Seattle's "Humpday" makes a deal at Sundance
Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton's third feature, "Humpday," was one of the first movies to ink a distribution deal at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, over the weekend.
By Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times movie critic
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
Actors Mark Duplass, left, and Joshua Leonard in a scene from, "Humpday."
Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton's third feature, "Humpday," was one of the first movies to ink a distribution deal at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, over the weekend. Magnolia Pictures bought worldwide rights to the film, for a dollar amount described by Variety as "mid-six figures," and plans to release it theatrically in August following a video-on-demand campaign.
At the festival, Shelton said, "This is beyond my wildest dreams." She added that some people who worked on the movie were paid in shares, so now they will see paychecks.
Shelton met with several potential buyers and went with Magnolia because they seemed the most dedicated to showing the movie to the greatest number of people, promising theatrical release in at least 15 cities.
"They won us over immediately. They seemed passionate about the film and thought with the right marketing, it could get to a wider audience than you would normally get for a small film like this," she said.
The comedy, shot in Seattle last year and starring Mark Duplass ("The Puffy Chair") and Joshua Leonard ("The Blair Witch Project") is the story of two straight men who film themselves having sex with each other as an art project.
Contest is the crown jewel of Saturday night. Last year was electric when a big man Dwight Howard won doing his best "Superman" dunk. This year former UW star and current NY Knicks guard Nate Robinson was in the contest...again. I thought it was a rule that you could only compete twice. This is Robinson's third time. I enjoyed watching him the other times because he's 5'nothing and can leap out of the gym. This time is felt too staged. 
A mouse vs an elephant, David vs Goliath, Superman vs Lex Luther. Yep, that's what they billed it as. Dwight Howard even went into a phone booth to don the cape again for a ho-hum dunk on a 12' hoop (regulation hoop is 10'). Still it was too easy. So Nate Robinson came out in an all green jersey and ball as his sort of kryptonite. Two of his dunks I have a huge problem with. One Nate jumped off a teammates back. I know they can use props, but using another person as leverage? What's the difference between that and a trampoline? The the final dunk was over Dwight "Superman" Howard himself. Dwight was a good sport, but Nate cheated again. Nate pushed off on Dwight's shoulder to give him the 
leverage to clear his head. Sorry, ehh, fault. His dunks where stale. We've seen this the last two times. Same old Nate, except this time he was hot doggin it after every dunk. That's the Nate Robinson that UW fans remember. Immature, and overly cocky. No body wanted to see him dance, let alone several times. Still, I can't wait until next year. As of now this generations MJ, Lebron James as declared that he will compete in the next Slam Dunk contest. Watch his final dunk on this clip here.
