Up front I have to set some context, though you’ll read more about this part of the story in the general press.Writer/director/actor Matthew Stanton is one of those Sundance Cinderella stories: theater guy from Loyola Marymount graduates with a story to tell, chases it for seven years, lives in his car to fund it, submits it to Sundance—no connections–a needle in a record-breaking haystack of submissions. North Starr’s unanimous selection for the Dramatic Competition is proof, Stanton says, that Sundance looks at every submission, no matter where it comes from. Proof that a Sundance film can come from nowhere.

Now, sitting in the lobby of the Yarrow, Stanton and his DP/Edtor Peter Levermann start to spin the tale of their collaboration, passing the story back and forth as their adventure together takes shape in words. more