A CHILL DAY....FINALLY

"poets have no advice to give. they only want people to see differently, to re-vision life." ~Walter Brueggemann [from his book Hopeful Imagination]

thats basically what i learned this morning in class....until of course some of the cast, the director and the producer of Dry Land came and talked to us and was broadcasted as a live podcast [you can listen to it here].

these are the people who were present....

Ryan Piers Williams:Director

Heather Rae:Producer

Ryan O'Nan:James

Jason Ritter:Michael

our prof started off and hosted the majority of the questioning but then it was opened to a few questions from the students and prof/others present. it was really interesting what was said and such. i thought it was really cool how Melissa Leo, who played the mother who passed away, wanted the role even though it was a small role because she wanted the responsibility to be the one who represented the mother's love towards her son. the director said she wanted the role for this single sentence, "We've all done things and i love you no matter what." and then some other stuff that i dont really feel like writing since its about 1AM and i tired =]

though one quote that i did remember was said by Jason Ritter, "its good to break hearts."

i was gonna ask a question but it had to deal with the ending and since it was live i didnt wanna ruin it for those who havent seen it. so afterwards i waited around and after about forty-five minutes i finally got up to Ryan Piers Williams to ask my question. and i wont say it here because i am sure that you people will have the good sense to go and rent it when it comes out because i am sure it will.

[oh, guess what? Mark Ruffalo (who was in Collateral, 13 Going on 30, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, etc) is coming to our class and talking baout his film Sympathy for Delicious which i hope to wait-list tomorrow]

so after that me a few others waited around for an hour or so at the church to kill time since our next film was at 3. food was a priority so quiznos was on the menu. got the most delicious tomato basil soup i have ever had and their flatbread was so fluffy and yummy =] to kill more time me and ryan gates went to the filmmakers lodge and sat in on a discussion panel talking about film and social justice issue. the two directors/producers from Enemies of the People and the directors of Freedom Riders were there. sadly they didnt start getting into any of the real issues till we had to leave for our 3oclock film.

Its a Wonderful Afterlife was the film. directed by the same women who did Bend it Like Beckham which in our house is a regular that me and mother watch for fun and enjoy quite thoroughly. the first few minutes set the tone of the entire film. a man dies and then his torso explodes in the hospital due to crazy amounts of spicy curry. just to give you a taste of what this film is like here is one of the scenes in a nutshell: think Carrie prom scene set at an indian engagement party.....yeah its crazy and funny. mother, i think you would like it =]

dinner next up at some pizza place that was actually quite good. me josh and treat had to split early to catch the wait-list numbers for Holy Rollers at the library theatre. wait-listing is when you dont have a ticket for a film so you go in about two hours early to get a number that basically saves your spot in line when you come back forty minutes early to see if you can make it in where people dont show etc. so we got our numbers [in the early 60s] two hours early and the line was already long so we were only hoping to get in at that point. so we hung out in the library for about and hour and a half just chilling and waiting for the time to pass.

830 rolled around and we got back in line and met a really cool couple that we started to chat with. they had just got in that day and this was their first film of Sundance. we obviously talked about films we had seen and we got on the topic of how we were here for class and it was cool to see how interested they were in why we were here and they even asked us questions about what we wanted to end up doing with our chosen majors. we finally got to the front of the line and yes did make it in.

the movie was pretty good. great story that i havent seen before. about a hassidic jewish teen turn drug dealer. it was crazy how naive he was in the beginning as to what was going on. his friend Yosef offered him a job to transport "medicine" from europe that "was for rich people and helped them." Sam [main character] did not catch on even after he had transported the drugs what they were. he only found out cause the client mentioned the word drugs. only then did he realize what he did. the culture of the hassidic jews portrayed was also really interesting to see play out in the film. i know nothing of it so it was fun to learn a bit about it and it was nice to know that the director had a friend who knew the religion/culture who made sure that things were accurate. for instance: the thing that really pushed Sam away from his family and deeper into the job given by Yosef was the fact that the girl his Rabbi and parents set him up to marry rejected him. to me it was weird to see how much it disturbed him when he found out even though he didnt even know her or love her and yet he freaked out. me personally, id be so relieved to find out that the guy that i was made to marry went off and found someone else.

the other thing was how different the two cultures Sam ended up living in during the movie. he started out as a lower middle class, strict living person to a place with no rules where you can have and get whatever you want. from money, to sex, to drugs/ecstasy, etc etc. the soundtrack helped and was brilliantly written to go from hassidic traditional to tech-no club music in the same scene. all original by the way.

so now my brain is pudding cause its late and im tired =] see ya tomorrow.