Bombs were falling in the distance, shaking the house like a hurricane. We were in the basement, hiding. “Don’t worry,” a father next to me told his daughter. “It’s just a giant walking through our city.” Suddenly, a flash of blinding light tore through the ceiling and I raised my hands protectively over my head and let out an involuntary little shriek.
Yes, virtual reality stole the show at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford’s annual shindig of snowy mountains and independent movies in Park City, Utah. At the New Frontiers exhibition, goggled people were tiptoeing gingerly across flat floors like they were on a tight rope, and a woman covered in sensors endlessly circled a blacked out room. Everyone seemed to be wired up – pointing and ducking at absolutely nothing. It felt like an asylum for the chronically entertained.
But one thing VR can’t yet imitate is the rush of the real outdoors. Luckily, there’s plenty of that nearby, which was the other reason I was here: to combine mountains and movies, popcorn and pistes. For a snow-loving film buff, a trip to Park City during Sundance was the ultimate winter treat.
This year it got a little better too. After a $50m investment, Park City Ski Resort, home of the US Ski Team and the 2002 Winter Olympics, expanded into neighbouring Canyons, built a new gondola to link the two resorts and created the largest ski area in the US: 17 peaks and 7,300 acres of skiable terrain. Hitting the slopes here isn’t so much an outing as it is a full-on expedition, albeit one fuelled by hot chocolate and whisky toddies at the bottom of every run.
The festival itself is a strange mix of ski bum and movie mogul. But it works. “You see a few actresses in five-inch heels,” one local told me, with a wicked glint in her eye. “But they soon fall on their ass in the snow.”
That’s not to say there’s no glamour. I narrowly missed Steve Carell’s bum as he jumped into a taxi, and I shared a ski lift with Olympic Gold freestyle mogulist Hannah Kearney, who had just given Adrian Grenier (Vince from Entourage) a lesson – which was cool on two counts.
There might have been more – celeb-spotting is quite tricky in a blizzard – but the St Regis, where I stayed in neighbouring Deer Valley, was all the A-list I needed: outdoor hot tubs right on the slopes, a funicular railway just for getting to the lobby and a bloke who sabres bottles of champagne (as in cuts the cork off with an actual sword) every night. Eat your heart out, Vinny.
But it was the skiing that really stood out. Starting at the far western end of Park City, it took me a whole day to ski to its eastern edge, seven miles away, without ever repeating a run. I raced through steep pine forests pillowed with heavy snow and frozen aspens, the Wasatch mountains rolling by in swirls of purple and brilliant white. The runs were long and varied, the snow light as air.
And because Sundance was on, the slopes felt empty. “It’s the best time to ski,” one local winked. On my last day, after a storm, I had my first taste of Utah’s legendary powder, dropping into a steep bowl and gliding through the trees in mesmeric silence. It felt like flying.
I saw great films too, from weird to genuinely moving. I flipped from a bizarre number about a woman falling way too in love with a wolf to a documentary about competitive endurance tickling. One minute I was wiping my eyes at the incredibly powerful Jim: The James Foley Story, and immediately afterwards I was trying to keep my dinner down at a gross-out midnight screening of Antibirth. It was like falling down a rabbit-hole of kaleidoscopic sensations. That’s what makes Sundance special – it’s a pic’n’mix for the eyes. Screenings were packed, people cheered, and directors spoke. It was about as raucous as going to the movies gets, but not pretentious. Before I arrived I thought the town might become Hollywood, but I was pleased to see Hollywood become the town.
It’s also beautiful: a western-style main street on the mountain’s edge, lit with fairy lights and packed with bars, restaurants and galleries. But, during Sundance, you need to plan ahead. Everything sells out, accommodation is at a premium and cinema tickets packages are eye-wateringly expensive and must be booked well in advance or it’s fastest finger first (the real Sundance wouldn’t have had a problem with this) on the festival app waiting list. There’s also a tangible difference between the industry-led first half of the festival and the film-fan second.
In the end, it was the New Frontiers programming, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, that really caught my eye. There were more than 30 VR experiences on display, from seeing the forest through the eyes of insects and owls to living with sea gypsies and Maasai warriors. I watched my body transform into a dark angel and flapped my arms to fly away, I travelled from the blue icebergs of Iceland to a motorbike shop in Japan and then, in the Guardian’s own project, I spent six agonising minutes in a solitary confinement cell. These were more than just films, I realised; these were tools for creating genuine empathy. The more I saw, the more I felt on a cusp of a brave new world – like witnessing the switch from radio to TV. Why watch someone else’s story when you can be the star of your own?
• The trip was provided by Visit Utah, Visit Park City and Deer Valley. Accommodation was provided by St Regis Deer Valley (doubles from $313). America As You Like It has a seven-night holiday to Park City departing 19 January 2017, from £1,842pp, including flights, transfers and accommodation at the St Regis Deer Valley but excluding festival tickets. Sundance 2017 runs from 19-29 January, 10-ticket packages cost $500-$600, off-peak pass sold out, more expensive packages still available
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