My God I'm exhausted... isn't it time for bed yet? I'm staying in a condo with Kirby Dick (the director of sick) and Sheree Rose, Bob Flanagan's collaborator and dominatrix. When I arrived at the condo Sheree was sitting by the fire. She let me in, gave me a big hug, and proceeded to fill me in on the events so far. The screenings have been very well received, there's a heavy buzz about the film, and some distributor interest.

Kirby came back and the three of us cut out little SICK tags and stuck them onto nails to give away as promotional items. The one sheet is really gorgeous - too gorgeous apparently, as people have been stealing them and there were only six full size ones made specially for the festival.

We thought we had a line on some tickets to see Greg Araki's film NOWHERE which is a hot item, but when Sheree and I got there our tickets had been given away and we had to stand in line with the rif-raf, only to eventually be told there was no room. So we called a taxi and while we waited for it to arrive, went into the Apple Computer Technology suite. I ate some stuffed mushrooms and salmon, and they interviewed me for some promotional broadcast.

Taxi came and whizzed us through the fast falling snow off to a dinner party up in Deer Valley. The snow became a blizzard. Three blocks from the party, the taxi got stuck in the snow and we had to walk the rest of the way, with whipping wet snow in our faces, howling winds wirling around us, and wet two-foot drifts clinging to our ankles. Visions of someone finding our frozen corpses in the spring thaw, still clutching our festival passes.

The party was fairly generic but nice. I drank white wine out of a fountain that had forty yellow translucent acrylic penises protruding from it. I talked to a composer from New York. Various snooty actors and actresses ignored me. Ate too many strawberries.

Then a precarious ride down the mountain from a Fine Line acquisition guy with a four wheel drive. The snow was very heavy and the view out the windshield looked like the Donner Party's last moments.

The screening of SICK started at 11pm at The Yarrow. The projection quality was terrible, sound was mediocre, chairs were uncomfortable, but the response of the crowd was sensational. I cried during Bob's death scene, and at the end of the film when he reads his poem WHY. Forty five minutes of enthusiastic audience discussion followed the film - at 12:45am! People really seem to get the film. There was only one person who had negative feelings - a woman with an Italian accent who accused Sheree of murdering Bob.

Got back here to the condo around 2am. Too tired to go to the NOWHERE party. Drank tequila and sat around talking. Sheree gave us a very detailed demonstration of her whips, which was quite fun. I had a natural talent for using the small bull whip. I'll post some pictures of the whip lesson tomorrow.

Good night!

On my way out of the hospitality suite this afternoon I slipped on some icy slush and fell flat on my ass. I was fine, and more importantly, so was my Powerbook. I made my way up Main Street, stapling SICK posters to over-crowded bulletin boards. I got to a board where a skinny pimply-faced kid was taping up posters for a film called CHASING AMY. He had covered half the board with three posters, and so I started to put my poster over his. We almost got into a fist fight, but he finally backed down.

At the Egyptian screening the energy was very high. It was an incredible rush for me as the film started, seeing the opening credits thirty feet high with my music and four hundred nervous film-goers. They loved the film, I was moved to tears again, and there was another great Q&A afterwards, which went on until they had to kick us out for the David Lynch film. We got an offer from a distributor this afternoon.

I finally saw a film other than SICK... HIDE AND SEEK, a documentary about lesbian coming of age issues. It was good but not great - a bit soft for my taste, perfect for PBS.

Tonight it's the PINK FLAMINGOS party and screening. I saw John Waters this afternoon at the executive business suite.

Saw two great films on Friday: BLACK & WHITE & RED ALL OVER, and EAST SIDE STORY. The first was a very stylized urban drama about a group of young black kids who all die; the second was a documentary about Socialist musicals, of all things... incredible clips of Soviet Busby Berkeleyesque extravaganzas.

I've been having a ridiculous time with the Apple QuickTake digital camera. For some reason it won't talk to my Powerbook, so I'm unable to download the pictures I've taken and upload them here. I tried to get some advice at the Apple Technology Suite, but they were totally uninterested in helping me. There are big banners around the festival touting Apple technology as the tools to take creative people into the 21st century, but I can't get the damn camera to work. Oh well...

The screening of SICK this evening was the last of the festival, and a bit anticlimactic. Only three-quarters full, and not as lively a crowd. Sherry left today, and so she wasn't there for the Q&A after the screening. But people still seem to love the film.

SICK won a Special Jury Prize for outstanding achievement in the documentary category. We won. We won!

Apparently there was a bitter struggle among the documentary jury, some of whom wanted SICK to win the Grand Jury Prize, and some of whom refused to go along. So they created a special category all of is own! GIRLS LIKE US won the Grand Jury Prize.

Susan and I sat with Kirby in the filmmakers section at the awards ceremony. It's a very hot ticket to get into the ceremony, which is slightly ironic because it's not nearly as much fun as sitting in the adjacent hall where they have food and drink and big video monitors showing the awards live, and which is much easier to get in to. But that's just the way things work here...

Kirby gave a gracious acceptance speech, and thanked me and Dody (the brilliant editor of the film) and gave a special big thanks to Sherry. It was very very exciting and moving. Kirby was cool; I was acting like a housewife on a game show winning a new car.

Huge party after the ceremony, and suddenly I have that most elusive and desirable Sundance quality: schmoozability. People I vaguely recognize are coming up and hugging me and congratulating me. The snooty actresses who snubbed me a few days ago now send me knowing smiles. People I sat with on the shuttle are inflating their own positions by coming over and introducing me to their friends saying "I knew you'd win!" Every time I turn around Kirby is surrounded by another small crowd of admirers. We call Sherry on the cel phone and tell her the news. She wants to know why we didn't win the Grand Jury Prize.

Susan introduces me to a camera-assistant-turned-producer she knows as her husband, a composer. The nouveau producer shakes my hand and says "Now please! Don't send me a cassette! It's useless! How can I judge film music by listening to a cassette?"

I hadn't even contemplated sending her anything, let alone suggested it... Susan tells her I scored SICK, and her whole demeanour changes. "Oh! Congratulations! Well I'm really looking forward to hearing your work! John gave me a video of your film. You don't mind if I watch it on video, do you?"

In the middle of all this Dody passes me a message: CALL YOUR TENANT IN LA. ITS URGENT! So I go outside of the noisy party into the hall and call LA on the cel phone. The fence has collapsed in a rainstorm on our rented-out house.