Robert Redford admits Sundance needed a shake-up.
So after years of bristling as the indie film festival he founded was overwhelmed by ambush marketers, swag suites and fashionistas, the Oscar winner says Sundance 2010 is all about resetting it “back to its roots.”
He told journalists at a news conference Thursday he felt the festival “was beginning to flatline. We had to get fresh again.”
The mandate now is “to go back to Bob’s vision,” said new Sundance director John Cooper (replacing Geoff Gilmore, who left for the Tribeca film festival in 2009). “We were constantly reminding ourselves who we are.”
And that is, according to Redford, a way to promote and support “new voices” in filmmaking.
“We always programmed the same way ... But we were clouded by these ambush marketers who came to promote their own product ... and that’s how you end up with Paris Hilton.
“It didn’t have anything to do with us. It’s a free country, but it’s not a good thing.”
But with the economy in disrepair, those marketing dollars have now evaporated.
“These people aren’t coming now,” Redford noted. “Or I hope they’re not.”
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
