The Sundance Institute came up with a very cool idea this year - bring the Sundance Film Festival to the rest of the USA. On Thursday, January 28th 8 cities around the country will be visited by filmmakers who have films in 
competition - they fly in, show their films, fly back to Park City to see if they won any awards. Both of our theatres were chosen. In San Francisco, we'll be playing HOWL, a dramatic feature by documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet, The Times of Harvey Milk). The film stars James Franco, Mary-Louise Parker and Jon Hamm. Should he come to town (and I have not heard he will be) it will be my pleasure to 'handle' him, if you know what I mean. Our Madison theatre is playing THE RUNAWAYS, about Joan Jett and the rest of the band. The film stars Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame. Happy to say tickets are going fast. 
We got the schedule this week and the truth is I haven't had the time to go through it. Press has been good and a lot of the movies I've been reading about sound fantastic. I'm heading in on the 21st and I'll be writing an entry every day with thoughts on the Festival and the films.
