Books at a Film Festival

In just a couple of days, the annual celeb-fest/film festival known as Sundance will slam into Park City like a freight train. Now I know what you're thinking, this is a blog for a bookstore so why are you mentioning a film festival? For one, this will be my fifth year attending the festival and I work at the bookstore, and for two, there are quite a few films this year with literary background.

I'll start with the one I'm most excited about, "The Informers" penned by Bret Easton Ellis, based on his book of the same name. I am truly disappointed that I won't be able to see this at the festival, it doesn't have very many screening times. Ellis is one of my favorite authors, and since he adapted his own book, it's probably going to be fantastic.

Then there's "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men". Adapted from the David Foster Wallace book by John Krasinski, yes Jim Halpert from The Office. It's about a girl who copes with her recent break up by interviewing various men. The film, also directed by Krasinski, boasts a laundry list of great actors and is in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category.

Nick Hornby, author of books such as "A Long Way Down" and "High Fidelity" wrote a film called "An Education", directed by Lone Scherfig, a coming of age story set in 1961.

In the Premiers category this year, there is a film called "Endgame" which is based on the book "The Fall of Apartheid" by Robert Harvey.

A Documentary Spotlight in the Spectrum category, is "Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy" based on the book "Black Comedians on Black Comedy" by Darryl Littleton. This film is a critical examination of the cultural influence of black comedy with interviews from Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, and many notable others.

And last, but not least, a short film directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt called "Sparks". The screenplay was written by Gordon-Levitt and none other than Elmore Leonard. This one intrigues me, and I'm definitely going to try to get in to see it. "Sparks" is playing in the Shorts Program IV.

I will be going up on Saturday and plan to blog nightly about my daily escapades and review the films I see HERE on my movie blog, Vinegar Syndrome.