For decades, the most sought after festival for directors to present their work has been the Sundance Film Festival out of Park City, Utah. Modern celebrated filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino launched their careers with projects they submitted to the Sundance festival. Localized in Utah for many seasons, the Sundance Institute in recent years initiated the Sundance Film Festival USA program, to bring a small selection of their event to the country.
While the Sundance USA program may only be in its third year, the Sundance Film Festival itself first played in 1978, originally called the Utah/US Film Festival. Founded by film graduate student Sterling van Wagenen and Utah State Film Commissioner John Earle, originally to satisfy both a culture and commercial need, the inaugural festival presented a small backlist of blockbusters from the preceding years apposed eight independently made films. Although the festival was instantly a landmark attraction in Park City, Utah, a chief reason Earle and Wagenen decided to bring the event back for a sophomore year was the hope to abolish the debt from the first festival. The attention and popularity of the festival compounded with each passing year, but it didn’t really become profitable until 1985: The Sundance Institute agreed to take over management of the film festival, and claim financial responsibility. The festival changed the name to the Sundance Film Festival, and to date is considered on the most prestigious and highly anticipated events of the cinematic year.
In 2010, the Sundance Institute initiated the Sundance USA program, where several films and directors would be dispatched to major cities of the states, to premiere their work to a new audience and extend the Sundance reach. From the start, Chicago’s Music Box Theatre was among the fortunate to house the expanded event. Built in 1929 on the North side of Chicago, The Music Box was considered to be a smaller sibling to the contemporary theaters around, having an 800 person capacity versus the usual 3,000 (approx.). With its Atmospheric design, the Music Box has become a beloved house of cinema, blushing first-timers with a romantic aura and fortifying habitués with a sense of consolation.
This year, Music Box will participate in the Sundance USA event with 2 Days In New York, a sequel to the 2009 romantic comedy 2 Days in Paris; Directed & written by and starring Julie Delpy. Over her former love interest, Jack (2 Days in Paris), and moved on with a new boyfriend (Chris Rock), the event of Marion’s (Delpy) family visiting from France proves to be explosive when they bring one of her ex-boyfriends along. As in previous years, special guests (TBA) will be in attendance for the premier. 2 Days In New York will debut on January 26th, at 7:30pm; Tickets may be purchased at Music Box’s website.
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