Film Festival and Concert ReportsFilm Festival and Concert Reports
Sundance Film Festival 2013
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 18 February 2013
After not seeing any of my favorite indie directors lined up with films at this year's Sundance and after having to settle for our second and third choice tickets I was pleasantly surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed almost every film we saw this year. I always tell people to go off the beaten track at festivals...
Telluride Film Festival 2012
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 25 September 2012
As usual the passes for the Telluride Film Festival 2012 were sold out a short time before the festival started. There did not seem to be any major upsets with large numbers of people getting shut out of a particular movie. Perhaps this was because George Clooney was not at the festival. Bill Murray was however, in support of his new film with Laura Linney, Hyde Park on Hudson.
Sundance Film Festival 2010
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 19 April 2010
Attendance was reported to be down a little at this year's Sundance. It seemed that way but since we attended for the second half only it wasn't perfectly clear. There were still sold out movies but in general the lines seemed a little shorter. This is still an industry festival and so it's a great place to take the pulse of the industry. The pulse is a little weak.
Sundance Film Festival 2012
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 17 February 2012
Sundance 2012 was as busy as ever including the all important film deals. There may have been a slight let-up in the downtown party scene, but I may not have been the best judge of that as I opted to stay in on Friday and Saturday night of the opening weekend. That was due in part to the relentless Saturday snow which became slush on the ground. I wore my favorite shoes, they are not waterproof. That Saturday snow also led to an enormous traffic jam. At about 6 pm on that day it seemed like there was one theater bus, with about 500 people on it and it was not going anywhere.
Telluride 2009 Film Festival
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 14 October 2009
The year before last was the last year that longtime Telluride Film Festival founders Bill and Stella Pence were part of the festival organizing team. The rumor last year was that the crop of movies at last year's festival was diminished somewhat due to their absence, the idea being that they had pull in Hollywood to bring the block buster films to Telluride.
Telluride Film Festival 2011
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 19 September 2011
The place to be over Labor Day Weekend, if you love movies and want to have an advance look at the films that will be released over the next few months, was this years Telluride Film Festival. Rick Schmidt from the SECRETS team and and Festival Photographer Ray Keller made it to 18 films over four days at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival. Most of these films will be making their way to theaters over the next weeks and months and Rick and Ray are thinking that a number of these will be Oscar contenders.
See the full report of the Telluride Festival and the film reviews in the CAVE.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
- Written by Jason Crawford
- Published on 13 October 2009
Warren Hellman is a man with deep pockets and a deep appreciation of traditional bluegrass music. The fact that he lives in San Francisco is just a matter of good luck for its citizens. This year marked the ninth consecutive year that he's gifted Shaky Town with his Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and it's an event that locals are loathe to miss and travelers are eager to see.
Sundance Film Festival 2011
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 18 February 2011
The news out of Sundance this year was that business is once again booming. We could tell that things were hopping well before the festival too because the online ticket system was showing many shows as sold out. We may have compounded the effect by shifting our attendance to the opening week of the festival. For the past couple of Sundance’s we had attended the less populated second half. This year, for the first half anyway, it was just plain hard to get tickets. Using the online system during our allotted time slot, weeks in advance of the festival, there were many movies already sold out. Red State, the new movie from Kevin Smith (Clerks) sold out in all time slots in 1 day, including a showing at 8:30 am on a Monday morning.
SUNDANCE Film Festival 2009
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 30 March 2009
The Sundance festival is very much an industry festival compared to most others that I've attended. Films are selected with the expectation that there will be some interest from film distributer and it seems like most of the attendees are somehow in 'the business'.
Telluride Film Festival 2010
- Written by Rick Schmidt and Ray Keller(Photos)
- Published on 05 October 2010
Passes were nearly sold out at this year’s festival but getting around and getting into movies seemed a quite a bit easier than in past years. This might have been dumb luck or it might have been that a bunch of people were trying to see James Franco in person at screenings of 127 Hours. Usually we get five movies per day...don't miss the Telluride presentation about the past and present of 3D.
Telluride Film Festival 2008
- Written by Rick Schmidt
- Published on 12 October 2008
Interest in the Telluride Film Festival (Aug 29 – Sep 1) was at an all time high for 2008 as the rather expensive Festival Passes ($680) sold out early in the summer and even the ultra expensive Patron Passes ($Don't Ask) were sold out before the festival started.
