By Bailey Pennick

“I just want to say to you all that Humpday is available to watch and stream at home,” says Mark Duplass with a laugh. “But instead you’ve decided to come out to watch this in a theater amongst your community. That’s pretty fucking cool!” The dedicated crowd at the Library Center Theatre cheers for Duplass — a Sundance Film Festival mainstay and one of the leads of Lynn Shelton’s 2009 bromantic comedy — as he introduces the film as part of the 2026 Festival’s Park City Legacy program. 

Usually a screening’s introduction at the Festival is done by the film’s director, but today that duty falls to Duplass since Shelton passed away from acute myeloid leukemia in 2020. “I so wish that you could be here with Lynn to listen to her cackle through watching movies,” he says with a smile. “Her high-pitched laughter is such a beautiful thing to cut through, and we got to experience that at Sundance here, 18 years ago, and it was incredible.”

The cast and crew of the film are sitting in the back of the room, equal parts emotional and laughing along with Duplass’ memories of their leader. They haven’t been able to gather as a full group since Shelton’s passing so this reunion is more than just a trip down memory lane, it’s cathartic. 

Nearly two decades ago this same group premiered the funny and surprisingly nuanced story of two best friends (Duplass and Joshua Leonard) who want to prove to each other that they’re more complex figures than meets the eye. Of course, instead of discussing their feelings about aging and masculinity, they double down on a drunken dare/plan to film a porno together — as art — for a local film festival. It’s so stupid in the best way, but underneath that premise is a truly modern take on what it means to love and accept someone in every sense of the word.

The kindness and heart felt through the film are due to the hard work and creativity of those who made the extremely low-budget project together in the first place. During the Q&A, those who let the production film at their house and raised money through local fundraisers and lasagna dinners are standing side-by-side with assistant editors, producers, and publicists of Humpday. Everyone expresses their bittersweet feelings of being together without their director and their friend. They’re all here because of her creativity and her community.

Within his closing remarks at the top, Duplass reminds the crowd why retrospective screenings like this are special. “Here’s the good news — now we get to look at this film through a different lens. We don’t have to worry about selling it or reviews or any of that stuff. We get to pop into the time machine and go 18 years earlier and think about the track that this movie has laid for the young filmmakers and the old filmmakers that this has inspired. I think that what I’ve taken from this movie is that movies are not just about the product and your ability to sell them and your ability to advance your career. Movies are a way to build a family and, through Lynn Shelton, I met so many of the people that I continue to collaborate with today — that run my company, that know my children well, all somehow out of this silly idea — that two straight men decide they’re gonna have sex with each other on camera for a dumb film festival and become greater than what they could possibly be. I’m so grateful you’re all here today… And now I would just really hope that you sit back and enjoy our goofy, silly prayer to the gods of making art with the resources at hand. And the gods of chosen family!”

 Amen.