Day 11 - 30 January

Sundance comes to an end: the wrap-up

Harvey wasn't there; the ticketing police were in full force, and tyro filmmakers, desperate to screen and be seen by the thousands of ready-made audience members walking the streets, overran Main Street. Still, the 2000 Sundance Film Festival managed to conclude as a kinder, gentler film festival determined to re-emphasize its focus on the filmmaker and de-emphasize its reputation as a buyers convention for mainstream indie film.

Acquisition executives were fairly played out by mid-festival as the hottest films were front-loaded on the screening schedule specifically to encourage early buying, leaving room in the second half of the festival to do more viewing purely for enjoyment. Fine Line Vice President of Acquisition and Production, Arianna Bocco, whose company paid the highest figure for a Sundance 2000 film in the first week of the festival (a reported $4 million for Saving Grace), commented "We knew the films we wanted to see before coming to Park City. And while not all the films at the festival fit our needs, the really outstanding work of these new directors is an exciting discovery as well."

Without Harvey Weinstein (Miramax) in attendance, the festival lost its screaming, ranting and raving bidding-war incidents, and while the first few days where admittedly overwhelmingly hyped-out, they nonetheless settled into a rhythm showcasing a remarkably strong selection, particularly from filmmakers serving as both writer and director.

Of the top two Sundance awards, all three films, Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me, Karyn Kusama's Girlfight (a tie for the Grand Jury Best Dramatic Feature Award) and Raymond DeFelitta's Two Family House (Audience Award for Best Dramatic Feature) came from writer/director hyphenates, two of whom had strong ties in the established film community to help them make their films. Lonergan's executive producer is Martin Scorsese, and Kusama's is John Sayles, leading to the conclusion that the American independent spirit is alive and well due mostly in part to strong helping hands.

While filmmakers may bemoan the apparent inference that to screen at Sundance one must have connections, several independent production companies must also be kicking themselves for the ones they let get away: ShadowCatcher Entertainment, which won Sundance two years ago with Smoke Signals, passed early on Girlfight which was sent to them via editor Carol Dysinger. Dysinger, who also edited Alejandro Springall's Santitos (Sundance 1999), then put the script and filmmaker Kusama (also a former student) in touch with eventual executive producer Sayles.

Not every film at the festival was to be considered an indie, as several of the major distributors including Miramax, Fine Line, USA Films and Lion's Gate premiered their indie-style (dubbed 'indie-lite' on the street) films that were already on the release schedule for 2000.

Lion's Gate screened The Big Kahuna, the feature film debut from director John Swanbeck starring Kevin Spacey, in conjunction with Spacey's honor at the Festival with the Piper-Heidsieck Tribute to Independent Vision. "I always had strong feelings about what I would or wouldn't do early on," said Spacey. "Now, I'm in a position to be of help to other filmmakers making their own creative choices, and I think it's my responsibility to do so."

The annual indie-convergence continued its tradition of high profile crossover unions between directors and talent, and dozens of the famous celebrity attachments were on hand to promote their work and support their colleagues.

The festival was temporarily known as the 'Brothers Fest' when the Afflecks, Baldwins, Coens and brothers Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen descended on the festival both on-screen and on street. It could have also easily been dubbed the 'Baby Fest' as many directors were close to, or already in, labor. Stanley Tucci stayed home from his World Premiere (Joe Gould's Secret) for the birth of twins; co-director and jury co-winner Susan Todd (Americanos: Latino Life in the United States) missed the award ceremony to give birth to her son, and director Mary Herron (American Psycho) looked very close to delivering the production of her second child.

A no-where-near-complete list of the other who's who in attendance included Jodie Foster, Nathan Lane, Nick Nolte, Jason Preistly, Julianna Margulies, Ian Holm, Christian Bale, Holly Hunter, Billy Crudup, Jon Favreau, Famke Janssen, Ethan Hawke, Liev Schreiber, Marisa Tomei, Vincent D'Onofrio, Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Adian Quinn, James LeGros, Donal Logue, Dan Futterman, Matt Keeslar, Norman Reedus (along with partner, model Helene Christianson and their new baby boy), Tammy Faye Baker and her constant companion, RuPaul.

