Sundance

Today is the opening day of the Sundance Film Festival.

Both The Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune have guides to the festival as well as the festival site itself. The newspaper sites include blogs.
The Salt Lake City Weekly also has articles, reviews, and guides to the films.

Today’s Salt Lake Tribune has as its online headline Sundance: Unsung staffers are festival’s real stars–Sundance ’06:The movies roll today, an article about the people who work for the festival.

This is an exciting and positive time in Utah every year.

Teachers in the school in which I teach are taking advantage of an opportunity to take our juniors and seniors to see the film Journey from the Fall on Monday the 23rd (for free!), by screen writer Ham Tran. Students will have the opportunity to meet with the filmmaker after the screening.

Here is more info on this film:

JOURNEY FROM THE FALL
Thailand/U.S.A., 2005, 135 Minutes, color – Director: Ham Tran

Journey from the Fall actually follows two journeys, both of which begin as Vietnam’s civil war ends. On the day Saigon falls, Long Nguyen and his wife, Mai, reluctantly part ways.

Long stays in the city to fight but insists that Mai flee the country with their young son. Long is captured and sent to a series of reeducation camps, where he endures hard labor, beatings, and solitary confinement in a tiny metal shed. Meanwhile, unsure of her husband’s fate, Mai boards a fishing boat with her mother-in-law and son. Hoping to reach America, they face a dangerous sea journey, starvation, and pirates. Years later, when Long (who believes his family is dead) is smuggled a letter from them, he seizes a chance to escape. And so begins his journey. Vietnamese American Ham Tran’s beautifully photographed drama uses one family’s story to articulate the experiences of many Vietnamese refugees. Splitting the narrative as he does (Mai’s and Long’s stories actually take place several years apart), Tran creates an oddly powerful emotional connection that belies their distance. Coupled with fine performances, gripping tension, and a lovely relationship among Mai, her son, and her mother-in-law as they struggle in America, Journey from the Fall is an accomplished first feature that gives voice to an untold story.— John Nein

Screenwriter : Ham Tran
Producer : Lam Nguyen
Cinematographers : Guillermo Rosas, Julie Kirkwood
Editor : Ham Tran
Production Designers : Tommy TwoSon, Mona Nahm
Composer : Christopher Wong
Costume Designer : Bao Tranchi
Cast : Kieu Chinh, Diem Lien, Cat Ly, Jayvee Mai The Hiep , Long Nguyen, Nguyen Thai Nguyen
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433398/

Screening Times
Saturday , Jan 21 6:00 PM Tower Theatre, SLC JOURN21WE
Wednesday , Jan 25 3:00 PM Egyptian Theatre, Park City JOURN25EA
Friday , Jan 27 9:00 PM Egyptian Theatre, Park City JOURN27EN
Saturday , Jan 28 6:00 PM Egyptian Theatre, Park City JOURN28EE

Director(s) Bios
Ham Tran
Born in Saigon, Ham Tran immigrated to America with his parents through the Orderly Departure Program in 1982 and graduated from UCLA’s School of Film and Television with a master of fine arts degree. Tran’s thesis film, The Anniversary, won the prestigious USA Film Festival award for best short film, which qualified it for the 2004 Academy Award for best live-action short. His first feature, Journey from the Fall, was inspired by actual events and is the first film to deal with Vietnamese reeducation camps and the plight of the boat people.

Film Contact:
Ham Tran
1425 W. Moore Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92704
(310) 345-2010
journeyfromthefall@yahoo.com