Sundance

I'm a little under the gun here to keep moving, i.e. check out of one condo and get to an event, but I wanted to try and get a post in anyway, even if it should have been last night.

This is the first time I've ever attended the Sundance Film Festival, and since I came for the new position I started in mobile entertainment December 4th, I have zero movie tickets. However, thanks to a friend who is in the documentary feature Nanking, I did get to see this extraordinarily shattering movie, which I expect will get good p.r. once released.

The film tells the story of the 1937 invasion of China by the Japanese army, specifically the assault on and occupation of the then capital, Nanking. The atrocities are too numerous to completely enumerate here, but between the actors reading the perishable words of those who were there and the horrific footage (outstanding archive work), the audience was rapt.

After the lights came up and the film party took the stage for questions, it was revealed that several descendants of one of the Americans who helped save 250,000 Nanking citizens were in the audience. They took a bow and at the end of the session rose again to thank the filmmakers and cast. Very emotionally, tear-wrenching, and what I assume is the type of great film festival experiences that keep attendance vibrant and growing.