It’s a treat and an honor to be here at Sundance with CITIZEN KOCH, our second visit with a film in competition. Our Brooklyn production office is across the courtyard from the Rooftop team; we’ve been holed up in our edit room for the better part of the past year, and we love seeing Mark and Dan on those rare occasions when we emerge.
Our offices overlook the Gowanus industrial canal–a designated Superfund cleanup site and future home of Brooklyn’s first Whole Foods Market–it’s a welcome change of scenery to gaze at the Wasatch mountains for a spell. We are bumping into lots of other Brooklynites here in Park City–funny that we have to travel across the country to spend time with our neighbors.
This is our two-year old son’s second Sundance. Last year he tasted snowflakes for the first time, and this year he’ll go home with a half dozen multi-colored water bottles he’s collected!
Yesterday we screened CITIZEN KOCH at the Egyptian Theater, our second screening of the festival, and it couldn’t have gone better. Very lively audience and q&a. We even had a little off screen drama when the festival staff caught someone trying to pirate our movie –taping it from their seat.We were sort of flattered, but there are better distribution options out there for us, fortunately!
While the first half of festival goers have already headed home, we’re looking forward to an influx of newcomers and to our three more screenings this weekend on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. CITIZEN KOCH is our attempt to understand the personal and political consequences of a broken electoral system, a story about money, power, and democracy. We hope it continues to resonate with audiences post-Sundance! Our Saturday screening will be in SLC, where over two dozen local labor activists are attending, and we couldn’t be more excited to share our film with them! Then back to Gowanus.