When Neema Barnette heard Robert Redford's welcoming remarks at Sundance 2003, tears came to her eyes. Barnette had struggled for three years to finish her debut feature about the prison-industrial system, Civil Brand. When the film captured a place in Sundance's American Spectrum, and she heard Redford, and Festival Executive Director Geoff Gilmore, speaking about artistic endurance and the battle for an independent vision, her emotions flooded over. Sundance has that effect on directors.
For the 2003 edition, DGA members were back, stronger than ever. Along with Barnette, the festival featured work from Dan Algrant, Jane Anderson, Danny Boyle, Larry Charles, Lisa Cholodenko, Ernest Dickerson, Deborah Dickson, James Foley, George Gallo, Keith Gordon, Peter Hedges, Mark Illsley, Steve James, Neil LaBute, Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme, Anne Makepeace, Frank Pierson, Alex Proyas, Bobby Roth, Alan Rudolph, Ed Solomon, Oliver Stone and David O. Russell (as a Dramatic Competition juror) as well as a retrospective screening of Mel Stuart's Wattstax.
"Civil Brand had already been championed by my target audience at the Black American Film Festival and the Urbanworld Film Fest," Barnette said after the roar had died down. "But we were also embraced by this largely white, industry audience at Sundance, which was completely unexpected and extremely gratifying."
Barnette's successful Sundance visit convinced distributor Lions Gate Films to move on a theatrical release. "But, more importantly," Barnette added, "it convinced me my film needs to be seen by all audiences, not just a young urban street crowd. Thanks to Sundance, it will get that chance."
Bobby Roth has had more chances than most to see the Sundance magic firsthand. A member of the DGA Independent Directors Committee, Roth brought his self-financed, digital feature, Manhood, into the 2003 festival as a "surprise screening." This was Roth's fifth visit — four as a filmmaker, one as a juror.
"As a truly independent filmmaker, I'm grateful that Sundance still makes room for self-financed digital movies like Manhood," Roth said.
Roth called all the Hollywood trappings at Sundance this year a mixed blessing for hard-core independents. "The stars definitely bring in the kind of media you want to help discover a small film," Roth said. "But, for me, the benefits will come after the festival's over, and I'm hustling to find distribution. When I was here with Heartbreakers in 1985, everyone back in Hollywood asked me where Sundance was. Today, it's one of the prime reasons distributors will see my movie."
No one had to tell Peter Hedges where Sundance was. The director had dreamed of debuting Pieces of April in Park City. When New York-based InDigEnt came aboard, Hedges first feature wrapped as a digital entry and secured a spot in the Dramatic Competition where it generated some of the best buzz of the festival.
"We had nine distributors interested in buying the film after our first screening," Hedges said. "I talked with every one of them to find out: with so man amazing films at Sundance, why was mine so important to their company? Some filmmakers will step back from that process, but I actually found it very pleasant. The distributors who come to Sundance love small, personal moviemaking and meeting them individually left me with a hopeful feeling."
Neil LaBute was another returning filmmaker (In the Company of Men won the Filmmakers Trophy at Sundance in 1997), who although surprised by Sundance's growth, was buoyed to be in the mix. LaBute screened The Shape of Things (its first public showing) before the huge Eccles Theater audience.
"Showing my film to 1,300 people, and then facing down the media in a room at the Marriott, felt more like an experience from Cannes, than the Sundance I remember," LaBute said. "In many ways, I'm happy I was able to come here six years ago, when most of the festival was centered around Main Street, and people just hung out in the street and talked movies.
"Having said that, I was relieved to be here this time as a Premiere, with a distributor attached. Being in competition at Sundance has its own strange pressure," he said. "You're tied up in knots for 10 days about making a sale, winning awards and making each of your five screenings, spread days apart, meaningful. My concerns this time around were simply how would an audience react to my movie. It was much less stressful."
Direct audience reaction, via post-screening Q&As, is one of the festivals best resources. Sundance audiences, while more informed and predisposed than non-festival crowds, always make their feelings clear, which in turn influences a distributor's release strategy. Even the most experienced directors suffer from pre-screening jitters, but as Hedges noted, "It's more like a nervous energy about how the film will play. I watched the Sundance audience for clues: Were they restless? Bored? Noisy? Subdued? You're not going to make drastic changes, but the feedback you get from just being in the room is one of the best parts of the Sundance experience."
"We had some very interesting questions in our Q&A sessions," Dan Algrant recalled. Algrant brought his politically charged People I Know, starring Al Pacino as a New York publicist, into Sundance as a Premiere. "One guy actually believed that some compromising information seen in the film on a Palm Pilot was about him," Algrant said. "Another question at the press conference centered on us being Sundance insiders because Redford was one of the executive producers. They felt our personal histories somehow echoed the film's content. In fact, Miramax only decided to submit this film to Sundance after it had a successful limited run in Italy. We had no idea how it would play outside New York City. And the critical and audience response we received at Sundance was a vindication it would."
Algrant's spot on a Sundance directing panel, moderated by 2002 Sundance winner Gary Winick, was a highlight of his visit. "You would think a panel called 'Directors on Directing' might get a little competitive," Algrant said. "But it was quite the opposite. The discussion was generous, and open, and reflective of the kind of spirit Sundance works so hard to foster."
Algrant also feels it's imperative that America have its own festival that caters to the art and business of filmmaking. "Whether you're a first-time director with a short, as I was back in 1989, or screening your 10th feature here, it's an exciting environment because, hokey as it sounds, there's an air of intense creativity at Sundance that you just don't find anywhere else."
Director Keith Gordon, who returned to Sundance to screen his stylistically daring The Singing Detective, cautions new directors that no festival is ever the be-all, end-all of a career: "I always tell filmmakers to go to Sundance as a spectator and just see movies. I saw 15-20 movies last year and was able to stop directors on the street to chat up their films. This year I ran from my screenings to all the media events and parties, and saw four movies by other filmmakers! I'm not sure which experience, ultimately, is more inspiring."
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