In July 1981, Robert Redford assembled a lot of characters from the trade. He needed to speak about what the Sundance Institute could be like. I needed to do one thing to assist the impartial movie scene. So all of us sat down and talked. I bear in mind Roger Ebert going loopy as a result of he could not write about it. [Redford] “No, this is sort of a critical assembly. We’re discussing the longer term about what we are going to do right here.”
At the moment, lots of people had cash and concepts for motion pictures. I do not know in the event that they have been extremists, however they have been positively individuals from the 60s who had one thing to say. The conclusion was that there are lots of individuals who need to make these sorts of impartial movies, however they do not know the best way to do it properly. [Redford] He determined to place out a name for scripts. He obtained 100 scripts and chosen 10 to ship to his new lab in the summertime. His concept was easy. “Let’s invite all our associates from L.A. and let’s deliver filmmakers right here and train them the best way to make motion pictures.”
I used to be at United Artists Classics and was invited to offer details about the distribution. My first journey was actually wild. Sidney Pollack taught you the best way to direct. László Kovac was educating individuals the best way to make motion pictures. Jonathan Taplin, producer of The Final Waltz, was additionally there. Cheech Marin was there. It was only a bizarre assortment of characters.
Redford constructed all these condos in Sundance and everybody lived there. waldo salt [Midnight Cowboy and Day of the Locust screenwriter] I needed this outdated Volkswagen Bug to drive him to his numerous condos each evening. He introduced a briefcase stuffed with pots. He went to the apartment, rolled a joint and received everybody within the place stoned, after which we went to the subsequent apartment. There have been all the time loopy issues like that.
This was a brand new try. We’ll deliver all these individuals collectively and make a film.
I went to the Sundance Movie Pageant [then, the US Film Festival] After I was simply coming to the tip of my tenure at United Artists Classics, we introduced a movie referred to as “Gray Fox” and submitted it to festivals. They have been attempting to get individuals concerned, in order that they put us in a model new, stunning apartment on the best way to Deer Valley. There was nothing else round us at the moment. I shared a bed room with Jeff Dowd [who inspired Jeff Bridges’ “the Dude” character from The Big Lebowski) and Eagle Pennell, who made a movie called The Whole Shootin’ Match, and actress Ronee Blakley. We’d go skiing during the day, and then at night we’d watch movies.
Back in those days, the unions would not let union people work on independent films. There wasn’t a contract. So, people came from all walks of the industry came to Sundance, and you would see movies coming together, with guys saying, “I can shoot it under another name.” It was really the beginning of the organized independent film movement.
Each year you came, more and more of the mountains had million-dollar mansions on them. The stores started to get nicer, and the traffic started to get crazier because there were more cars. You started to see less of a generation of indie filmmakers there, because they really couldn’t afford to stay there.
Park City priced itself out of the culture.
At Boulder, Sundance will have kids from a new generation, and they are going to be there every year [because of the University of Colorado Boulder]. Sundance was like that in the first place. Then I appeared across the room and out of the blue Sundance was a sea of grey hair and folks began laughing on the mistaken second. We’re in a interval of turmoil and one of many moments of nice change, together with cultural change, and it is going to be the younger technology who might be answerable for it.
Redford was there to show individuals the best way to make motion pictures. Now anybody could make it. So what ought to I do? How can these motion pictures have a huge impact on the world? It must be on the large display.
