By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -In 1981, Robert Redford launched an experiment when he invited the makers of 10 low-budget movies to what film critic Roger Ebert described as a “cinematic summer camp” in the Utah mountains.
Four decades later, Redford and the annual Sundance Film Festival that he founded are being celebrated as the foremost champions of independent films. Redford died on Tuesday at age 89.
“I can think of no other human being that has had an impact on independent film and storytelling, and cinema in the independent film world, than Robert Redford,” said Tori A. Baker, CEO and president of the Salt Lake Film Society.
“Nobody did what Bob did,” added Baker, who is also vice chair of the Cinema Foundation. “He looked around and said ‘it’s not just about my art and the film I’m making and story I’m telling.’ Instead, he turned that outward and said ‘how can I help you make your story, and how can I support the story?'”
Redford bought land in Utah in the 1970s for a family retreat. From there, he used his Hollywood fortune to launch the nonprofit Sundance Institute, a workshop for aspiring filmmakers named after his role in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
His goal was to nurture artists who were making movies that were not the traditional fodder of the big Hollywood studios. Redford invited filmmakers to spend time with him and other established directors, writers and editors who helped guide their projects.
The Sundance Film Festival debuted a few years later. Typically held in January and February, it earned a reputation as a showcase for creative risk-taking and a pathway to distribution for low-budget films to reach broader audiences.
“Sundance showed that you could create a community around independent films that was discrete from Hollywood, and that Hollywood wasn’t the only thing American cinema had to offer,” said Eric Kohn, artistic director for the Southampton Playhouse in New York and a former journalist who attended Sundance.
The festival grabbed Tinseltown’s attention when Hollywood’s Miramax studio bought Steven Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies and Videotape” in 1989.
“The next year, all of these buyers were coming, looking for the next version of that movie,” Kohn said.
Filmmakers who came through Sundance included Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Thomas Anderson and Chloe Zhao. “Clerks,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “Donnie Darko,” “The Blair Witch Project” and Oscar best picture winner “Coda” are among the films that debuted there.
“Our film ‘Coda’ came to the attention of everyone because of Sundance,” actor Marlee Matlin wrote on social media on Tuesday. “And Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed.”
Baker, who worked for the Sundance Institute in the 2000s, said Redford personally took part in the organization’s work and often read scripts and met with directors.
“We always knew when Bob was around, because his motorcycle was always parked out in front of the offices,” Baker said.
Redford told Reuters in 2016 it was “a tremendous thrill for me” that Sundance had succeeded in its objective, which he said was “to make some kind of contribution to the industry that would keep diversity alive by supporting other artists, and particularly nurturing artistic freedom of expression.”
The Sundance Film Festival became so big that organizers announced this year that the event was moving out of Park City, Utah, to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine;Additional reporting by Rollo Ross;Editing by Mary Milliken and Richard Chang)
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