In the first of a series of updates from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold hits the slopes with Eric Hynes, FC contributor and curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image. In addition to discussing their dietary regimens (one must maintain strength in the face of this cinematic avalanche), the two trade highlights from their first day in Park City. Rapold and Hynes kick off with a chat about Bart Freundlich’s soapy After the Wedding (featuring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams) before digging deeper into a slate of documentaries: Petra Costa’s The Edge of Democracy, Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, and Alexandre O. Philippe’s MEMORY—The Origins of Alien.

Check back over the next week and a half for updates on all the highlights from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.