Robert Redford addresses diversity in film at Sundance

The annual gathering, founded in 1985 by iconic actor Robert Redford, will shine the spotlight on some 120 independent features, many by newcomers trying to make their mark. “I’m not into that”.

“He brought humanity, edge, humor and vulnerability into the mainstream and we owe him a great debt for that”, said the Oscar winning director to loud applause from the Eccles stage Thursday. “(When) there wasn’t enough ethnic filmmaking to be shown, we had (Robert) Townsend come in, and we had women filmmakers who weren’t getting in (the door) like Lisa Choldenko, Kelly Reichardt”, he said.

Sundance has always embraced diversity because of its independent nature, he said, declining to address how mainstream Hollywood might replicate those demographics.

Filmmaker Spike Lee and actor Will Smith, as well as his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, have said they would not attend the Academy Awards on February 28 over the lack of diversity. Basically, that’s the principal we operate from. I’ve evolved in so many major ways, but what hasn’t changed is my love for the festival. “It’s an automatic thing if you’re independently minded and if you’re going to do things different from the common form”.

Cooper pointed out that Sundance and its filmmakers certainly aren’t afraid to take on tough topics, especially in the documentary realm where the festival excels. This year, he said it’s hot-button political topics like guns and abortion that are present.

The festival’s offerings often serve as a bellwether of the social and political issues at play in the US, according to Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper.

Other films include “Swiss Army Man”, starring Daniel Radcliffe as a dead body discovered by Paul Dano; “Goat”, an exploration of fraternity hazing and violence starring Nick Jonas and Ben Schnetzer; and writer-director Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation“, based on the true story of slave-rebellion leader Nat Turner. The film co-stars Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley and Gabrielle Union.

“What we feel is that filmmakers are here, they’re telling their stories, and in a way, we want to follow their lead, in terms of how they want those stories experienced”, she explained.

Sundance is about more than just films (and, no, I don’t mean parties). But it’s always been an uphill struggle. “As it changes, what remains is that it’s always tough for film“.

Independent film maker Tim Sutton, wrote and directed “Dark Night”, a drama inspired by the Aurora movie theater massacre in 2012.

Redford did an unusual thing towards the end of the press conference. I also want to say thank you to every last person that has given me their time, introduced themselves, talked with me, argued with me, sat with me, held a spot in line for me, laughed with me, or had a drink with me.

Sutton said he “wanted the film to be a kind of document of the time” he said.

But on Thursday, Redford declined to distance himself from “mainstream” Hollywood. “‘I don’t like the Oscars‘”. That’s for Donald Trump to say! I drove 9 hours from Colorado across the Wyoming plains, down through the Wasatch Mountains into Park City. To me it’s about the work. “Whatever comes from it, whatever rewards come from it, that’s great but I don’t think about it”. “It was important to me that sounds of the boys’ environment were reflected in the score, and I had a blast doing it”, Bontemps said. “It’s just nothing that occupies my thinking”. On with the show.