OT: Robert Redford on Sundance FF

Spot|DSE wrote on 2/13/2006, 7:43 PM
Did anyone else see Robert Redford's comments about Sundance Film Fest and it's growth?
"To the outside world, it's a big fat market where you have people like Paris Hilton going to parties. Now, she doesn't have anything to do with anything. I think the festival is close to being out of control. "
Having watched Sundance for the past 15 years, I'd tend to agree. It's turned from a very cool vibe to a circus-like atmosphere. Particularly with SlamDance and two other festivals now happening simulaneously, moving into Park City, Sundance, SLC, and Provo....It's simply crazy. What was amazing is that Redford left the festival for 5 days, mostly there for opening and closing. That's never happened before.

Comments

Pod wrote on 2/13/2006, 10:19 PM
My first trip to the festival was this year, and I went on the last weekend. What I found refreshing was how the volunteers, staff members, and several of the film makers I was able to talk to seemed to be able to ignore much of the hype and self-consciousness that seems to be placed onto the festival by the media and party goers. I think I was lucky enough to experience some of the "inside world" in constrast to the "outside world" he refers too in the quote.

It probably has gotten a bit ambitious in its scope and much of the talk about deals seems to center on the dramas. I think the real strength of Sundance lies with the documentaries, many of which will remain virtually unseen by Hollywood standards even if they land a distribution deal by the festivals end.

It is a good sign that Redford is upset by the tainting the festival because it likely indicates that he still cares deeply about its mission and perhaps he and the Institute will be able to make some choices that highlights the integrity of the film makers who are there because they have put there talents towards something for which they feel passion and committment, specifically, stories, ideas, and film making.
PossibilityX wrote on 2/14/2006, 2:27 AM
It was probably inevitable.

Forget bird flu---the disease we should really be worried about is the tendency for everyone to want to "go Hollywood."

Fame and $$$ uber alles.
farss wrote on 2/14/2006, 3:14 AM
Think i said something similar about Tropfest some time ago.
Probably not as bad as Sundance sounds but give us time, we manage to only import the worst bits from overseas.
Bob.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/14/2006, 5:46 AM
same thing is even being said about the Olympics. maybe $$ is the only thing most people will work for anymore. :)
farss wrote on 2/14/2006, 5:58 AM
Well with film festivals it seems to be the opposite. It's big money being used to get cheap publicity.
craftech wrote on 2/14/2006, 6:00 AM
same thing is even being said about the Olympics. maybe $$ is the only thing most people will work for anymore. :)
===============
Too bad we can't interview Oxylos and Ifitos to find out what they really had in mind.

But in 776 B.C. the recording equipment was kind of crude. Mustn't have been "circus-like". I believe that term was Roman.

John
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/14/2006, 7:45 AM
I think you've got it exactly right, Bob.
Sundance started as a means for independent filmmakers, directors, DP's, etc to get together and see films, network, and have a gathering place in general. It was all at Sundance, in the 3 viewing rooms there, plus the restaurant, lodge, and parking lot tents filled with heaters and people. It was eclectic, marginally exclusive, and fun.
In 1990, I went to Sundance to meet a director interested in my music, and came back the next day with stacks of CD's creatively wrapped in deerhide, and gave them to every director I could identify. That led me to meeting the Burns brothers, who ended up hiring me to work on the Vernon Johns story, the Civil War, and other films they did. That was the attitude around Sundance at the time. No one ever talked about how much money a film got picked up for until Sex Lies and Videotape was purchased. Soderbergh was an instant overnight celeb, and it's continued that way ever since. Last year, it was 7M for Hustle and Flow, this year it was 8M for...I can't remember the name of the film, I didn't see it. It's spilled over into 3 additional towns/cities in the area, and you have Hollywood bringing their dog spa to the festival so that people like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie can bring their doggies that they parade around town with inside their coats. The directors you used to have total access to (I can remember Coppola just walking around in jeans and a sweater no matter who was around, maybe 10 years ago when he was seriously peaking) are now ensconsed in hidden locations, no one can access them, and it's no longer about meeting people, but about who can come up with the most wild marketing tool or attention getter, right down to naked people wearing sandwich boards in the snow, or hiring a van with a screen on the back, and rear-projecting a film as it drives down the street.
Tennis courts become theatres. It's hard to hear with the roar of the air compressor running to keep the court cover inflated, but people don't mind the horrible sound, cold floor, and uncomfortable chairs, I guess.
busterkeaton wrote on 2/14/2006, 8:53 AM
Man I just rewatched Sex, Lies and Videotape, that movie feels like a time capsule. It holds up pretty well, but you wonder why it was a sensation. I remember thinking Laura San Giacomo was going to be a big star.
busterkeaton wrote on 2/14/2006, 8:53 AM
double post deleted.
vitalforce2 wrote on 2/14/2006, 11:38 AM
I've submitted my lo-budget DV feature to a couple of major 'independent' festivals just for the heck of it, and what caught my interest was not what is, so far, the first few polite rejection notices, but the tone of the response combined with the various festivals' web sites--sort of a 'me-too Hollywood' tone. We don't already know you and you haven't stirred up advance publicity, so sorry, we have made other choices.

My wife is an actress and views things similarly from her perspective: Many Hollywood actresses who are over, well, 25 and being ignored by the studios are now participating in indie films, which contributes to the "gone Hollywood" atmosphere as many festivals shift their mission from supporting the indie idea, to competing with each other for name talent. This of course shrinks the market for true indie filmmakers, or at least moves that market to lesser-known festivals who have a harder time attracting distributors.
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Serena wrote on 2/14/2006, 4:12 PM
So here is the difference: Spot was describing early Sundance as a great place to workshop skills and ideas, where people involved in the creative processes came together to pass on experience and encourage new ideas. This generates innovative work that gets shown to peers and marketing people arrive to pick it up early. Commercial successes attract more marketiers and product that comes from anywhere. This starts to disrupt the original "gathering of peers" style of festival, and the more the creative people get involved in promotion the less satisfaction they get from the activities. So they withdraw from active participation in that community and maybe start another along the lines of the original idea.
This would seem to be the inevitable path of any festival which is configured towards the market rather than fertilisation of creative talent. So the sort of festival that vitalforce2 wants probably exists only in transition.
skibumm101 wrote on 2/14/2006, 5:28 PM
I was up at sundance again this year, and my has it changed, at it has only been very recent years where this change has happen. Im not going to say anymore about how it has changed, but I am excited to find then next "sundance". i dont know where or what festival it is going to be yet, but when i find it ill let you know. What made sundance so succesfull is still alive, and thriving and its only a matter of time before it surfaces again.
vitalforce wrote on 2/14/2006, 7:12 PM
I agree with Serena. I'm putting most of my effort now into festivals in that 'transition' phase. Timing is everything.