My 30th Sundance Film Festival, by Peter Belsito
This was my 30th Sundance. It wasn’t called that then. ‘The Utah/ US Film Festival’ according to the story I heard was a three day weekend fest out of Salt Lake City founded in 1978 by Robert Redford’s brother-in-law Sterling Van Wagenen who was running Wildwood, Redford’s company along with John Earle and Cirina Hampton Catania (both serving on the Utah Film Commission at the time).
Sterling had a lunch with Sydney Pollack asking his advice of how to interest the Hollywood community beyond having Robert Redford as the Chairman of the Festival. As the story goes Pollack said, “move it up the hill where they can ski, Hollywood people love to ski, they’ll come, “ and in ’81 they moved to Park City, Utah, changed the dates from September to January and the name to US Film and Video Festival. In 1991 the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redford’s character The Sundance Kid from the film ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’, or from the name of his ranch…we were never quite sure.
I don’t know anyone there now who has time to ski but they did back in 1988 as I recall. Go the first half, see movies and in the second half, ski in the morning, see films in the afternoon and evenings get together at the one and only official party or go to someone’s condo where we cooked for each other.
It’s much more rushed now, not much time for camaraderie.
I’ll be honest and upfront about what I dislike at Sundance. The weather is always bad — too cold, snow, hard to walk on icy sheets, etc. Not my fave. And I think the Fest has long since outgrown the setting, the town. Too spread out. The prices for condos during Fest time is ridiculous. No parking… but I do like and use the free buses. But getting around there, because it is so spread out, is never easy. And this year, there was not a place on Main Street that had not been turned into a sponsored lounge or event space.
Enough whining…. let’s talk about the films. I’m always surprised in that what I’m seeing is never what I may have expected. And that’s good!
John Cooper, Trevor Goth who has been there since coming as a young volunteer and who is now leaving to join Micah Green at Dan Friedkin’s 30 West, and programming staff to be congratulated. Their taste is — well — odd …. and I like that.
Because this is THE US festival that can and does require US and or world premieres, the films generally have no buzz. Except of course for LA industry pickups, which this year were plentiful before the Fest. I’m always surprised at what I’m seeing.
The reviews coming next from me here of Fest films I think will reflect that oddness, uniqueness of the program. And because I see whatever seems interesting to me at the moment (I rarely plan in advance here because I can get into anything with my press badge) I’m frequently surprised.
In a good way.
The NY Times critic Manohla Dargis (whom I rarely read because I find her reviews vague, confusing, not storyline centered) had a good summation of the Fest recently in the NYT and I agree here completely with her conclusions. As follows :
And so this year, women were hot (not in a sexist, demeaning way, of course!) along with black filmmakers (again). Except that the festival and its parent organization, the Sundance Institute, have been pushing and advocating for filmmakers who are not white men for much of their history. In 1979, the year Robert Redford floated his plans for the institute, he spoke about diversity; he did so again this year. … Sundance, which has consistently made room for women in an industry that has consistently refused to do the same. The barriers still remain in place, but as one after another woman expressed here in noisy and modest ways, change is here.
Lastly this was the second year in a row here that I went to the non festival, woman organized and led anti-Trump march. It was a thrill to hear Gloria Allred and Jane Fonda speak to a good sized crowd in a bitter cold, driving snowstorm.
In a year where all my recent fave films were about or led by women (The Post, The Shape of Water, All the Money In the World, I,Tonya) I was happy to be in the cold and snow but in warm theaters seeing new ideas projected. This is why I love cinema!!!
