PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 19, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — The opening news conference for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival featured the usual enthusiasm for 10 days of fresh indie films, but was shaded with a dark undercurrent of dread.
The Thursday appearance of founder Robert Redford and key staffers came just a day before Friday’s scheduled presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, a fact that came up again and again.
“There’s the feeling that a lot of people have been fearful a darkness is coming,” said Redford. “In this current dialogue, it looks like a lot of things are being taken away from us.”
Keri Putnam, festival executive director, revealed that before coming out, the three had been discussing a news article suggesting Trump plans to eliminate both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Putnam noted that with the percentage of the federal budget the NEA and NEH funding represent — about 0.003 percent — discontinuing the agencies seems less of a saving tactic and more a message about Trump’s lack of respect for the arts and humanities.
“I think it will galvanize people,” Redford predicted. “A lot of people will step up … A movement will be creative, and that’s going to be helpful.”
Redford said the news made him sad, thinking about all that might be lost under an administration that didn’t appreciate the arts or their ability to promote understanding.
But Redford also paused to acknowledge the festival that started small, more than three decades ago, and through the work of many committed people, had grown to be an important force in the world of filmmakers and independent film.
“People are here, watching films that might never have been,” Redford said.
Approximately 200 feature-length and short films are selected each year. For the 2016 Festival, 12,793 film submissions from 120 countries were received. The 2016 Festival was attended by more than 46,000 people and generated $143.3 million in economic activity and $72.5 in gross state product to Utah.
Notable films introduced at the festival include “Whiplash,” “Boyhood,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “sex, lies, and videotape,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Precious” and “Napoleon Dynamite.”
The news conference, staged at the Egyptian Theatre and available worldwide through a live feed, began with a chat with two filmmakers about the benefits of labs offered by the Sundance Institute.
Director Sydney Freeland talked about her film, “Diedre & Laney Rob a Train.” Director David Lowery spoke about “A Ghost Story.” Both attested to how their time in Sundance labs helped them understand the importance of storytelling over technological stunts, and how they built friendships with other classmates who still support their artistic efforts.
Redford said the filmmaker labs predate the festival, and grew out of his concern over the decline of good storytelling at the expense of special effects.
Global warming and climate issues will be among the themes of the festival, which continues through Jan. 29 in Park City and in satellite sites Salt Lake City and Sundance ski resort.
Redford said climate makes sense as one of the festival’s focuses. Film and nature have been the great loves of his life, he said.
A reporter asked Redford if he planned to keep the festival in Park City over the next 20 or 30 years.
“I won’t be around to think about it,” said Redford, who turned 80 in August. His audience laughed.
Redford said Park City and the festival have helped each other, but the city’s growth has made keeping costs down difficult. The heart of all things Sundance always has been the Sundance ski resort, he said.
Asked how the current political climate might affect films or the festival, Redford said it’s not an issue.
“The idea of us being involved in politics is just not so,” he said. “We stay away from that. We feel it’s more important to support the storytellers.”
