sundance 2009 news (kinda sad)

just got word that our projectionist extraordinaire, Brad Jones, will not be with us for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. of course, i hope that this is because he has some fabulous filmmaking and/or editing job that's gotten in the way of his routine presence at the festival as our extremely talented as resourceful projectionist.

one year, Brad and i had to literally kneel down on the floor and hold parts of our then-faltering projector in place during an entire screening. it was a great upper body workout but also exhausting and ridiculous, one of those freakish independent film festival scenarios you hear about. i wouldn't have known what to do, but Brad did. and sure, the solution was makeshift and awkward and physically painful, but it worked.

also, i'll never forget when we were having some Big Time trouble with 1.) 2 angry directors who were not at all pleased with a tiny technical flaw at the start of the screening of their film (no one in the audience noticed, we were later told), and 2.) some patrons who were not going to get in to a screening and made our Theater Managing lives a little bit of hell while we tried to both solve the problem and do some delightful customer service-type-representing-the-Spirit-of-Sundance good works. but so Brad said, calmly but boldly, "[colorful terms] . . . you're the Theater Manager. It's your theater." nice. simple. validating.

also, just after my first little stint doing extra work at the labs (my first work on a film set, ever), Brad came outside and sat down on the grass beside me and asked, "so, how do you like acting in film?" . . . and he seemed to be asking so sincerely, as if to validate my choice rather than to fuel my already existing insecurities about the decision to go there at all (that is, not to question this as something silly and mundane). it was a lovely moment. i will never forget it.

but so this is a lot of homage. it's not like he isn't coming back (he says he is. the absence is just for '09). so but we will miss you in '09, Brad.