Seattle stands out at Sundance Festival

PARK CITY, Utah — Seattle filmmakers and fans swarmed the 10-day Sundance Film Festival, which ends Sunday, Jan. 30, to support their hometown's movies and bask in the limelight. They went for their own projects and helped pack premiere screenings for each others'. They drank and danced together at parties, their sensible boots and lack of plastic surgery making them stand out from the image-obsessed Hollywood crowd. And after all that, they hit the town together for karaoke. It's a tradition.

They were reveling in this year's successes, but they were also thinking about the future of film in their hometown, hoping recognition like this will spur local and outside filmmakers to consider Seattle for film shoots.

The dark comedy "The Details," set and shot entirely in Seattle by Los Angeles based writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes, sold on Tuesday for a reported $8 million, one of the festival's biggest sales and ensuring a well-publicized theatrical release. The movie, starring Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Laura Linney, features the Montlake and Fremont neighborhoods and many Seattle-specific references. Much of the film — about a hapless man whose bad decisions lead to a dire downward spiral — was shot using Seattle-based crew members. During the question-and-answer session after the first two screenings Monday and Tuesday, Estes praised the crew, local film incentives and the city itself.

Many of those who worked on the film were in the audience, including Zita Mazzolla, the film's production manager.

"It's just a great experience to go to something like Sundance and have a film recognized like that — and to be among your friends," Mazzolla said.

She hopes this film will help pave the way for others in the future. "We always knew we had great crews; it's not a secret to us. And it's nice for us to see other people see that, too."

The "Details" cast party, attended by the film's stars — as well as Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who bought the rights to the movie — was one of the festival's most talked-about.

The first of the Seattle films to show, Megan Griffiths' "The Off Hours," packed a screening room with industry insiders, filmgoers and a healthy Seattle contingent. The day was Jan. 21, nine months to the day after the start of shooting. Sundance programmer Trevor Groth praised the quiet drama, about a young woman reassessing her life in a small town, calling the performances and cinematography "some of the best I've seen."

The movie's soundtrack is filled with Seattle musicians like The Maldives and the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band. Many of the film's acting parts went to locals like Alycia Delmore and Tony Doupé. "There's something about the film that felt special from the get-go," Delmore said.

After the "Off Hours" premiere, Griffiths explained that despite the picture's generally pensive tone, "The set was not at all a depressing place to be" and said a fellow filmmaker called the movie "the saddest movie made by the happiest group of people."

Griffiths spent so much time talking to those happy people and to new fans and others from the film industry that by her second day at the festival, she had completely lost her voice.

"The Catechism Cataclysm," a buddy comedy gone wrong, had its premiere Saturday at the historic Egyptian Theatre. It's the place where writer/director Todd Rohal always envisioned showing his first feature.

Griffiths, an old friend, was a producer and first assistant director on the movie, and many of the same crew members worked on both directors' films. The crew welcomed Rohal from the outset and adopted him into the successful Seattle film family, amazing him with offers of help. That support continued at the festival.

"A lot of crews work on a movie and leave," Rohal said. "When your crew is hugging you before the movie, it's an incredible thing."

The premiere audience included a number of film executives, which means even if the film isn't picked up for distribution, at least it got attention. Rohal, who is based in New York, hopes to make future movies in Seattle.

Los Angeles-based writer/director Calvin Lee Reeder had come to Sundance before, with two shorts.

With his feature "The Oregonian," he admitted maybe there were "some nerves involved."

Movies like his gory psychedelic misadventure sometimes have a hard time finding homes, but Sundance's horror-themed Park City at Midnight category gives them exposure they don't get at other major festivals.

"I've had some films not premiere here, and they don't get talked about as much," Reeder said.

After the premiere screening on Monday at the Egyptian, Reeder and the film's lead, Lindsay Pulsipher (both of whom have lived in Seattle), described the Northwest filming conditions they endured during their shoot just outside Seattle last year.

The cold, wet weather added to the unsettling atmosphere Reeder wanted for the movie, but cast and crew suffered.

"I'm completely shocked by that fact, that I could get them to do that and by how hard they worked in really dire situations," Reeder said. "I don't know why they were following me down this dark path, but they did."

Seattle filmmakers were involved at Sundance in other ways. Benjamin Kasulke was the director of photography for "The Lie" as well as "The Off Hours" and "The Catechism Cataclysm." All three films had their premieres on the same long day.

Fiona Otway edited "Hell and Back Again," a documentary about the war in Afghanistan, from her Seattle home. A Park City bar quickly ran out of wine glasses when it hosted the annual Seattle Sundance party featuring Washington vineyards.

At the smaller, concurrent Slamdance film festival, the film "Superheroes" documented an amateur crime fighter in Seattle.

Christy Karras: christykarras@gmail.com