It’ll be a bit strange at Slamdance this year without one of its most familiar faces. For eight years Sarah Diamond was a fixture at the little festival at the treasure Mountain Inn, the the upstart answer to Sundance’s Geoff Gilmore, only without the girth and goatee. She recently stepped away from Slamdance to pursue a career in law; she’ll be at Harvard this fall. Now with her media consumption opened up to things beyond Slamdance submissions, we caught up with her to talk about Flannery O’Connor, Project Runway and why Werner Herzog should let the Bad Lieutenant remake slide and make a movie about the Smiths instead.

What films or television shows have you seen recently?

Project Runway, and I can’t wait for Real Housewives of Atlanta to start.

Which ones stuck with you and why?

Mystery Diagnosis is also great. If you’re going to watch TV you may as well indulge yourself.

How have your film viewing tastes and routines evolved since before becoming a festival programmer and after you stopped?

My tastes have involved after seeing so many great and different types of films. Now that I am no longer with a festival I will take that experience with me. But my tastes are the same.

How often do you read fiction? Do you wish you read more?

I definitely don’t read fiction enough especially since I have a MFA in creative writing. Whenever I need a fix I pull out a Flannery O’Connor short story collection though

What would be the ideal literary adaptation and why?
Severin’s Journey into Dark would be great. It’s very dark and takes place at the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire.

How, if at all, has reading informed your taste in cinema?

Great work is great work. Reading an outstanding book is a perfect compliment to a powerful film. Reading a Donald Barthelme story and then watching a Douglas Sirk film is a pretty amazing way to spend an afternoon

What are you listening to recently?

The Chills, Skip Spence, Disco Inferno, Clan of Xymox

What would be the ideal pairing of filmmaker and musician for a concert film? Why?

Werner Herzog and The Smiths, just because they are both so fucking amazing. A great blend of adventure and brutal intimacy all under a blanket of eccentricity.