The flight attendant told me that, normally, passengers on Delta’s 7:25am flight from Newark to Salt Lake City are fast asleep, rarely move around much. But, today, she noted, the aisles were packed with people wandering around, pacing back and forth.

That’s because, I explained, Sundance began today, and the plane was completely packed with New York film types too neurotic to sit long in the same place.

The fun begins.

Spurred on by the strong reviews and ongoing box office, the Two Boots Pioneer Theater has extended the run of Ever Since the World Ended by a week.

If you meant to see the film last weekend but never got around to it, here’s your second chance.

This Thursday, I head off to the Sundance Film Festival, during which I will not be blogging at all. Before each such film festival, I usually say that I’ll be covering things online, day by day. And then, I get there, post once or twice, stop posting completely, and end up guiltily summarizing the rest of the fest after the fact. So, lest it be said I never learn from my mistakes, this year, I make no such promises. If I post something during, consider it icing on the self-aggrandizement cake.

But, to set the stage for any possible though certainly not promised posts, allow me to repeat an observation I make yearly: by most counts, Sundance, Slamdance, and the other concurrent festivals bring some 70,000 people to Park City, Utah. And while that’s not far off from the numbers the Toronto or Tribeca festivals attract, dropping 70,000 bodies into New York or Toronto barely makes a dent. Whereas with 70,000 people added to a city of 7,882, like Park CIty, the infrastructure is completely overwhelmed, everything starts falling apart, and life more or less grinds to a functional halt.

That, along with countless other factors – certainly not the least of which being the nature of all too many of those 70,000 attendees – similarly leads me yearly to the same conclusion about Sundance: it’s everything I love about movies, and everything I hate about the movie industry.

Should be ‘fun’.

I mentioned it once before, but Ever Since the World Ended opens tonight in NYC.

We didn’t shoot it ourselves, but our distribution arm is putting it out because we think it’s great and it deserves to be seen.

Ever Since the World Ended is set twelve years after a plague has wiped out most of the world’s population. Two filmmakers set out through a deserted San Francisco, filming a documentary about the tiny community of 186 people still living there.

It’s a small film, with a no-name cast. But it’s also remarkably good. The New York Times liked it quite a bit, and Time Out New York gave it four stars. Plus, a slew of other publications glowingly reviewed it at earlier screenings.

The film is playing from today (Wednesday 1/10) through Wednesday 1/17 at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater (E. 3rd St and Ave A, ).

Do me and yourself the favor of checking it out.

With the DVD release of The Oh in Ohio well underway, and early preparations beginning for our next two similarly large releases (both hitting theaters nationwide in the first half of 2007), we’re also taking a bit of time to release an art-house science fiction film that we really love, beginning with a New York theatrical run opening January 10th.

Though I’ll be posting a bit more detail in the next week or two, here’s enough to hopefully whet your appetite:

“It’s The Blair Witch Project with brains and a social conscience.”
– Box Office Magazine

“Wow! The acting is fantastic. I was mesmerized by these performances.”
– Hollywood Report Card

“Powerful…a fascinating saga… superbly executed, surprisingly ambitious, and looks smashing on a big screen”
– Hollywood Reporter

“It’s an intriguing idea, ingeniously done.”
– Time Out, London

“A clever new take on the genre.”
– Ain’t it Cool News

“Evokes memories of the best Twilight Zone tales, employing a powerful narrative and minimum of special effects to create a chilling vision of the not so distant future.”
– Independent Film & Video Monthly

“Powerful”
– Filmmaker Magazine

“A hugely convincing portrait of a largely-collapsed civilization. After this was over, it was an enormous relief to walk out onto Sunset Boulevard and discover there were still people around.”
– Trash City

“An engaging drama that raises intriguing questions”
– LA Weekly

“A brilliant movie with a mesmerizing atmosphere of realism and sometimes disconcertingly relevant insight”
– Movie Pie

Called Rob Barnum, the head of Cyan’s San Francisco office to ask how he and the rest of our Toronto Film Festival delegation were holding up five days into their trip.

“Well,” he replied, “let me put it this way. When I got back from a bunch of industry parties last night, I called the hotel’s front desk to ask them for an 8:00am wakeup call. They said, ‘um, sir, it’s 8:30am.”

Running a film company: not for the faint of constitution.

As I know a lot of would-be filmmakers read this site, wanted to quickly post an internship opportunity at This is That, an excellent production company here in New York. Definitely worth applying for any NYC producers-in-the-making:

This is That Corporation (producer of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and 21 GRAMS) is seeking a business/marketing oriented individual to support its film fund team. Strong communication skills a must. Responsibilities will be mostly administrative, including sending marketing materials to and keeping track of communication process with potential investors. This position is unpaid, but offers great exposure to the film producing environment, and opportunity to learn about the film industry and film financing in particular.

September start date. Flexible schedule, but prefer individual who can work at least 2-3 days per week.

If interested, please send resume to ggasst@gotofilmfund.com

We’ve already sold out the Friday Oh in Ohio screenings in Cleveland; here’s hoping for full houses tomorrow night in NYC, SF and LA as well.