Last Thoughts.... Why is Sundance So Important!?

plus- more on the hat....

by Ilene Marder, February 22, 2011

Last Thoughts….

 Why is Sundance so Important?

 

"The cinema is an invention without a future" - Louis Lumiere.

What!!???  Lumière, you are the credited inventor of the portable motion picture camera (1895), said to be the first to present projected, moving pictures to a paying audience of more than one person. You created the communal movie theater experience!  How could you be so wrong!!???

 

From Zoetrobes, Kinetoscobes and Phantoscopes to our 21^st century 3D spectaculars, we have always been fascinated with the moving image and the stories they could tell. About us.

The cavepeople must have felt it when they watched their fire flushed paintings flicker on broadsides of stone, or when they acted out the day’s hunt, made even more dramatic by the transformative effects of night-time shadow and light.

Movies, film, cinema- whatever you call it –reflect our culture, which in turn, reflects our nature. They tell stories exploring archetypes ingrained in all human beings.

We can be carried away on a beam of light to a distant universe, or to the depths of our yearning hearts. They illuminate our human-ness, enabling us to share and explore emotion, conflict, hopes & dreams, anguish, tragedy, disappointment, solutions, laughs. They help lift the veil and create new understanding.

This seems to be especially true of independent film.

Robert Redford founded the Sundance Institute, parent of the Sundance Film Festival, in 1981, to foster the development of indie film and filmmakers, up until then, only a teeny slice of the film industry, relegated to relatively rare art house movie venues found only in our major cities.

In discussing Sundance, Redford often speaks about the magic of telling stories, that “storytellers broaden our minds: engage, provoke, inspire, and ultimately, connect us.” 

Undoubtedly.

And for the storytellers who work in the medium of film, there is no place that nurtures and influences indie film on a global scale, more than the Sundance Institute and Labs.

So many filmmakers I talked with this year–- award-winning pros to first time directors –- passionately credited the institute for its artistic encouragment and financial support, thankful for the opportunity to work with and be guided by the Institute’s esteemable mentors.  The institute and labs are the beginning of the journey for many, many successful filmmakers -- directors, composers, sceenwriters, editors, actors, producers, who othewise, might never have given us so many of the films we cherish.

Sundance is, quite simply and by all accounts, the finest and most culturely influential creative arts lab on the planet. That's why it's so important.

I love this 2010 interview of Redford, discussing the beginning of his journey with Sundance. It's conducted by Amy Goodman for Democracy Now.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/25/sundance_founder_robert_redford_on_his.

But along with all of this nation's art institutions, Sundance is now threatened by proposed, huge, dragonian cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, being pushed through Congress by the new GOP majority in the House.

You can help. Find more info here.         http://www.sundance.org/blog/entry/help-save-funding-for-the-arts/

On a personal note, I have to admit, in terms of being touched by film, I cried at all but two of the films I saw at Sundance (one was an absurdist comedy, the other about the New York Times).  Not because they were sad. But because I recognized myself in them, and felt what I can only describe as a sense of relief at not being alone.

IAnd in moments when it seemed everyone in the theater was caught up in the same moment, the experience was incredibly moving. The communal movie-going experience as constant revelation that we are indeed, under the skin, beyond language and culture, forever the same. Magic? Yes. Just like those zoetrobes must have appeared to those early audiences.

And every time this January, when I walked out of a Sundance theater into the bright, snowy Park City landscape, I lingered in that magic world, my mind swirling with new images, new insights and understandings, often with new commitment to more fully explore and share what I feel, and to do what’s right and good.  Not bad for an afternoon at the movies.

*****

 A final fashion note  -

Did you see on the front page of the New York Times earlier this week?  The one with Libyan madman Qaddafi in one of the absolutely weirdest photos ever……and, wait!!!! What is he wearing but the YUKON FLAP HAT!

Yes, you know the one -  I wrote about these ubiquitous Sundance hats in an earlier blog (everyone was wearing them)...

.

Here’s the NY Times photo..

 

Ok. Please….in no way would I ever make light of the truly appalling and heartbreaking situation in Libya right now, but this mad as a hatter dictator- (pun intended) -  certainly is up on the latest fashion trends (what’s with the umbrella?- is this what’s coming next???).  We’ll see.

P.S. In terms of silly and subliminal comparisons of momentous current events for this Sundance blog, do note that the top Sundance photo was taken at Park City's Egyptian Theater.  Here's to the freedom-fighters....

Until next year… have fun at the movies!