"For a good time, call..."

A lot of people have heard of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. What many don't realize, however, is that while the festival itself is halfway across the country, anyone can experience it locally.

That's why a few of my fellow Arts Living Learning Community members and I were able to take part in the Sundance Film Festival USA in Ann Arbor last Friday.

This memorable experience is an event that screens select festival films in different cities. After the screenings, the film's crew typically participates in a discussion with the audience. This year, films premiered in Boston, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, Brooklyn, Tucson, Orlando, Nashville and Ann Arbor. This was Ann Arbor's third-annual Sundance festival.  

Being a film major, I was completely excited to go to a film premiere at the Michigan Theater. I was part of a group who saw a movie which hadn't yet been released to the rest of the world.

This year, Ann Arbor premiered the film "For a Good Time, Call...," a comedy about two college girls who start a phone sex hotline out of their apartment. Lauren, played by co-writer Lauren Miller, is recently broken up with her boyfriend and needs a place to live. Katie, played by Ari Graynor, needs help with her rent. At first, the two hate each other, but when they resort to drastic measures to pay the rent, they form a great friendship.

Directed by Jamie Travis, the film also stars Justin Long as the girls' mutual friend and Seth Rogen, Miller's real-life husband, in a cameo as a phone sex customer.

The movie is raunchy and unlike any other I've seen, which is what makes it great to me. It isn't a sappy love story where a guy and a girl fall in love and, after a struggle, have a happy ending. It's more like a "bromance" for women and one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.

After the premiere, the director, writers and one of the actors, James Wolk, came on the stage for a Q&A session with the audience, but few received the honor due to time constraints.

One lucky audience member asked how the story was created. The writers surprised everyone by revealing that it was based off of true life events; co-writer Katie Anne Naylon admitted to running a phone sex hotline out of her freshman dorm room.

"For all you college students, it can be done. It can be done from your dorm room. It's really easier than you think," Naylon said jokingly.

The writers and director seemed to be very down-to-earth and joked about everything. They revealed that the film was picked up for a studio release, which is a huge deal because most Sundance movies never make it to theaters, but instead go straight to DVD.

This Q&A part really excited me because I tried to absorb whatever information I could to make myself more successful in my field. This experience gave me a good idea about what it will be like to be a director trying to make it in the business.

I loved being able to go the Sundance Film Festival USA. I now know what it will take to get my stories out there.