However, more accessible than the stars (who tended to only stay a few days) were the directors for whom playing Sundance quite often meant a return to their creative roots as well as a chance to enjoy the work of their peers.

Alan Rudolph, whose film, Trixie, reunited him with actor Nick Nolte (Afterglow, Breakfast of Champions ) was often spotted striding Main Street deep in delightfully impassioned conversation-quite the change from his angry frustration over studio handling of Breakfast of Champions at last spring's Seattle International Film Festival.

Michael Winterbottom, in town briefly for the US Premiere of Wonderland, seemed to greatly enjoy the other films screening, including Jon Shear's Urbania, while Jim McKay stayed throughout the festival to promote both his films (Our Song, Spring Forward-as producer). Producer Michael Stipe, who has been more active in filmmaking than music making of late, also executive produced Spring Forward and came to support the film directly after the Golden Globes.

Interestingly, new partnerships were in evidence across the screen: The Independent Film Channel, The Sundance Channel and The Shooting Gallery were three of the entities most often seen in the producing credits on film. Additionally, the Sundance Institute announced a partnership with Resort Theaters to build a new festival multiplex cinema in the Redstone retail center near the edge of town. The advent of the Winter Olympics in 2002 can only be assumed to be of great concern as the record numbers of attendees continue to rise during the festival.

If Sundance broke little new ground, Slamdance remained the haven of cutting edge filmmaking with a far more international tone than ever before. A record year for attendance, with well over 7,000 audience attending main screenings; another 3,000 attending the filmmakers lounge fringe screenings, and over one million hits on the web site for Anarchy OnLine, brought the Slamdance brand to its widest-yet audience. Winners announced Saturday were Good Housekeeping (Grand Jury Award for Best Feature), Elevator World (Grand Jury for Best Short), Dolphins (Audience Feature Award), and Mutual Love Life (Audience Short Award).

"We consider Slamdance 2000 a big success for a number of reasons," said Dan Mirvish, Slamdance Co-Founder. "Everything went smoothly from a technical standpoint; everyone stayed healthy (as compared to the 'Park City Virus' of 1999 which hospitalized or felled half the festival staff), and we created a filmmaker friendly vibe throughout the event.

"But even more noticeably," continued Mirvish, "it was an incredible group of filmmakers with a decidedly international perspective. Our increase in international submissions and festival screenings comes in large part from our 'on-the-road' events in Chile and at Cannes, as well as making our Internet web site the main contact for submissions. Also, if you consider that we aren't able to bring in any filmmakers on our dime, they have to bring themselves in, the fact that we have such a strong filmmaker presence at all the screenings speaks to the draw of the festival."

The impact of both festivals and the accompanying "...Dances" (No Dance, Webdance, Jamdance, Digital Dance, Labdance and of course Slamdunk) on the already strained Park City may be the biggest forecaster of change for the yearly filmmakers 'winter boot-camp' as city officials struggle to find some control over the ten day events. Enforcing for the first time this year a nearly forgotten ordinance against posting handbills or distributing any promotional materials, city police were kept busy keeping filmmakers from postering, fliering, and generally pounding the pavement.

Tongue firmly in cheek, Mirvish and Jury Coordinator Gabe Wardell sang the ordinance at the Slamdance Closing Night Ceremonies to the fateful tune of the cult TV show, "Gilligan's Island". Even so, admitted Mirvish, Slamdance doesn't assume anything-including their welcome back to the city in 2001. "We take these things on a year to year basis," said Mirvish. "We've been working with the city for years, and even more in the past six months, specifically about this charter the city has to only let one festival at a time exist in Park City. At a meeting in August, a lot of locals defended us and helped get the city to agree to change the charter but it hasn't been rewritten yet. Things work slowly here, and we just keep doing our best."

Be that as it may, both Sundance and Slamdance appear likely to return to the slopes in 2001 along with the winners of the dot.com game, most notably AtomFilms who scored a record five short film acquisitions as well as the honor of the first-ever outdoor Park City winter screening. Of interest now will be the festival circuit ahead for the class of 2000 Sundance.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Kathleen McInnis

Sundance