Aronofsky, Darren
Pi (1998)–First Sundace Film
I first went before I had a film, to support friends that got in, people like Scott Silver, who made Johns, and Mark Waters with House of Yes.
It was during that time that I saw films like Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Dollhouse and Leon Gast’s Muhammad Ali documentary When We Were Kings.
My Indie Cinema Book:
It gave me courage and the idea that if you made a movie and it was good, you would find an audience. Todd’s film was so unique in vision, spirit and casting and was so successful artistically that it got me super psyched. It really helped me believe in the thing that was right in front of me, which was Pi.
Getting In
I was pretty stressed about getting in, and so I left my Manhattan apartment to go to my parents’ house in Brooklyn to hide from the world. When my phone rang, a person on the other line asked about the running time on my movie. I was confused. “No one’s called you?” they asked. “Well, you got in.”
I called the team from Pi, and we met at a bar on the Lower East Side where everyone kept randomly breaking out in applause because we were so excited.
Our second screening of Pi was at the Eccles, and we got a standing ovation. Lindsay Law from Fox Searchlight, a beautiful guy who was a great father of independent film, said he would make a fake offer to start a bidding war. He was a mensch to do that, and it meant LIVE Entertainment, which became Artisan, was negotiating against themselves, but they didn’t know it.
We had a meal with Artisan’s Amir Malin and Bill Block, and Amir insulted my film to my face and gave a very low offer. I walked out, but my attorney at the time, Jeremy Barber, now a partner at UTA, saved the deal. I still don’t know what he did, but he worked some magic and made a deal [reportedly worth $1 million].
Jury Member
When I was on the jury, someone came up and said, “Take a picture with Paris.” I was like, OK, but had no idea who she was. I agreed and somewhere out there is a photo of me with Paris Hilton. This was before Sundance had become a party spot, and years later when I went back I would stand in these lines, like, why am I trying to get into this party? The films were still fantastic, but it was a whole different experience.
J. Vespa/WireImage
Awards Ceremony
At the awards ceremony, Paul Schrader fucked up my name. I still see Paul, which is wonderful. I saw him recently at a random party with 25-year-olds in New York. The big question is why either of us were there.
At the awards, everyone was hitting me on the back and there was one agent who was trying to sign me and he was the only one giving me a standing ovation. I locked eyes with him as I walked up to the podium.
The first time I ever posed for a photo for press was at the bottom of Main Street with three other directors. The photographer was standing 15 feet away, and we were directed to throw a snowball at him on the count of three. I was in such a state of unconsciousness about everything during the festival that I wasn’t thinking straight. I threw a snowball right at him. It hit his camera super hard and he started cursing me out. They all looked at me, like, “What the fuck are you doing?” I was so sorry and apologetic. I grew up playing Little League, so it didn’t occur to me to not throw it directly at him. It was such a weird moment.
