Black Metal…En Route to Sundance

My name’s Kat Candler, a filmmaker and film Lecturer in Austin, TX. I’m on a plane traveling to Salt Lake City with our short film Black Metal that’s playing in Shorts Program 4 at Sundance. I was grateful to be asked back by Rooftop Films (I love you guys!) to guest blog about our Park City adventures.

This is my second time at Sundance. We were there last year with a short called, Hellion. The first time at Sundance was magical. There’s no other word to describe it. One of the best moments of my life, hands down. But even though I already know the lay of the land, have mastered the Park City shuttle service and am savvy to the cheapest meals on Main Street, I still have major, major butterflies in my belly. Luckily, Texas is representing in a big way this year. There are nine other films coming out of the Lone Star state from such insanely talented friends. We’re part of something special down there in Texas.

We’re traveling to Sundance not only for Black Metal but we developed our short film Hellion into a feature. Our producer Kelly Williams (who also produced Yen Tan’s stunning feature Pit Stop playing in the NEXT category) is taking Hellion through the Sundance Creative Producer’s Lab. Needless to say it’s going to be crazytown busy.

This year Black Metal is a part of a YouTube/Sundance initiative. 12 Sundance Short Films are available for the entire world to see at this very moment. You work so hard for so long and have the highs of “this is going to be awesome!!!!!!” and the lows of complete self-doubt every inch of the way. And it all culminates in something you’re really fucking proud of. And it’s being released worldwide (holy shit). But I can’t say enough wonderful things about the cast and crew who brought this little film to life. They’re a total team of bad asses. And we’re beyond excited to share what we did with everyone.

So you can check out Black Metal here along with 11 other amazing short films. We’re in great company. So please check them all out.

And you can follow us all week long through this blog and on twitter …

@katcandler

@kellywilliams