Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

There’s some strategery at work in selecting tickets for Sundance. They send you the booklet listing all the movies in early January, you’re assigned a half hour slot a week later to make all your ticket selections, and you do your best. Some of the flicks we chose this year were great, others were dogs, but those are the breaks.

One of the risky moves is ordering tickets for various award winners, without knowing who they will be. The awards were announced tonight, and it turns out I’ve seen every movie that won in the categories I selected tickets for. In other words, all the tickets I pre-purchased will be haggled over and traded tomorrow morning for tickets to movies we haven’t seen yet. The Sundance box office opens at 8:00 AM, and we learned from times past that getting there early to buy tickets to the award winners and to trade with our fellow man in line requires an early, early start. So my particular man and I will be standing in the freezing cold at 6:30 tomorrow morning, doing our best to secure tickets to movies we haven’t seen.

Yes, I know, cry for me. Life is so rough. Wah. (I recognize how good I have it even being here, so you don’t need to slap me about the head right now.)

The good news about the awards is that my favorite, favorite documentary Hear and Now won the audience award for best doc. It’s by Irene Taylor Brodsky, and it’s about her parents, who were both born deaf, and who decided at age 65 to get cochlear implants so they could hear. Hearing their stories about growing up deaf, then watching them struggle to adjust to sound–and to their differing progress in hearing–was so moving and fascinating. You don’t realize what you take for granted, hearing every day and hearing all your life. After the screening the filmmaker called her parents up on stage for the Q & A, and I swear there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. And how cool is this? I saw the parents out in the lobby afterward, and I actually got to use some of my new (and rudimentary) sign language skills, telling them, “Thank you. Wonderful!” They signed “thank you” back, and I practically skipped out of there.

The other winner I totally agree with is best directing for Rocket Science, written and directed by Jeffrey Blitz, the guy who made the documentary Spellbound. This time the movie is fiction, but based on Blitz’s experiences as a freshman in high school. He had a terrible stutter, and decided to tackle it by joining the debate team. The movie is funny and sweet and painful to watch in all its adolescent awkwardness. Loved it to pieces. Please watch for it.

The audience award for best drama went to Grace is Gone, which I’ve already talked about. And check this out: a special acting award went to the young woman who had the little problem in her nether regions in the form of teeth, which I also talked about and refuse to again. Um, yeah, I admit that girl did a fine job, but next time I’d rather see her in a Jane Austen period piece, thank you.

On a totally unrelated note, I have spent this week eating my weight in big-ass cookies, Chex Mix, nuts, and tortilla chips. I’m going to be speaking at a gathering of New York and other tri-state librarians in a little less than a month, and I’d rather not overwhelm them with my blimpiness, so I think I’m looking forward to getting back home and eating normal, non-remind-me-of-my-fat-girl-days food. I had a pal who once whispered to me before he spoke at a seminar that he was going to need me to go around the room having everyone sign liability waivers in case one of the buttons popped off his suit and took someone’s eye out.

I do NOT want to have to bring out the waivers.

Fleece Girl signing out and going to bed now so she can get up in the cold and dark just to satisfy her need for fresh movies. Thanks for reading. ‘Night.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Films, Sundance Film Festival, Hear and Now, Rocket Science, Jeffrey Blitz, Irene Taylor Brodsky, Grace is Gone

Posted on Saturday, January 27th, 2007 at 9:51 pm under Movies & TV . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.