Sundance Institute

Institute History

2001 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Daniel Waters's Happy Campers is a bubbling cauldron of creativity and a rollicking send-up of the summer camp genre. It will probably make you laugh, and perhaps even cry, but it will certainly entice and stimulate you with its imagination and audacious spirit. Camp Bleeding Dove is everything its name implies, and the quixotic band of teenage archetypes who are its counselors run the gamut from the ultimate cool guy to the barely functioning nerd, from the sexy hippie sprite to the straightlaced, perky square. Happy Campers is a film that completely dismantles clichés about teenagers, kids, and camps while incorporating story lines that cross The Lord of the Flies with A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Waters's debut feature is an invigorating, sometimes even jarring, mélange that is ultimately captivating and moving. From the screenwriter of Heathers, one might anticipate darkness or irreverence, but Happy Campers is much more than contemporary and clever cynicism. It's the kind of amalgam of ideas, commentary, and vivid portraits that bespeaks brilliance.
-Geoffrey Gilmore

Screening Details

Section: Special Events
Film Type: Dramatic Feature
Country: U.S.A.
Run Time: 87 min.

Credits

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]