Sundance 2011: Bits n' Pieces - Day 5
For as much as I am looking forward to Red State, I am glad to leave the crazy behind for now and take a peek at what bloody footprints were left in Park City today...
A Pandemic is Afoot
Playing in the dramatic shorts competition at Sundance is "Pandemic 41.410806, -75.654259," about kids dealing with their mother's mysterious "sleeping sickness." In case you have been too caught up in the Red State drama, FEARnet has snagged the digital and television distribution rights to this short (check it out below).
But that's not the whole story...
In addition to the short, director Lance Weiler has launched Pandemic One dot Zero, a "transmedia" experiment taking place in Park City through January 30th. Spanning "film, mobile, online, print, real-world, social gaming & data visualization," this social experiment asks attendees to keep their eyes out for water bottles, cell phones, Tweets, and other hidden physical and digital attributes in order to chart the "pandemic," and report in to "mission control spaces" set up throughout the festival (below). Weiler hopes that, in addition to being a massive experiment, the data may be compiled to help health officials track real pandemics across the world.
Want more? WSJ.com has a great interview with Lance Weiler. Check out the HopeIsMissing YouTube channel where you can request someone in Park City be scared - the Pandemic team will track them down for you. Follow the story on Twitter. And of course, check out the short that started it all, right here on FEARnet.
Silent House Gains a Voice
Well, most of a voice. The first horror film of the fest to get distribution is the remake of the less-than-a-year-old Uruguayan haunted house flick by the duo behind Open Water. Mickey Liddell has picked up worldwide distro rights to the film, excluding the UK, Scandinavia, and the Middle East. Those territories will be handled by Elle Driver. US distribution is still up in the air, but ScreenDaily.com reports that a deal is "understood to be close."
Vampire Gets Buried
Arthouse flick Vampire, about a geeky kid who prowls the internet for suicidal girls whose blood he can drink dry, premiered today to less-than-stellar reviews. ScreenCrave.com gave it a 6/10 - and that was about the best review I have seen. FilmThreat.com, at best, could only say, "Perhaps there is an audience that projects something onto the film that isn't really there and it develops a life because of it, but I doubt it." Variety.com called the picture "ineffectively bizarre" and "stubbornly unsatisfying." The tweets have been downright vitriolic. @erikthemovieman said "A new low has been set at Sundance with Vampire." @jhoffman6 wrote, "My god, Vampire was quite poor." @keanesian: "People in my screening REALLY didn't like Vampire. I was kind of into it. But I thought it was almost over an hour in. Sloow going."
The Woman Takes a Beating
Only at Sundance can you have the most civil theatre ejection ever. Watch this guy spend over six minutes (and that was just as long as the cameraman was able to record) complain about how vile and offensive The Woman is - and complain that he was removed from the theatre prematurely! Reviews are scarce, but the Tweets have been overwhelmingly supportive: brutal, shocking, intelligent, hilarious, spectacular. In case you missed the freakout...
