I just got a Google alert for my name, so I follow the link through to find a discussion on Hollywood Elsewhere about the John Anderson/Jeff Dowd fisticuffs here at Sundance over Dirt! The Movie. If you haven’t heard what happened, you can read about it by following the links in Jeffrey Wells’ post. The mention of me is in the comments and I laughed out loud when I read what T. Holly thought of my review of the film:

…Now I get to re-post Agnes Varnum’s window into the movie, and as far as I can tell, its only review. I hope she doesn’t alter or take it down, it’s so breathtakingly something… ? What would the words be? Positively tortured? Yes, she’s tortured herself positive on it. Read the comments>>

I positively love this interpretation of what I wrote, but I realized upon reading it that there is some context missing. I saw the film at a press and industry screening, which are not open to the public or to the filmmakers. That being the case, several people walked out of the screening within the first half hour or so.

Sundance is a pressure cooker. There are usually about 5 things one could be doing and sitting through a movie that you don’t like feels like a waste of time. But, if you respect the Sundance programmers, I think it is important to at least try to understand what they saw in a movie to include it in the program. Not everyone shares this view, but I decided to stick out the screening based on this premise (I totally agree that the first half hour or so, the movie is patronizing in its information and delivery). As I previously wrote, as the film went on, I found out a lot of interesting things I didn’t know and even got to thinking about things I could do in my daily life that might help improve our environment. I also appreciated the lack of typical documetnary “all is lost” tone. In other words, they were striving for a doc that would entertain and inform. Since I’d like to see action on greening our environment, I want to support getting a film like this (but improved) in front of audiences.

By taking the time to post about it during the fest, I had hopes that perhaps some folks who were here might see it and decide to give the film a chance. Once a person walks out of a screening, they tell all their friends to not bother with the film. I’m not sure if that hurts a film or not, but it’s a shame nonetheless.

It’s rare that a movie that screens at Sundance comes out on the other end needing no further editing. Lots of filmmakers take the reactions and feedback they get here and return to the edit suite to refine the movie. If the Dirt! filmmakers hear that there are some things about their film that aren’t working for viewers, perhaps they will revisit some of their decisions. Perhaps not, but one can hope, especially when there is material worth saving.

Finally, when you are reading reviews from Sundance, do keep in mind that most critics are seeing 4-6 movies a day, trying to make it to industry parties and staying up into the wee hours to do their writing. There is often exhaustion and illness in the mix, and a lot of pressure to do a lot of posting from the fest, as opposed to collecting thoughts and releasing reviews in the coming weeks. It’s just the nature of the beast that might not be obvious if you haven’t had the experience yourself.