Photo Credit: Pamela Gentile
Having attended many film festivals since 2010, the Telluride Film Festival has been on my radar for some time. September is a busy month and I had tried Toronto first, and then twice more to keep my credential going. This year, CraveOnline sent me to Telluride, CO to add the acclaimed film festival to our year-round event coverage. Thanks for that, guys.
Telluride Film Festival is only four days long, so it would have to be more quality than quantity. The films tend to overlap with Toronto, which is becoming a point of contention between the festivals. Major Oscar contenders have their first screenings here to debut amongst with the support of voracious cinephiles. Telluride also gets a lot of winners from prestigious festivals like Cannes. Since I went to Cannes last year, I know those are big gets too.
I thought Telluride, CO would be like Sundance in Park City, UT because it’s also in the mountains. Instead I found it more akin to Asheville, NC where I used to go to Actionfest. Granted, maybe in the winter Telluride looks more like Park City in January, but at the end of summer, I saw the same sort of main street with lots of red brick storefronts, relatively quiet and empty even at the busiest of the festival. Main Street in Park City ain’t ever empty during Sundance.
You end up seeing fewer movies at Telluride than at another festival because you really have to line up early. Two hours in line for each film means you miss a film or two in between. But you know me, my favorite part of film festivals is making friends with people in line. Telluride was excellent for line friends. I had a really deep spiritual conversation with a woman whose husband also shared his wine with me, and met a singer from San Francisco who I’ll follow on Facebook. Not to mention, my first night, the veteran Telluriders showed me around from theater to theater. Telluriders, that’s what they call themselves, right? If not, I should totally suggest that next year.
The walking between theaters is intense. I’m a runner and I had a hard time with the amount of walking in Telluride. There is the altitude, and I got winded walking at a normal pace, but I figured I walk around Sundance with no problem. The distances and elevations may be a bit further and higher here, so when you get to that theater you kind of don’t mind a two hour wait. You need the rest. The women in town are fit as hell; must be from all the walking!
I cannot get over how dark it is at night here. There are street lamps but they pretty much only light a three foot radius. You are walking in the dark, and you are walking everywhere. They recommend flashlights for a reason. Luckily I conserved enough cell phone battery to light my way home. You can really see the stars though. I was a little bummed my iPhone camera couldn’t capture the night sky blinking, but I get your point, God. I enjoyed the vision in the moment and I’ll take it with me when I return to L.A.
These theaters are basically assembled exclusively for this one weekend, and then the equipment goes back into a trailer for safe keeping. The Palm has a balcony which was way too hot to sit in, and sections of seats on the left and right side perpendicular to the screen. Surprisingly, that angle worked perfectly for viewing so I sat on the side every time I was in the Palm. Don’t sit forward too much though. The chairs aren’t bolted down and they’ll lift right off the ground. The Chuck Jones theater has a lot of Looney Tunes memorabilia around the walls and on the screen before showtime. Unfortunately, the seat backs are tilted back way too far for my lumbar region, but you know, first world problems. I did also get to check out the Sheridan Opera House and Nugget theaters, but unfortunately never got into the super small houses. Sheridan has a classical feel so it was very appropriate to see a silent film there. I sat in the way front of the Nugget but it was still a perfect viewing distance from the screen.
The weather was pretty crazy. When the sun rose above the mountains, it was still summer. Soon as the sun went down, it was a cold mountain night. Maybe not freezing, but you really needed to carry your jacket with you all day so that you’d have it at the end, and stopping by your hotel room to pick it up in the evening really isn’t feasible.
And the films? Well, you’ve read my reviews of them. We got a bit of a jump on some of the TIFF movies and the films that will be big news in a few months: Birdman, Wild, Rosewater, Foxcatcher. I discovered some real gems in 99 Homes and Mommy, and I’m glad I got to see Wild Tales early. Telluride really is more my speed than the chaos of TIFF. I hope I can come back next year, and now that I know how it all works I think I can be even more effective at seeing the most films and getting the most out of the city!
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
