly recommended.

A good night's sleep

SLC

Today we're only catching one screening for which we already have tickets, which of course means that I was able to sleep in until 10:30a, thus getting over ten hours of much needed sleep. Currently we're waiting in the Broadway theater for a screening of Welcome Europa.

Blame It On Fidel, the film we saw last night, was really pretty good. The story follows Anna, a young girl who's parents are political activists in France. They try very hard to teach Anna the importance of standing up for one's beliefs, showing group solidarity (ie protesting) and for speaking out against evils in the world. Unfortunately, Anna doesn't quite understand the contextual importance of these lessons and applies them incorrectly to her daily life. She attempts to show group solidarity at school and otherwise applies the concepts of political activism to things to which they were never meant to be applied. The result is an intriguing and very funny film that seeks to show how personality and social interaction are influenced by the world around us. Worth checking out.

Freakin' exhausted

SLC

The three hours of sleep from last night and a week's worth of rising at 5:30a have caught up with me. Thoughts on Blame It On Fidel will need to wait until tomorrow.