When our time slot opened, Ryan was at work, and we really hunt put much time to deciding on a movie. It was a little bit of a whim, but after about 20 minutes of reading descriptions, finding them sold-out or at undesirable showtimes/places, I settled on Marmato. Marmato is a documentary filmed over six-years by a man living in the village of Marmato in Columbia.It is a mining town, literally built on a mountain of gold.
On Saturday morning we headed to Park City a few hours early. We picked up our tickets and started walking up and down main street. We decided to go into the "Sundance co-op". It was in a storefront that didn't open until 10am. We waited, imagining the many freebies from all of the sponsoring vendors that were sure to be inside.
Well, it was a bust. There were all of 2 vendors there and all we got was a snapshot of ourselves printed out. We skipped the dog food samples.
That took about 3 minutes. Again looking for something to do, we ducked into the "Cinema Cafe." Only about a block up from the co-op, this is a room set up for discussions by filmmakers on various topics regarding their films. At 10 am there would be a panel on documentaries featuring 5 filmmakers. It was open to the public, space-allowing.'
By 10:05 we had our free coffee, GF brownies, and granola bars in hand and were taking our seats in a back row (it wasn't a very big room). We listened to the filmmakers discuss their films and got to see some clips from them. The whole thing felt very film-school-ish.
I commented on Facebook about the surplus of men in tortoise-shell glasses with unruly hair. These people look like they are in film!
Anyway, during a break in the dialogue, we snuck out to grab a bus to the Yarrow Theatre for our movie. We lined up and waited (we could have stayed at the film panel longer!)
Just before the movie started we were informed that the director, producer, and their families were in the audience. The movie was about an hour and a half and it followed several Marmato miners and mine owners during the six-year time frame in which the mines were being bought out by large foreign corporations (later merging with Gran Columbia Gold).
A highlight was when we heard the people chanting "El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!" Which means "The people united will never be defeated". While in Chile last year, I heard some music I really liked, the server wrote down the name of the group, and I later came home and made a Pandora station based on the band. That station often plays a song that opens with that very chant. It was only this film that inspired me to look up the phrase and understand what it meant.
Anyway, the movie ended to applause and a short Q and A with the director. I was called on to ask a question! I asked if the people of Marmato had seen the movie and if so how it was received. The answer was that no, it has not been seen by the people, but it is slated to be shown soon in Bogota at a film festival there, and El Presidente will be in attendance.
We filed out and back toward the bus to main street. We debated seeing another film, as we were getting a little caught up in the fun of it all, but at 15 bucks a ticket to be wait listed, eh, we decided one was enough. After getting some lunch at The Eating Establishment we headed home.
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