Swaggotry At Sundance



(image via sundance)

Those Goddam Swaggots! It is about time for that annual media hand-wringling: Has Sundance Jumped the Shark. We'd argue, Yes. The Swag is, as usual, out of fucking control. There are certain ... types ... who are attracted to the swag (i.e, Janice Dickinson) Combine indie hipness with the film industry, which always wants to seem ahead-of-the-curve, and you get -- alas -- a herding effect of corporate swine. McNBlogs wrestles with those pigs for us lesser mortals:

"IT ISN'T MUCH, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan: Over at indieWIRE, Anthony Kaufman leads the perennial charge against commercialism in the Wasatch range, as he composes '5 ironies of Sundance,' among which are the fact that experimental work will be shown on Park City's Main Street at Sundance 2007. 'Does it not strike anyone odd that Main Street, home to the horrible hawking of everything from movies to pet-food [sic], is the permanent home of Sundance's new avant-garde space, New Frontier on Main[?] To see the Martha Colburn installation, you must suffer through countless filmmakers carrying masks, sandwich-boards [sic], bullhorns, etc, in [addition] to the rabble trying to get into some party at Cicero's or Harry O's, etc...I'll never forget my days hiking up Main Street, trying to avoid the chaos as I try to catch some obscure entry from South Korea or Singapore." Plus, harsher words against idle swaggotry: "What the hell is gifting, and how has this new verb become such an integral part of the entertainment business[?] I just got an email for the "Gifting Lounge," a place that has decided to take the high road and disguise its gross gluttonous impulse by giving celebrities a gift card so they can 'select their own swag in the privacy of their own home.'"

BTW: Anthony Kauffman's 5 Ironies of Sundance is Required Reading (blog)