Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti at Daily Buzz Sunday. Photo by Brian Brooks.
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Park City experienced a bit of L.A. style Sunday. The City of Angels Mayor Eric Garcetti traveled to Sundance to promote the city to a film industry that has often traveled to other locales. Garcetti stopped by Film Society’s The Daily Buzz to talk up Los Angeles and recalled his time playing the Mayor of L.A. as an actor. Also in Episode 4 of The Daily Buzz from Sundance, Eugene Hernandez interviews the filmmakers from Sundance films Land Ho!, Roger Ebert doc Life Itself and Catherine Keener starrer War Story.
Filmmakers Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz met at North Carolina School of the Arts and have had festival success with separate films after graduating including Stephens’ Pilgrim Song and Katz’s Quiet City. The two collaborated on Land Ho!, which is premiering in the festival’s NEXT section. “Aaron and I went to film school together and we decided to do something together that is different for us, which in this case is a comedy,” said Stevens on Daily Buzz. “The idea of doing something in Iceland just seemed like a great time,” added Katz.
Land Ho! follows a pair of former brothers-in-law who take a trip to Iceland in an attempt to reclaim their youth. Added Katz: “Their lives were full of children and work and these are things they don’t have anymore.”
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti showed up a bit early for his Daily Buzz session at the Chase Sapphire Lounge on Main Street. Hizzhonor entertained himself checking email quietly as other guests filed through. In fact he arrived quietly, not with the an entourage one might have expected from a chief who leads America’s second largest city. “Sundance is such a special festival attracting a lot of creative people from around the country and around the world.
War Story actress Catherine Keener Sunday at Daily Buzz from Sundance. Photo by Brian Brooks.
Los Angeles has fallen short as far as marketing itself. We’re the film capital of the world, but we don’t market that. It’s really important to remind people about that and to encourage them to stay and do their work there. We’ve lost a lot of jobs to other areas. It’s a global industry and we’re proud to have exported it to every corner of the earth. But it’s also important for us to talk to the filmmakers that are here about Los Angeles.”
Garcetti touted the city’s major pluses as a destination for production and recalled his stint in showbiz before being elected mayor. “I’m a SAG member. I played the Mayor of Los Angeles of all things on Major Crimes, a TNT show. I’ve been typecast.”
Mark Jackson bonded with actress Catherine Keener over a mutual love for the Miami Dolphins after meeting. They became “pen pals” as they recalled how their friendship blossomed. Keener viewed Jackson’s film Without, which received honors at various festivals including Locarno, BFI London, Slamdance, Sarasota and Hamptons. The two teamed up for War Story in which Keener plays a woman who is dealing with the aftermath of war as a correspondent. Her attempts at convalescing in a small Italian town is disrupted by her nerves and run-ins with hotel staff, smoking and a persistently ringing telephone. But finds solace after she meets a woman in need.
“I wanted to do work with Mark,” said Keener about taking the role. ” I have an incredible respect for journalists and war photographers.” Added Jackson. ” It’s a trilogy all set on an island. I see it as an action movie after the action stops.”
