Known for their signature reversible jackets, it’s the volunteers who make the annual Sundance Film Festival possible.
“They just had a vest, then they had a thing after that with sleeves that stripped off — so you always bring the wrong sleeve on the wrong side when you took them off,” part-time Parkite Carol Silverman explained about the ubiquitous jackets. “And then finally I think somebody decided we needed a hood.”
Silverman is among the 80% of Sundance volunteers who returned for the 2026 festival, the last one in Utah. It’s her 16th straight year volunteering.
With 42 years under her belt, Parkite Cindy LoPatriello might be Sundance’s longest tenured volunteer. She began back when Sundance was still the U.S. Film and Video Festival and not yet the well-known acquisition engine it is today.
“Right off the bat, I was really intrigued with trying to recruit locals and visitors to come into the Egyptian Theatre to see a crazy, independent film,” LoPatriello said.
She reflected on Sundance's next chapter, moving to Boulder, Colorado: “I'm grieving.”
Volunteers manage theater lines, drive actors to events and show visitors which bus to take.
One of Silverman’s favorite memories was a chance encounter with the late Sundance founder Robert Redford, pointing him toward the men’s room. The volunteer jackets commemorated Redford with a special patch for 2026, the first festival without him.
Most volunteers KPCW spoke with this year had a connection to Park City or the film industry, or both, like former publicist and part-time resident Jen Shufro.
“I think it's like the end of an era, and I'm not sure how it's going to translate to Boulder, and obviously I'm not going,” she said outside the Park City Library Feb. 1. “So it’s sad. I’m trying to get in as many movies as possible.”
First-time volunteer Godson Beaugelin from North Carolina is excited to return to Boulder, after living in the Denver area for 25 years.
He decided to volunteer after submitting a short film to Sundance, which unfortunately was one of the thousands not accepted into the festival.
“If you're doing it [volunteering] for love, that's a different story. But if you're a filmmaker, you're doing it like me, it’s like another experience,” Beaugelin said. “You're going to learn from other people. They're going to give you a chance to know who they are, how they talk, what idea they want to develop for a future film.”
LoPatriello said she’ll at least volunteer part-time in Boulder.
Silverman wasn’t going to — it’s going to be more difficult for her to find a place to stay — but she found herself reconsidering while listening to one of Sundance’s panel discussions.
“So my ‘never, no, no, absolutely not,’ became a ‘maybe,’” she said.
Brendan O’Connor, another first-time volunteer from San Diego, told KPCW before getting on the bus that “if it was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.”
