I have a lot of cathing up

to do, eh? I have about ten minutes here, so apologies for the grammatical and spelling nastiness --- SO....

Friday we swung into the Library Center Theater around 5:00 to catch the premiere of our shorts program here at Sundance. By "shorts program" I mean a cluster of like, five or six short movies.

I was filled with a lot of feelings --- anxiety, fear, the whole range --- but mostly excitement, as we bypassed a giant line in front of the theater and were corralled into a green room upstairs, complete with fashionable couches and refreshments. Pretty soon my phone rang and a gentleman claiming to be James Franco's agent politely asked for a ticket to our screening. Franco directed a really captivating movie in our program titled HERBERT WHITE. I mentioned Sundance has a surreal factor, right? I found the guy's assistant freezing outside and delivered said ticket.....

.....moments later I was seated in a theater of 700 (wait....700? 700, freindo) and looking back upon the faces in the theater as our movie started up. The nice thing about a half-tanked audience half the size of a rodeo is that they'll laugh up a storm, I discovered. An amazing reception! Ours was the first in the program and I was soooo grateful to get it out of the way early.

Holly Hannah. There are some heavy hitters at this festival. The other shorts were RIDICULOUS. There's one from Spain titled MY INVISIBLE FRIEND that knocked it off the charts. We all got up for a Q + A, and between telling a bit about my life to 700 random people and then passing the mic down to James Franco, I was starting to get dizzy.

That night, saw DOUCHEBAG (nice title, eh?), directed by my AFI pal Drake Doremus. Drake is two years younger than myself and has already directed three features. Enough to make a man squint with jealousy. He also has great shoes. The film, by the way, is geniunely really funny, and is a testament to how good a movie one can produce with only an effective idea and an HD cam. And a funny guy with a beard.

Next morning (Saturday, yesterday), woke up bright and early for the director's brunch. This is a legendary sojourn up to the Sundance Resort, AKA Redford's private compound, where the directors ride a bus together and hang out straight up summer camp style. The drive was incredible --- and then I shook hands with Redford and Bill Gates. And Parker Posey (Ok I almost met Parker Posey). As all the directors sat around and ate delicious food, Mr. Redford took the podium and did this like, 45-minute sound-off on his entire career....'had the whole place laughing and looking around at each other in quiet disbelief. This just keeps getting more ridiculous.

OK, I'll have to pick this up later tonight or tomorrow. This has been such a dense experience it's tough to keep up!