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Sundance Film Festival Day 2 Live From Park City

Kelly Williams |
January 20, 2012 | 9:29 a.m. PST

Staff Contributor

Sundance Film Festival 2012 (sundance.org)
Sundance Film Festival 2012 (sundance.org)
Kelly Williams, a University of Southern California senior, is volunteering at the Sundance Film Festival. Check out Neon Tommy for daily updates on her experiences. 

Read her day one update here

12 A.M.- Pictured below is the director and cast of “The Beasts of the Southern Wild.” The film was developed at the Sundance Institute and Based on Lucy Alibars play. The emotional charged beautifully shot film is raw with emotion and features superb use of the extreme close up to tastefully capture the innocence of the child protagonist and the Louisiana spirit. It was shot for three months in Louisiana. Director Benh Zeitlin said the actors’ transform characters. A stunning performance by child actress Quvenzhane Wallis carried so much of the film’s emotional burden on her shoulders. Male lead Dwight Henry, delivers a strong performance as well. The film was finished two days ago. We were the first people to see it as Sundance volunteers.

I also had the pleasure of seeing “Ethel,” Rory Kennedys fresh look at the dynamic of her famous historical family and the woman who made it happen. The comedic and emotional film depicts the remarkable courage, resilience and energy of Ethel Kennedy. Rory, having never known her father, pieces together his laying legacy as a parent and Ethel so humbly attests to Robert Kennedy in the success of her 11 children, despite her primary role in raising them. Through intimate videos, letters and interviews, we are reminded that the Kennedys, like most Americans in the postwar era, struggle with the chaos and tragedy of the time and are a real human family bonded together by Ethel's fortified spirit.

7 A.M.- Made it through the snow to work and I'm back handing giftbags and tickets to members of the industry. It's great that the members have to pick up their tickets each day so I'm getting to know some familiar faces! 

11 A.M.- Watching an interview with the executive producers and director of the film "Payback," based on Margaret Atwood's book of essays on systems of wealth, justice and reparation. Director Jennifer Baichwal explains how so much of our human relationships and primates' relationships are based on receptivity. We can't be selfish because we won't receive in return. Director Baichwal wants the exchanges to inform our lives from the beginning to the end and take it in. "With mega transactions done by super computers, we don't know to whom the receptivity is owed. Constant changing is the essence of how it works. We need to let go of the you owe me mentality in society," Baichwal said.

5 P.M.- Going to the premiere of "Celeste and Jesse" starring Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg. 

Reach writer Kelly Williams here 

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