[In the theme of tomorrow's swearing in, I do solemnly swear to avoid all other cowboy and Western-themed language for the remainder of the post.]

And so, by the numbers: 10 Californians and New Yorkers in two bedrooms, four panels on film distribution in as many days, three fantastic films, and two notable start sightings: one high (Robert Redford at the IndieGoGo party), one low (Elijah Wood at a strange dreamlike soiree).

The films on the first weekend were, non-surprisingly, superb (although, honestly, I cannot speak to the Nazi zombie movie).

End Game, a feature about the African National Conference’s secret negotiations with the South African government to end apartheid in the late 80s, was wonderfully written and cast (as any film about government transition needs to be at an 8:30 AM screening). The documentary Sergio, based on Samantha Powers’ book about the former UN Secretary General’s death in a bombing on his Bagdad office, is a great compliment to Chasing the Flame. It becomes clear what the now-resurrected Obama team member and author meant when she called Vieira de Mello charming–seeing him tan and smiling while brokering peace in East Timor and asking about his team’s wellbeing in his last moments is visual evidence.

Sure, there have been strong words across the blogosphere over the past week calling this year’s festival sleepy and irrelevant given the economic crisis. I’d expected Park City to be more crowded and full of industry pretention–not everything that wasn’t there was missed.

The panels with filmmakers and film executives could have been better promoted, but one event in the New Frontier series moderated by journalist Scott Kirsner of Variety addressed the topics that were front of mind for me and the 60 other people in line: online community building, threats that “the sky is falling” on independent film, and distribution by filmmakers themselves in lieu of large sales with major studios. Cora Olsen, producer of last year’s highly-regarded film Good Dick, gave a fantastic explanation of the widespread outreach her team did to target influencers after they didn’t get the deal they’d anticipated and instead took an all hands on deck approach to targeting college audiences.

I made the newby mistake of bringing one fourth of the business cards I needed, but I’m excited about the work that the people I met over free vodka cocktails are doing, including the SF-based Fund for Women Artists and Seattle’s film forum IndieFlix. (Full details to be saved for future posts.)

[Photos to follow if my camera cord is able to be salvaged from my roller bag upon arrival.]