Cynematik

FROM Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE: PARK CITY ‘09 | In the Wake of Prop 8, Film Community & Fest Organizers Defend Sundance Amidst Talk of Boycott | With about a week to go before programmers internally lock the lineup for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, organizers are carefully navigating calls for a boycott of the annual event. Talk of a boycott emerged via blogs last week, including Huffington Post and AmericaBlog, in the wake of anger and frustration over the passage of California ballot Proposition 8 halting same sex marriages in the state. Members of the indie film community immediately came to the festival’s defense today, including filmmmaker Allison Anders (“Mi Vida Loca,” “Gas, Food Lodging”), who said, “To boycott the festival which has been the home for all diverse voices to be presented on the screen is dangerously backward thinking.” Figures I would have tickets and be planning to go on the year that the boycott is called because of failed legislation on same sex marriages. It’s ironic and laughable.

What makes it even funnier? The reason they’re calling for the boycott is because Sundance is held in Mormonland (Utah). As you undoubtedly know, Salt Lake City is the world headquarters for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which counts about 62 percent of Utah residents as members. The church encouraged its members to work to pass California’s Proposition Eight by volunteering their time and money for the campaign. Thousands of Mormons worked as grassroots volunteers and gave tens of millions of dollars to the campaign. And, here in little Utah, the Church advocated that Mormons work to pass Proposition 102 (the “marriage is only one man and one woman” proposition). Since it’s already in the Arizona constitution, it was unnecessary overkill (in my opinion).

But, at the end of the day, here’s the conundrum. What is the film I’m screening in a little more than two weeks? A film about Mormons. Talk about a tiger chasing its own tail, a snake consuming itself, a personal Catch-22.