sundance 2006 - Zoael

BY EDDY GILBERT HERCH
ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM THURSDAY,
January the 5th, Robert Redford and his posse
rode into Downtown Brooklyn, New York to
spread word that Sundance was coming, hot on his
heels—the Film Festival, not “The Kid.”
The Sundance Institute is collaborating with
the Brooklyn Academy of Music—BAM, as the locals
know it, and the cultural epicenter of the borough—to
present “Creative Latitude: Sundance at BAM,” a slate
of official selections from the 2006 Sundance Film
Festival which occuring January 19th through the 29th.
Sundance comes to Brooklyn May 11th through the
20th. Films will not be announced until the Sundance
Film Festival in Park City, Utah has concluded, as to not
litter the landscape with “spoilers” prior to the Closing
Night Ceremonies and award presentations.
In addition to the film screenings, Redford is
bringing the Institute experience, many of the artistic
development programs which have propelled
Sundance into the powerful creative mecca for filmmakers
which it has become. Programs will include
multiple screenings housed in the BAM Rose
Cinema’s four theaters with accompanying talks to
take place in the BAM Opera House. BAM
spokesperson Sandy Sawotka committed to
rehearsal areas, rarely seen by the public, to serve
as discussion spaces.
“Creative Latitude” is a reference to the fact that
both Park City, Utah and Brooklyn share a 40.6 degree
latitude.
BAM is internationally renowned for the Next
Wave Festival, which lives up to its namesake in
7
SUNDANCE 2006
How Sweet It Is: Fuhgedaboud Skiing, We’ve Got the Cheesecake!
Sundance to be Held in Brooklyn
Robert Redford holds a press conference to announce a collaboration between the Sundance Institute and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Pictured left to right are Brooklyn Council
Member Letitia James, Redford, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, BAM Board Member Alan Fishman, BAM Executive Director Joseph V. Melillo, BAM President Karen Brooks
Hopkins and Sundance Executive Director Ken Brecher. PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF BAM
dance, drama and music, and for innovative film programming,
unique and thoroughly researched retrospectives
and the BAM Cinematek, providing access
to rare prints, lectures by and discussions with directors
and experts, programs rivaled only by downtown
Manhattan’s Film Forum or Lincoln Center’s Walter
Reade Theater.
New York City filmmakers—especially those
from Brooklyn—are a multitudinous presence at
Park City every year. Last year’s nominee for the
Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic and winner of both the
Director’s Award, Dramatic and the prestigious
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance was
Brooklyn’s native son, Noah Baumbach, for his Park
Slope, Brooklyn tale, “The Squid and the Whale.”
Actor/director Steve Buscemi is also an annual
Brooklyn representative at Park City. Buscemi greeted
Redford at the BAM press conference. Ken
Brecher, Sundance Institute executive director, told
indieWIRE, “I don’t think there would have been a
[Sundance] Festival last year without Brooklyn.”
Redford told the press, “This seemed like a wonderful
place to create a home,” and added that this
collaboration was “the keystone of the Sundance
Institute’s 25th anniversary celebration.”
“Creative Latitude: Sundance Institute at BAM” will
follow Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Film Festival, held this
year on April 19th through May 1st, by ten days.
Although Tribeca has brought revenues of over
ten million dollars to the revitalization effort for
downtown Manhattan in the wake of the events of
9/11, it is doubtful that the Sundance collaboration
with BAM will stimulate local economy in any significant
way. Buisness owners believe that the audi-
ences who would flock to this event are already here.
Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz,
always the over-the-top Brooklyn enthusiast and
local-pride cheerleader, but unfortunate fount of misinformation
(There is egg in a real egg cream,
Marty!), stated emphatically, “The Festival will help
solidify the burgeoning Brooklyn film scene’s reputation
as ‘Hollywood East’.” This is, of course, erroneous
as Brooklyn filmmakers are fiercely independent,
as is the Sundance Film Festival, making them
the very antithesis of Hollywood!
For the record, Astoria, Queens, right next door,
is considered, world-wide, to be “Hollywood East,”
due to the large number of sound stages—such as
Astoria Kaufmann where The Cosby Show was
taped—committed to the production of television
and motion pictures for major studios and production
entities. Long Island City, Queens, is the
world’s center for commercial advertising production,
movie interiors and music videos, boasting
landmark facilities like Silvercup Studios.
But still, you can’t have a more commited-to-
Brooklyn advocate than Marty Markowitz. (He did put
the entire borough on a diet.) And, guerrilla filmmaking
in Brooklyn is at an all time high. You can see
Park Slope locations in many Hollywood features and
a current Volkswagon commercial. It can’t be refuted
that the most serious independent filmmakers (and
filmgoers) in the world are living in Brooklyn. If you
don’t believe that, you’d best believe that we can still
kick your ass.
Could that be the reason why Robert Redford decided
to bring Sundance to Brooklyn? Or was it Junior’s
cheesecake? Fuhgedaboudit!