Sundance 2007 -- Day 4

Saw Grace is Gone in the morning, starring John Cusack as a pro-war veteran who can't bring himself to tell his young daughters that their mother just died fighting in Iraq, so he takes them on a road trip to an amusement park. Other than his funny walk and makeup, Cusack gives his typical, natural performance. Shelan O'Keefe is very touching as the 12-year-old daughter who knows something is wrong but hopes she's wrong. The father's liberal brother provides some brief discussion of war politics and morality, but I wanted a bit of struggle over the meaning or meaninglessness of the mother's death. The movie encourages me to make sure Sounds of Darkness, my own wartime script, allows the characters to feel deeply.

Went to an interesting panel of some of my favorite writer-directors at the Filmmaker Lodge. David Gordon Green sounds like he really has fun and enjoys all parts of the process, even pitching to money people. They all said it's hard to get money for each project, even though their films have been very successful. They all found it important to work with people they like, or at least that are easy to work with.

In the evening I went to a local church for a screening of The Power of Forgiveness, by Martin Doblmeier, who also used the local churches a few years ago during Sundance to show his film Bonhoeffer. His touring with the movie is an interesting distribution model that I'd like to consider. Though inconsistent, the film has some powerful moments, including the friendship and activist partnership of a man whose son was murdered and the grandfather of the 14-year-old murderer. Holocaust survivor, writer, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel is maddening with his strict calculus of forgiveness. Compare that with the now well-known, unconditional Amish approach.