The first official Park City Film Festival opened on Friday night to a sold-out audience at the Park City Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium. “Welcome to the inaugural Park City Film Festival,” said Katharine Wang, executive director of Park City Film, the arthouse nonprofit that conceived the festival. “We are so thrilled to have you here for our opening night film, ‘The Life We Leave.’” The film is a documentary about terramation, or human composting, an alternative to cremation and burial, with a local connection. Director and Emmy Award-winning producer J.J. Gerber hails from Park City, and Wang said he is a “testament to the profound impact” of the Sundance Film Festival’s 40-plus-year legacy in the community. “What an honor to open up the new Park City Film Festival,” Gerber said before the lights dimmed. “Although it’s not a personal story about my own life … this film means a lot to me. I’m honored to show it to you. So, please, enjoy it.” Wang also spoke about the purpose and idea of the Park City Film Festival before Gerber took the microphone. “The Park City Film Festival … is designed to be a complete experience, a reminder of what we love about film festivals, that sense of discovery and celebration of great artistic vision, and also a place for authentic action and conversation for what it’s like to be human,” she said. Storytelling is a civic practice for Wang. “Film Festivals are a place where people can listen and connect,” she said. “I hope this weekend you take the opportunity to immerse yourself in stories that will challenge you and also bring you moments of delight.” And all the films were hand-picked with festival-goers in mind. “I hope that you feel our passion in these stories and storytelling with every frame,” Wang said.  The 10 films, varying from narrative features to documentaries, weren’t the festival’s only attraction, according to Wang. She also encouraged people to attend at least one of the four panel discussions that were scheduled throughout the festival. “These truly are gems of the film-festival experience,” she said about the discussions. “The panels this weekend address the creative process, the roles of professional critics, using film as storytelling to lift up and celebrate marginalized communities, and, of course, mortality and death care.” Wang also thanked several sponsors: the Park City Chamber/Bureau, Summit County’s Recreation, Arts and Parks and Restaurant Tax grants, Summit County Lodging, SheMoney, Jacquelin Gregory Zehner Foundation, Foley Lardner LLP, Waldorf Astoria Park City, Graycliff Capital and Utah Film Commission. “Please note this is absolutely a labor of love that involved many people who are deeply passionate about film and storytelling and this particular community of film lovers,” she said. “Thank you all for being part of a village that cannot imagine a future for Park City that does not include a world-class independent film festival.” The evening ended with a post-screening QA, moderated by Wang. It featured Gerber, the film’s producer Clementine Briand, who has worked on projects for CNN and the BBC, and the film’s subject Micah Truman, founder of Return Home, an award-winning funeral home and terramation facility in Seattle, Washington, that transforms bodies of the deceased into soil. Wang started by asking Gerber what inspired him to explore the concept of human composting, which is legal in Seattle. “Washington is also the first state to legalize marijuana,” Gerber half-joked. “When I heard in 2017 the legalization process (of terramation) was getting started, I was curious about it.” Then Gerber experienced a couple of life-changing events, including the death of his mother in 2018. “I knew this was something she would have liked, had it been available to her,” he said. Then during the pandemic, when people around the country lost loved ones, Gerber became a father. “I had this life (and) death thing going,” he said. One early morning, while Gerber rocked his son to sleep and scrolled on his phone, he read a Seattle Times article that featured Truman. “It was something I couldn’t stop thinking about, so I reached out to him a couple of days later and asked if I could learn more about what he was doing,” Gerber said. Truman invited Gerber to the facility, which wasn’t completed at the time. “I took a tour and was hooked,” Gerber said. “Here we are, five years later.” The film tells the stories of families who have lost loved ones and decided on terramation. It also follows Truman’s transformation from a “tech-bro” businessman to someone who cares deeply about his staff and the families he serves. Wang asked Truman about that transformation. “It wasn’t that it happened at once,” Truman said. “It happened inherently.” Truman was taken aback by the staff he hired, which includes funeral directors Brie Smith and Katey Houston. “(It was) working with people 20 years my junior who are doing the most incredible things with such heart, a bravery to them that I have never really seen,” he said. “It’s like a never-ending drum beat from the team doing what they do.” Gerber’s filmmaking team also made an impression on Truman. “These are young cameramen who have very young kids that are filming kids who have died,” he said. “You see courage everywhere, and I think what’s interesting about it is that it’s often not dramatic. It’s someone who is taking care of a little one, or somebody who is doing something unspeakably brave that they’ll have to pay the price (for), but don’t think about that until later. And I think that’s what mashed me into a different thing.” When Wang asked who came up with the idea of ending the film with photos of the film crew’s loved ones who have died, Briand said it was a group decision. “A lot of us came to the story because we had grief in our own lives, and it really attracted us to tell these stories,” she said. “So, I think all of us wanted to have that moment to represent the person we wanted as well.” Information about the Park City Film Festival is available at parkcityfilmfest.org. To learn more about ‘The Life We Leave,’ visit thelifeweleavefilm.com. The post Inaugural Park City Film Festival begins with transformative storytelling appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less