Dodge College Students, Faculty and Staff Arrive at Sundance 2013

January 17, 2013

As the winter starts to ease up in Southern California, dozens of Dodge College students, alumni, staff, and faculty head to the icy peaks of Park City, Utah, to celebrate the love of filmmaking together in this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Read on to learn more about our expanded travel course for current students, and of course the new and noteworthy alumni filmmakers whose films were selected to screen!

Yes, it is
literally freezing
right now in Park City, Utah.

Yes, there’s a stubborn outbreak of Film Festival Flu already taking hold.

And yes, Sundance is home to some of the craziest patrons, celebrities, travellers, films, and snap snowstorms in the nation. But Sundance is no match for our students. As our numbers grow through alumni networking, film festival successes, and our travel class for students, Dodge College has one thing to say to the heart of American indie filmmaking: BRING IT ON!

What Park City probably feels like right now. (Image credit:
“Cutie And The Boxer”
)

Every year, a host of students and faculty are accompanied by our Film Coordinator, Derek Horne, to witness the spectacular sights, sounds, and celebrity of the Sundance Film Festival. Widely regarded as
the
tastemaking event in American cinema, the Festival welcomes hundreds of films in nearly every genre and format you can see on the big screen, to its bracingly chilly home in Utah.

Students are always encouraged to attend, through a variety of SFF-sponsored programs, but Dodge College takes it a step further, offering interested students for-credit classes designed to help them better understand the cinema industry, including the deal-making, public relations blitzes, and of course, the ever-changing art of film itself.

As the festival is fortuitously timed to coincide with January Interterm break, students, who otherwise would never have exposure to such an important event, leap at the chance to embrace the opportunity. In fact, our program has been so popular for the past few years, and because we just hate saying ‘no’ to students excited to learn, we’ve doubled the class for 2013! Now taking place over two ‘sessions,’ students will have twice the chances to catch a screening of that soon-to-be-famous indie film everyone will be talking about next year, to snap a photo with a favorite celebrity strolling about town, or attend keynotes and lectures from some of the industry’s biggest names.

The first session, which left for Utah this morning, will focus on narrative films, while the second session will have a greater emphasis on documentary filmmaking.

Wish you could get in on the action? Fear not, if you stay tuned to our social media channels, you’ll get a taste of the best!

@stephanytaco
: “This is what I call a real winter!” #dcfmasundance

Like last year, students will be tweeting their experiences on the hashtag #dcfmasundance, so load the channel up in your favorite Twitter client, and follow along on their merry adventures! I will be keeping track of the most exciting tweets and photos, for a follow-up piece after they return, and will be promoting and re-tweeting their thoughts from our main Dodge College Twitter account, as well.

Follow the conversation via #DCFMAsundance on Twitter

Additionally, a few of our cold-loving staff will be on hand: Derek Horne will be coordinating the festivities; Sorrel Geddes will be blogging her excitement for the adventure as soon as they settle in from the flight, and sharing her favorite moments from the Alumni networking party she’s hosting; and Travis Knox and Barbara Doyle will be busy actually making deals and spreading the word about Chapman Entertainment’s progress. (I’m counting on Travis to convince Barbara to start Tweeting this trip!)

Here are the films screening across Sundance and Slamdance this week; click the link below to learn more about the plot, Chapman alumni, and media from each film: