Director and actor Robert Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival in 1978 in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah.
Redford enjoyed a successful acting and directing career, but recognized the industry was dominated by big studios, keeping many talented filmmakers from receiving the opportunities they deserved.
“[I] could see and feel that there were other voices out there and there were other stories to be told,” he once said, “but they weren’t being given a chance.”
Redford’s daughter, Amy Redford, said the festival started small.
“When I was a little kid, we used to have to stand out on the street and beg people to come and look at, you know, some black and white movies that nobody's ever heard of,” she said.
She said it was intentionally hard to get into, but then more and more people started showing up. The festival is now the largest independent film festival in the country.
“A lot of that is a testament to the way that artists lead us, and they open up portals of understanding,” Amy Redford said.
This year’s festival is bittersweet as Robert Redford, who died of natural causes in September, is not in attendance for the first time. Festival director Eugene Hernandez said that’s why Robert Redford’s notion that everyone has a story has become the theme.
The festival will host several events to remember Redford and the films Sundance has become known for.
It’s also a time of transition: the event will move to Boulder, Colorado, next year. Though the festival was born in Park City, Hernandez said its mission, vision and values will travel with it wherever it goes.
And despite the festival’s relocation, Hernandez said Park City will remain the Sundance Institute’s anchor. The institute will continue its artist support work through labs, fellowships and other programs, and some new events may be on the horizon.
“I've had so many great conversations, whether it's with Aldy Milliken from the Kimball [Art Center] or some of the new local officials, about ways that we want to show up,” Hernandez said. “We want to be part and remain part of not only Park City, but the broader Utah community.”
As for the heart of the festival, Amy Redford hopes people will remember her dad for his “kindness, curiosity and lack of hierarchical thinking.”
“He was playful and he was curious and I think anybody that's interacted with him on any level knows that he was really a pretty approachable guy,” she said. “The way that he saw the world was that everybody is important.”
The festival is in Park City through Feb.1.
