sundance 2006 - Zoael

Sundance Institute At 25
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Malden and producers Frank
Daniel and Michael Hausman.
One of the first film projects developed
at the Lab was Gregory Nava and
Anna Thomas’ El Norte, the story of
two illegal immigrants from Guatemala
and their heart wrenching journey to
come to America. The film became an
independent classic, winning awards
the world over and attracting new
audiences to a landmark film that was
produced outside of the constraints of
the Hollywood industry machine.
1985 was another landmark year.
The Institute assumed creative and
administrative control of a rather nondescript
local film event, the U.S. Film
Festival. Changing its name to the
Sundance Film Festival, the Festival
took the bold move of dedicating itself
to showcasing newly emerging film talents
on the American independent
film scene. In its first year alone, the
Sundance Film Festival presented
such seminal works as Jim Jarmusch’s
Stranger Than Paradise, the Coen
Brothers’ Blood Simple and the
Academy Award winning documentary,
The Life and Times of Harvey
Milk. The Festival continued to grow
in prestige in the 1980s and into the
1990s, introducing a new generation of
filmmakers who have since become
major film directors, including Steven
2005 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab rehearsal
Talent And Talons
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subtext play into the dialogue of
George Gattling?
PG: Again, that’s a tricky, subtle question
that a smarter actor could answer
better than I can, but in the case of
that scene in Sideways, part of the
power of it comes from her clarity of
purpose and meaning. She’s far more
Soderbergh (Sex, Lies and Videotape),
Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs),
Kevin Smith (Clerks), Edward Burns
(The Brothers McMullen) and Todd
Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse).
The Institute also experienced an
explosion of new initiatives in those
years. New conferences, patterned on
the success of the Filmmakers Lab,
were established for screenwriters,
music composers, documentary filmmakers,
film producers and theater
professionals. The essence was always
the same, providing a creative environment
where established professionals
could share their specific input with
newly emerging talents.
The Institute also began to reach
out internationally. Films from outside
the U.S. were added to the Festival,
further solidifying the Festival’s critical
role in furthering global exchange
among independent film artists and
expanding industry possibilities for
non-U.S. films in the marketplace.
The Latin American Exchange
Program was established to support
the creative work of Latin American
filmmakers and film producers. Latin
American films were presented at the
Festival and professional conferences
traveled to major Latin American cities
to create a vital exchange between
emerging filmmakers in the Americas.
aware of the subtext than he is. She
takes him out of self-involvement there.
Certainly Alexander [Payne] wanted a
degree of awareness, of subtext on my
character’s part there, I guess I tend to
want to let the audience find their own
meaning in things. They’re going to,
anyway, I think. Film acting is funny though;
the camera is not as smart or subtle an
10
PHOTOGRAPHED BY FRED HAYES
Robert Redford, at the Filmmakers Lab, confers with Denzel Washington.
The Sundance/NHK Filmmakers
Award was created to honor and support
the next generation of independent
filmmakers from Europe, Latin
America and Asia. “Best of” Festival
screenings were presented in Japan,
China, Brazil, Mexico and other countries,
introducing a new audience to
the dynamic American independent
film movement.
In the past few years, the Institute
has begun to provide grant monies to
documentary filmmakers to help
develop their projects, which has contributed
to the flowering of documentary
features and the increased opportunities
for non-fiction work to find
theatrical distribution and explosive
box office response.
Several exciting programs have been
organized to help celebrate the 25th
anniversary. In December, an 11-disc
DVD box set was released by Hart Sharp
Video under the title The Sundance
Film Festival Collection: Celebrating
25 Years of the Sundance Institute.
The package includes ten landmark
films which all premiered at the
Festival, plus a special features disc that
includes interviews with Robert
Redford, participating filmmakers and
professionals, and rare behind-thescenes
footage of the various Sundance
labs. All net proceeds benefit the notfor-profit
Sundance Institute to further
its mission of discovering and developing
independent artists and audiences.
The films included in the box set are
observer as a human being. You are forced
to “indicate” your emotions more,
show them in more obvious ways, I
think. The camera is a blunt instrument.
George is a weird character. He’s
smarter than most of the people around
him, but he’s not too smart himself. That
Sex, Lies and Videotape (Stephen
Soderbergh,1988); Clerks (Kevin
Smith, 1993), The Usual Suspects
(Bryan Singer, 1994), Smoke Signals
(Chris Eyre, 1997), American Movie
(Chris Smith, 1999), Boys Don’t Cry
(Kimberly Pierce, 1999), In the
Bedroom (Todd Field, 2000), Real
Women Have Curves (Patricia Cardozo,
2002), Capturing the Friedmans
(Andrew Jarecki, 2002) and American
Splendor (Shari Springer Berman and
Robert Pulcini, 2002).
In 2006, the Insititute plans an
extensive film tour of highlights from
this year’s Festival, which will bring
films without distribution to the attention
of discriminating filmgoers around
the country. In addition, the Institute
has recently announced a collaboration
with the Brooklyn Academy of
Music (BAM). In May of this year, the
Institute will present a dozen feature
films from this year’s Festival along with
a number of special programs at BAM,
the oldest performing arts center in
America. (see page 7 for the full story
on Sundance in Brooklyn).
With 25 years of personal integrity
invested, we leave the final word to
Institute founder Robert Redford.
“Sundance is not just a festival,”
Redford told audiences at the
press conference announcing the celebration
events. “The meat of
Sundance is about its development programs”,
Reford continued, “sort of like a
baseball farm club for the major leagues.”
creates a lot of his frustration. There was
a lot of mysterious dialogue for George in
the film, and I guess I had to provide subtext
for those moments just to specify
them for myself. I guess something
unconscious is always operating under
what you’re doing. Frankly, in this movie
we had so little time to think anything
through, it was such a quick shoot, I
don’t know what the hell I was doing.
EGH/FFR: That would be hard to believe.
Eddy Gilbert Herch was dramaturge for
the Fifth Night Screenplay Reading
Serieswhere he first met Paul Giamatti.