Friday, January 16, 2009

Sundance Film Festival Opens Today


The Sundance Film Festival starts today. I am a fan. Very much so. When I lived in Salt Lake City, I was fortunate to have opportunities to go to Park City and actively observe the cinematic experience. Some solid films have come out of the Robert Redford-founded festival and I genuinely wish that the current economy won't hurt the festival too much.
Fingers crossed that this platform for creativity is kept alive and encouraged to flourish.

However, reality tells us a different story. Things are going to be tough for the film industry. Black Book has a feature on this topic today. A paragraph says:

"It's a buyers market (again), the industry is pinched with strikes and weighed down with a bad economy, some Park City residents are chafed over past crowds and noise, and the festival itself is the target of protesters. More importantly, say some locals, the party mood and crowd simply isn't there. First off, this year will not likely see a lot of sales. A number of major distributors have shut down, the studios that usually buy films have started producing their own, and pretty much all of last year's big sales were box office poison."

Read more here.





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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Billy Walsh!!
And Ari Gold and the boys visiting Sundance.
Had to throw it out there.
I hope Sundance keeps going.

Anonymous said...

Sundance is now a Western icon of cinema. I hope it fares well.

Anonymous said...

The good days....

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the first thing to suffer when the economy is not good is the arts.

Sra said...

The good news is I will be more likely to get in on wait list.

For me, last year's festival was kind of lacking in good films. Usually I like much of what I see, but there was only one film I loved last year (Time Crimes). And I did love it, so that helped, but everything else was myeh.

Anonymous said...

I wish I were there participating. Snow makes sense when you're by the slopes. Well, that, and good films. And I sure hope they have some good ones this year because the better the quality, the longer the life of the festival. And we all need creativity.

Anonymous said...

ditto. i can't think of sundance without thinking of Billy Walsh. Entourage, man....

Unknown said...

Salt Lakers are REALLY lucky to have access to Sundance films right at their Broadway Theater. I mean, that's so unique!!

Anonymous said...

Broadway is a cool theater, I agree. I miss it when I'm gone.

Sra said...

My complaint about Broadway is that their lattes are more expensive and not as good as other places' lattes. But maybe I should feel pleased that they have coffee at all, as most theaters don't.

Oh yeah, and your ass goes numb in the Broadway seats.

But they play good films.

B.R. said...

Some of my happiest moments occurred at that theater. What a great setting that was for me and mine!
I agree about the chairs and the lack of comfort therein, though.
And I so miss my friend who used to work there. And not because he would give us free treats. :)
It felt good to support that theater. I don't have the right language for it, though. That's how great it was for me.