Sundance..More than Expected..

This weekend I was able to go to the Sundance Film Festival! I have never been and have always wanted to go. There are usually some really awesome films that come from there; Little Miss Sunshine, Napoleon Dynamite, and a plethora of others, I can't remember. I am a really bad planner and had planned on just going up and seeing what Park City was like, maybe seeing someone famous. Kinda lame, but I thought we wouldn't be able to get into any of the films. Fortunately for the people who came with me, my friend Chris, who is the shiz, was able to help us get tickets. We were in the wait list line, for the movie that was picked as the Critic's Choice Award and Best Drama. It's called PUSH. Not to be confused with the new super hero movie called Push, which actually looks really awesome! This movie had some beautiful cinematography, while dealing with some raw material. It is about a girl in 1980s Harlem who is raped by her father. She has his 2 children, while still living with her welfare addicted mother who physically and emotionally abuses her. It shows her struggling and gives us glimpses into her refuge, her education. It was an eye-opening look at life in the inner city and on how the cycle of poverty becomes so hard to break. It is an emotionally gut wrenching film. I have never left a film feeling more sick about humanity and having such a pit in my stomach. It focused so much on the awfulness that surrounded her, rather than the little hope that she did have in her life. I think this hope would have made the movie more tolerable. Although after hearing from the director and the main character talk about the film, it sounded as though that hope was not the focus. This movie was based on a book by the same name and apparently, it is just as raw. What's so interesting is that the next day I was to teach in Relief Society on hope and loving life and it's trials. It was such a juxtaposition. I loved being able to teach about hope and joy and that it comes through our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the loving family I was born into and for my parents being unselfish enough to help me through life. My dad used to work for the State of Ohio and worked with parents struggling in poverty and ways to help them be better parents. It is so incredible to me the parents that are able to overcome and teach future generations to make their lives so much better. That takes so much courage. I still really like and would love to attend Sundance next winter, but maybe next time, really screen what movie I attend! I think there may have been some really great movies, I just didn't make it to those. Maybe next year..