2023 Telluride Film Festival Recap
Still gasping for air, we are elated to be featured in this recap of the Telluride Film Festival in The New York Times.
Phew! What an unforgettable experience to be included in the documentary Backlot Program at the Telluride Film Festival. It was a hard secret to keep the last few months. The prestigious festival has a strict confidentiality policy leading up to the opening day when the lineup is finally released as a surprise to festival goers and the press alike. It was kinda overwhelming with the sheer number of amazing films announced. Where to start?!
Both figuratively and quite literally, it’s taken a while to catch our breath from our trip. An adventure of planes, gondolas, cannulas and automobiles. Telluride is in the middle of nowhere, a six+ hour drive from Denver. I underestimated what an elevation of 8,000 ft does to the body. Especially for someone with CKD anemia. I had an o2 concentrator running continuously until the last day of the fest when I finally began to acclimate. (I never quite managed the 10,000 ft elevation up at lodge however.) It was difficult to be tethered to oxygen once again. It took us back to arduous memories of lung/heart failure and the accompanying daily challenges. Not just for myself—near ripping my flippin ears off with snagged tubing—but the burdens it put on Janice to help take care of me. But in a sense, it was a good reminder of how lucky we were are and how far we’ve come. Not just to be at the festival alongside some of the best filmmakers in the world, but to still be alive and doing well—at sea level anyway. We met some amazing filmmakers and festival goers, suppressing our urge to gawk with celebrity sightings. Telluride is an idyllic, intimate and magical festival that we feel honored and extremely grateful to have been able to attend. But I can’t believe I’m thinking this, it’s nice to be home in the gross, but well oxygenated humidity of the Mid-Atlantic.
Telluride marks the beginning of our fall film festival run. More to come…