Virus cases are rising in the U.S. and we’re headed towards close to a million infected per day by early January. Despite all that, the Sundance Film Festival is bravely going on with the show, set for mid-January, even offering up free booster vaccines to anyone attending.
And yet, I’m skeptical they can pull it off.
It’s a brave decision on their part to try and make the Park City event happen, but we’re at a stage right now where our culture, particularly the media, still hasn’t really accepted to just live with this virus. Cases are still being counted, and quarantines for the infected still in effect.
Sundance has already reduced capacity for their screenings, banned eating and drinking during movies, installed on-site testing and demands you to be triple-vaccinated to attend the festival. I know a few journalists who have already canceled their flight and accommodations and will, rather, cover the Festival remotely back home.
That’s the thing about Sundance 2022, you don’t have to go all the way to Utah to experience it. Every single film in the lineup will be available digitally. The same as last year; the 2021 edition ended up delivering critically-acclaimed titles such as “Passing,” “Flee,” “Summer of Soul,” “Mass,” and “CODA.”
I mean, think about it, imagine spending thousands of dollars to fly and attend Sundance only to test positive for the virus and have to quarantine for the rest of the festival. What a bummer. What a bad trip. I just can’t see a full-fledged in-person Sundance occurring this year, and it pains me to say that.
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's "You Can See Everything" has been in theaters for, what, three days? And it's already the highest-rated feature film of all time on Letterboxd.