Cassidy Wixom is an award-winning reporter for KSL. She covers Utah County communities, arts and entertainment, and breaking news. Cassidy graduated from BYU before joining KSL in 2022.
PARK CITY — While many Utah ns claim they are big fans of the Sundance Film Festival, none are more dedicated than Sandy resident Sean Leslie and Pleasant Grove resident Mike Wisland.The two cinephiles have been attending the festival since 1995 and combined have seen more than 1,500 films.
"I had just been always into making movies with my friends and then decided to take advantage of this huge international film festival in my backyard. So I went with my friends in '95, and went to the festival for my first time and was immediately hooked and loved every second of it," Leslie said.That same year, Wisland was in the area for a conference and decided to ask if there were any unclaimed passes for the film festival. Luckily, there was one pass, so he got to attend, and he also got hooked.One of the most influential films for Wisland was "Genghis Blues," the story of a blind bluesman who learned Tuvan throat singing. Wisland was so inspired by the teenage directors who just hopped on a plane with barely any money to chase the story."After I left that theater, I went out and bought a Panasonic DVX 100, the Sundance filmmaker cam of choice, you know, and I started making little documentaries ... that was a favorite film of mine," Wisland said.It wasn't until 10 years after they both started attending that Wisland and Leslie met when Leslie was a student in Wisland's audio class at Utah Valley University. Leslie told his professor he wouldn't be in class during the film festival, and Wisland said he was also going to be at the festival. Pleasant Grove resident Mike Wisland shows off his oldest merch from the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. Wisland has attended the festival every year since 1995. "We started noticing each other at the same Salt Lake screenings, so we started sitting next to each other," Leslie said.But they weren't just casual Sundance attendees. Wisland has seen more than 700 films at Sundance in total, and Leslie is expecting to surpass 850 films this festival."For the first 15 years, I could always name every single film that I saw in order every year, and then after 15 years is when everything started blurring together," Leslie said.As the years went by, Sundance got more expensive. Wisland said he has spent around $700 just for one festival. Leslie started volunteering for the festival so he could see more movies and not have to shell out so much money for each scree
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