By: Desiree’ Powers
So, even though Batkid Begins is a Slamdance feature it takes the cake for best documentary in Park City. How could you forget when San Francisco was turned into Gotham City and little 6-year old Miles Scott saved the damsel from the trolly car, caught the Riddler while trying to rob a vault, and helped take down the Penguin to ultimately save AT&T Park?! As many of us watched the master plan unfold on TV, the film Batkid Begins showed the behind the scenes of the production. From how the plan was originated to how they prepped and executed it was all put together with such fineness. The best part about the film is you got to see raw footage of Miles cracking jokes and being pretty much the cutest 6-year old ever! The documentary showed just how grand the scheme of this wish was. In a way this whole project resorted humanity for just a few hours as many people came out to line the streets of SF in hopes to get a glimpse of Batkid. The amount of support and willingness to cooperate on everyone’s part (all 13,000 people that showed up to watch the spectacle in SF) was truly amazing.
Some of the other films that I have seen over the course of the last few days include: The Tribe (which was awful, I definitely don’t recommend anyone to see it), Pervert Park (an amazing documentary about how society treats the population of sexual predators reintroduced to the world; very awing and a little heart wrenching considering the convictions that many of the characters faced and the crimes that they committed), Results (odd story line, loved the actors, definitely in my bottom three), Reversal (the first time I have sat all the way through a psychothriller, it was kind of predictable and I hated how open ended the ending was), Stockholm (very interesting to watch and interpret!), Station to Station (a beautifully shot and edited film that makes me want to become a film editor so I can work on projects like that), Christmas, Again (a wonderfully written Christmas story about the monotony of life and how we tend to go through the motions because that’s what is comfortable for us), The Stanford Prison Experiment (showed the attitudes and characteristics that people adopt when they are either given immense power or are stripped of it all together), Homesick (which was an odd but interesting portrayal of one’s desperation for love and connection), and Tangerine (which is in contender with The Overnight for my favorite movie of Sundance or perhaps of all time!)
The SMC Sundance Experience 2015 