Robert Redford was rarely spotted at Sundance in his final years, yet the late Hollywood legend forever looms large at the influential US movie festival he co-created.
Set up in the 1980s to support creative, independent directors at a time when the blockbuster era launched by “Jaws” and “Star Wars” held sway over Hollywood, Sundance is for many filmmakers the epitome of Redford’s legacy.
“Reflecting on Robert’s importance is like reflecting on the moon’s importance — it’s tidal,” said David Osit, a director whose documentary “Predators” premiered at this year’s Sundance.
“It’s beyond comprehension, his impact. I don’t know what our profession looks like without his influence, especially on independent film,” he told AFP.
Years before his breakthrough role in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the native Californian Redford had purchased a small plot of land in the picturesque, snowy mountains of Utah.
That valley became the first home of Redford’s Sundance Institute, which offers resources and training to young movie directors, and soon after to the Sundance Film Festival — an annual showcase for new independent movies that changed the US industry.
Held in sub-zero temperatures each winter at an altitude of 7,000 feet (2,150 meters), the Sundance festival has famously launched the careers of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh.
It has also premiered countless Oscar-winning documentaries, including recent titles “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Navalny” and “Summer of Soul.”
Roughly 4,000 feature films have been presented at the fest over the years, the vast majority from directors who are not household names and have limited finances.
“In the United States, there isn’t government funding typically for young artists, like there is in other countries,” said Richard Heredia-Arriaga, a director who has been involved with the online Sundance Collab platform for nearly a decade.
“That’s what makes Sundance so special for American filmmakers, in particular, because it was an outlet for your work to be seen and then basically legitimized on a professional level.”
As it grew in size, Sundance has attracted some of the very commercialism that it had been set up to mitigate — something that did not always sit well with Redford.
“I want the ambush marketers — the vodka brands and the gift-bag people and the Paris Hiltons — to go away forever,” Redford famously told a reporter during the 2012 festival.
“They have nothing to do with what’s going on here.”
As Redford grew older and his health deteriorated, he had less direct involvement in the festival, though his video message always played before its opening film, and his family remained keen stewards of Sundance.
One of Redford’s final public involvements was a statement marking the festival’s upcoming move away from its Utah home in the Park City ski resort, which it has outgrown. From 2027, Sundance will be held in Colorado.
Sundance’s “mission remains even more critical today,” and the move “will ensure that the festival continues its work of risk taking, supporting innovative storytellers, fostering independence, and entertaining and enlightening audiences,” said Redford.
Yet Redford’s stamp remains central to the Sundance brand, as an antidote to the excesses and risk-aversion of Hollywood, and for the sense of integrity and authenticity he brought to the festival and his adopted home.
“He was just a regular guy, not your typical Hollywood movie star,” Monika Suter, a regular visitor to the Utah ski community of Sundance — itself named after Redford’s legacy — told AFP.
“His presence is always felt within the organization, because there was always this known fact that Bob was the person that put this all together, you know?” added Heredia-Arriaga.
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