While attending the opening day of the final Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Moby started reminiscing on another significant chapter in Utah history that has intertwined with his career: the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The pioneering electronic musician is an executive producer on “The Incomer,” a comedy starring Domhnall Gleeson that premiered Thursday in Park City.
Less than an hour before the premiere, Moby briefly spoke with the Deseret News about performing at the Olympics Closing Ceremony — still very much a vivid memory for him more than 20 years later — and the power of indie film.
Moby talks performing at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Moby describes performing at the Olympics as somewhat of a fever dream.
“We could talk about the 2002 Winter Olympics for the next three hours and I wouldn’t run out of the weirdest stories you’ve ever heard,” the musician told the Deseret News at The Ray Theatre in Park City. “Backstage with Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Willie Nelson, Kiss, Earth Wind and Fire, Donny and Marie Osmond.”
The Osmonds, Moby recalled, welcomed him to the stage to perform for the large crowd. But their voices came from behind a pair of 75-foot animatronic dinosaurs — and Dick Cheney was in the audience.
“I was like ... ‘Am I in the desert imagining all of this?’” Moby said. “One of the strangest experiences of my life.”
Moby talks new movie ‘The Incomer,’ power of indie film
Now, 24 years later, Moby is back in Utah taking part in the Sundance Film Festival’s final Park City run.
Little Walnut Productions, which he founded with producer Lindsay Hicks, has helped bring “The Incomer” to the festival. The film marks a first-time feature for Scottish director Louis Paxton, who told the Deseret News he’s spent a decade working on the project that highlights a part of the world not often depicted on screen.
The comedy centers on a pair of siblings who live on a remote island in the north of Scotland, where they hunt seabirds and chat with mythic creatures. That idyllic existence is disrupted when an awkward official (Gleeson) arrives to relocate them to the mainland.
“In a way it’s my favorite sort of film,” Gleeson told the Deseret News. “It doesn’t have the biggest budget, but it’s really funny. It’s got loads of heart and it is unique. It just feels like totally its own thing. The film knows itself inside out. As a viewer that’s always what I’m looking for, is a film that really knows itself. It feels like the sort of film I want to be in.”
For Moby and Hicks, “The Incomer” is also indicative of the kinds of films they want to engage with. And, they said, it should serve as a reminder of the importance of independent film.
“So much media is corporate and controlled and made by algorithms and committees,” Moby told the Deseret News. “Independent film is the exact opposite. It’s not corporate, it’s not made by committee. It’s weird and it’s made by people who can’t afford to make films but somehow we figure out how to do it. It’s the opposite of algorithm-driven media.”
For Little Walnut Productions, Moby and Hicks said, the goal is to provide support to creators and projects that help move the needle and inspire.
“It’s a hard thing to make good music — and I’m not saying I ever have — but it is an easy thing to make music and put it out there in the world. But filmmaking is the exact opposite,” Moby said. “We’ve seen firsthand how hard it is to make movies, to budget, the number of people involved, the collaboration. How anyone ever makes a great movie, I’m just in awe of that.”
