[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 3:00pm — Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City]

As far as I can tell, besides the obvious sacrifices of sleep and mental health, making a film is a series of sacrifices to the gods of fingers-crossed-there’s-something-real-here. Each vision must be sacrificed to practical reality (no way we can afford to light that field, no one here knows how to wrangle a calf), ego must be sacrificed in deference to other people’s genius or inclination or shortcomings. The first draft of the screenplay is sacrificed to the second, the film we shot is sacrificed to the edit. Who you are before you make a film is sacrificed, and who you are afterward — well, there is loss. And gain. I value the sacrifices I made for I Used To Be Darker. How could it be otherwise? Something rises from the ashes, if the tale’s told true.

Sundance Responses 2013