Hundreds of people filled The Marquis Park City Friday afternoon
to commemorate the last 43 years of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City. It’s the last festival in Utah. The festival moves to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027.
Audience members and speakers alike reflected on their time at festivals in Park City.
Attendees Ann Sowder and Rose Huerta said they have been coming to the festival since 2010. Sowder is a local while her sister-in-law Huerta is a California native. Sowder said they love Sundance because they always learn something new.
“This year I had no idea about Luigi Mani Mangione and the social media love fest for him, it's shocking, but I love coming and learning about things that I know nothing about,” she said.
Huerta said the Sundance experience is unlike anything else. One year, she and Sowder waited three hours in snow and ice to see “RGB,” a documentary chronicling the life of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“You see a movie, but then you also get to see the people who are part of the movie,” Huerta said. “RBG is one of my personal heroes, so to be able to just see her in person at such an iconic talk is such, you don't get that anyplace else.”
Jared and Jerusha Hess, husband-and-wife filmmakers best known for their work on “Napoleon Dynamite,” shared the benefit of Sundance for independent artists.
Jared Hess said he was at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival around the time the first draft for "Napoleon Dynamite” was written. He saw “28 Days Later” and said he was blown away. During a Q&A he discovered the movie was shot using a digital video camera.
“It gave me hope, because we were trying to raise money and didn't know if we were going to be able to shoot on film, and their creativity was just contagious,” Jared Hess said. “It was such an aspirational moment.”
“Napoleon Dynamite” premiered at the festival the next year to critical acclaim that has since spanned two decades.
“The success of the film never would have happened if Robert Redford hadn't created a festival where people with no ties to the industry had a platform to come and share their films,” he said.
Testament to the Sundance Film Festival’s legacy, to remember the festival is to remember its founder, Robert Redford.
That’s why the night was also full of stories about Redford himself.
Writer-director Richard Linklater told the crowd how Redford saved a swimming hole called Barton Springs in Austin, Texas. Linklater lives in Austin and said Barton Springs was once being threatened by development.
Then Redford flew to town to speak to the city council and developers.
“He did not carry himself as someone who was doing any of us a favor or giving back. He was just, he was doing what he loved, following his passion,” Linklater said.
As Sundance moves to Boulder next year, Linklater said that’s what festival leaders and filmmakers will do as well: uphold Redford’s values and lead with passion.
