Organizers of the Sundance Film Festival have long said that inclusion and diversity are some of their major goals. At Thursday’s opening press conference, they talked about their newest initiatives in that direction.
The director of the Sundance Institute, Keri Putnam, said that one of their newest diversity efforts applies, not to the organizers at Sundance, or the artists at the festival—but the journalists covering the event.
“We realized, frankly later than we should have, the implications of the fact that the diverse community of artists here were premiering their work to mostly white-male critics.” Putnam said, “This lack of inclusion has real world implication to sales, distribution and opportunity. So, we decided to do something about it. We vastly re-shaped who we accredited. I’m proud to announce that 63% of the credentialed press are from underrepresented groups this year. Beyond that with funding from some amazing foundations and companies we’re providing them with stipends, mentorship and community events so that these first time Sundancers, these critics and journalists are able to be fully included.”
Putnam said the festival received some 14,200 submissions this past year. And they’re gathering information on those film-makers.
“This year we’ve done something that no other festival has done to our knowledge.” Putnam continued, “We’ve published demographic data on all of our applicants to the festival and to our labs. You might wonder why it’s important to know more about who’s submitting. Because knowing who’s applying helps us understand the talent pipeline, where under represented people may be falling out and how to direct our resources and efforts to represent the full spectrum of voices. This data reveals a picture that has a broader relevance beyond Sundance, I think for the field as a whole too. We worked for Dr. Stacy Smith and her team at the USC Annenberg Center and tomorrow we’re announcing their findings in a new report. Stacy’s going to do a panel on it at 2:00 pm in the Filmmaker Lodge. So, I really encourage you to go check that out.”
On a related item, senior programmer Caroline Libresco said the Festival has always supported women artists and film-makers and they’ve ramped up their efforts in the past half-dozen years.
“Our institute lab programs are at 50% women.” Libresco explained, “At the festival this year we’re really proud to say that 47% of directors across all films and pieces of art in the festival are directed by women. We still have a long way to go and we’ll see if that sustains. We have to really keep working but we at the Sundance Institute, we are a pipeline. We have to keep filling that pipeline. So, our commitment, though we’ve always had the commitment in our mission to support underrepresented singular voices, our commitment in the last especially seven years since we founded Women at Sundance and now with our full outreach and inclusion program I think our efforts are even more targeted and focused.”
Finally, for the second half of the festival, next Tuesday to Thursday, Libresco said they’re unveiling a new event called the Talent Forum.
“This is a three-day convening and gathering that allows us to not just put audiences together with artists but to put artists together with industry and artists together with artists.” Libresco said, “It’s three days of meetings where we’re bringing over 100 fellows who are active at the Sundance Institute across all the programs and they all have their new projects and they all will be meeting with industry to advance those projects. There’s also an incredible collection of key notes. There’ll be a keynote with Ryan Coogler and New York Times Critic and culture writer Jenna Wortham field the conversation about the state of documentary with many of those who are nominated right now for academy awards.”
