Many apologies for the lateness of the update, but the news is exceedingly good:
Resurrect Dead won the U.S. Documentary Competition Directing Award!

People have asked me if we get any advanced notice about receiving this and the answer is that we don't. It's a complete surprise. So as I heard my name and stood up to walk to the stage, I was thinking to myself "what in god's name am I going to say?" Looking out from that stage was like looking into some intense car headlights.

Steve Weinik caught the whole thing with his camera! You can see Jen and I engrossed in the ceremony. And the view from the stage. Afterward, they took us backstage, where people serve us up cups of champagne.

You can see a backstage photo of me and Peter Richardson, who just took the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize for his excellent film How to Die in Oregon! See that ladder in back of us? And those stairs? That's what it looks like behind the stage at the ceremony. (Sorry if I'm being too nerdy here. I get excited about stuff like that.)

Afterward, a Photo of Jen and I, then a group shot of Justin, myself, Steve, and Jen. What a fantastic night.

Steve has more Sundance photos on his blog:
http://www.steveweinik.com/blog/...

Need to find time to sleep.
Cheers,
-Jon

Hey All,

Yesterday afternoon was our world premiere! This was the first screening and very emotional and the whole thing went by so quick. Steve Weinik snapped some excellent photos, here are a couple. You can see me doing the introduction with Sundance programmer David Courier. It was a packed house, with 164 seats. Everyone seems to have enjoyed it. I could feel the crowd reaction in the pit of my stomach at certain moments. Afterward, our whole crew went out for dinner at Squatters Restaurant; Steve got some great shots. Gotta run in a moment to the next screening at Yarrow. Zero down time at this fest. Fingers crossed. Cheers!

Hello, sorry for the much delayed update. Things have been so absurdly busy, so it's nice to have a minute to do an update. We arrived in Park City on Thursday night, so I'm gearing up for what will be day three for me. I uploaded some pictures from some of yesterday's events.

Yesterday was a high point for me so far. Each of the film directors are invited to the Sundance Institute for the Directors Brunch. I snapped a photo of some good folks I've met along the way: Peter Richardson and Marshall Curry are awesome doc filmmakers with movies in the US Doc Competition (How to Die in Oregon, If a Tree Falls, respectively) and Tahir Jetter has a short entitled Close. The directors I've met have been some of the nicest, smartest, and most personable folks I've ever met.

Last night Doug, Resurrect Dead's executive producer (and veteran doc filmmaker), and I were at a party for OWN, which is a Oprah's new network and is taking on a lot of independent docs. Attached is a photo of me and a photo of Doug at the OWN party.

Today I'll be sitting in on a presentation about online fundraising and we'll be talking about Resurrect Dead's campaign on Kickstarter! It's looking to be an exciting day. Gotta run, more soon.

Cheers!
-Jon

Amazing! Today we met our goal for the Kickstarter campaign. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all you for helping. We're less than two weeks away from Sundance and it's surreal how busy things are.

I should also add that the value of your support goes well beyond money. The project is staying afloat, despite the fact that money is so tight, because people can see that things are going well and are willing to be flexible with payment. That's huge! And it's how I am able to get by day to day despite these absurd circumstances. I simply had no idea how many people are following this campaign, but it seems to have lit up interest in circles of people everywhere I go.

In a weird way, it feels like I'm living an episode of "This is your life." That's very humbling, and it means a lot to me to think of how many people I've known over the years who are standing with me now.

We have met our goal and if you are reading this and considering whether to support past the goal, I will say this: I picked $10,000 as the goal not because it is the amount I need to cover costs but because it seemed like such a huge amount to ask for and I didn't want to risk asking for too much. It was hard enough to fathom raising $10,000 in 30 days, to be honest. Little did I know.

The true costs are more than double that amount, and I am doing what i can to make my debts manageable. So any additional money is still extremely helpful and welcome and will be put to the same good use since the costs certainly don't stop at $10,000. But the important part is that I put this project out there to test the support and the response has been overwhelming. And that really means so much to me.

All the best to you in this new year. Exciting days lie ahead.

Cheers,
-Jon

Here is a link to the Meet the Artists Segment put together by Sundance, featuring yours truly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch...