Once again, there’s been too much activity at Sundance to properly real-time blog. But the last couple days have been full of activity, so here’s what’s been going on:

Tuesday morning: I stopped by the screening of I.O.U.S.A., which was screening at the theater in my hotel, to see if there was any way I could get in—if I didn’t, I’d just head on my way to Goliath. I wasn’t that confident because the theater looked packed. Fortunately as soon as I walked in I ran into Doug Brush, the editor I’d met the day before at our screening, and he was as nice as could be (we connected a lot, over editing, over politics, and the fact that we’re both Michiganders can’t hurt!) and he invited me into the green room with their crew, certain that I could get a ticket. What I didn’t expect was that the director himself Patrick Creedon would hand me his own!

They’re great guys, and they’ve made a wonderful film, a must-see for every American. The announcer pointed out that it’s hard to make a sexy film about the National Debt, but they took a very dry subject and made it clear in very clever and witty ways. The graphics were absolutely wonderful, by a designer based in Brooklyn whose name I’ll have to get from Doug when I get home. It’s really a cautionary tale about how our large national deficit imperils our future and our democracy: one point they make is that since we have borrowed mainly from other countries, then those countries have a great deal of power over our political choices since we won’t want to anger our debtors. There are a lot of parallels to our own film, in that they are both about one generation overuses a resource (water, money), leaving the debts and deficits for future generations to clean up.

I then went to watch Half-Life at the Egyptian. It was preceded by “Untilted #1” a short by Nao Bustamente, the mustachioed woman I’d met at the Doc/Press gathering on Sunday. Her series “Earth People 2507” is conceived as a series of shorts to be preserved in perpetuity in a library in New York, to be screened in 500 years. The short was a clever meditation on extinction, starring her small poodle as a herd of buffalo. I really enjoyed Half-Life, by first-time filmmaker Jennifer Phang. It was shot with a Sony HDCAM and the visuals were absolutely stunning, alternating straight filming with wonderful animated sequences. Phang has a real sense of composition and stillness, which is something I really enjoy seeing in a film: there were lovely meditative shots and the film incorporated the natural beauty of Northern California. At the same time it employed dystopic visions of the future, with the films central domestic drama set against a backdrop of a future of natural disasters, pollution, civil disorders and wars. Very original, funny, sad, and lovely. Great performances overall, especially I thought by the young actor who played Timothy.

I was then going to have dinner but Irena called to say there was “free sushi” at the Foreign Documentary party at the Heineken green room on Park. It was crowded and sushi was nowhere to be seen, though I did meet the guys from Fields of Fuel, another doc in competition (and produced by one of our own producers, Steve Nemeth). We all talked with screenwriter Johnny O’Hara about doing a doc-tour-triple-threat, with Flow, Fields of Fuel, and I.O.U.S.A.: a trifecta of political education and empowerment! I didn’t get to see the film, sadly, but I’m very curious.

Then on to drinks with our producer and an organization called “One Percent for the Future,” which tries to get corporations to give 1% of their profits to environmental causes. Evidently charitable contributions go 90% to social causes, about 5% to animal causes, and only about 2-3% to the environment: this company’s trying to change that. We hope to partner with them and suggest water-based organizations to be part of their environmental causes that they promote. All this activity at Sundance is exciting for us, because although we wanted to make a beautiful film for itself, we mainly wanted the film to become a tool for action and change. It’s great to watch these palpable plans take form before our eyes.

After drinks and dinner we all piled into our Sundance-chauffeured car (too many of us—laps were involved) to our screening in Salt Lake City. It was a great crowd: mostly non-industry, just locals, so we were very curious about how the Q&A would go. It was great. People seem really hungry for our message, very curious about how they can conserve water and get involved. Maude Barlow was great, as always: after the film we sent her off to the airport to go back to Ottawa. Back in bed by two am, early for our busy crew.

Wednesday’s activities in the next post!