“Everyone has a story…”
“Those were words out of my dad’s mouth on more than one occasion,” Amy Redford said Wednesday night at the Sundance Film Festival welcome press conference, underscoring the theme of the event’s final edition in Park City, UT, before it departs for its new home in Boulder, CO, next year.
In a touching and eloquent sendoff, Redford held back tears and paid respects not only to her Oscar-winning father and film festival architect who died in September at age 89, but also to Sundance’s longtime home, which has been “the portal to so many stories to set free in the rest of the world.”
“Every place has a story, so let’s talk about this extraordinary place: Park City, Utah,” the Sundance Institute Board of Trustees member continued.
“I invite you to look out and up when you can — these mountains have a funny way of adding perspective,” said Redford. “Utah is the bedrock that allowed us to build.”
Amy Redford on Wednesday
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
She gave props to Park City for “lending their town to this crazy idea,” that being the Sundance Film Festival itself.
“Maybe when you eat your meals, walk the streets, get a parking ticket — like I did this afternoon — pay attention to the people who are serving you. There might just be a lot about Utah you don’t know…,” she said, adding, “My dad loved this place and its people.”
While Sundance has hammered a 10-year deal with the city of Boulder worth around $34M in tax incentives, and one that will expand the festival’s accommodations and cinemas, Redford told the packed room of journalists at the fest’s Park venue on Iron Horse Drive, “We invite you to stay curious about this place [Park City] — it too has stories.”
Addressing the roll of the dice on Sundance’s new city, she said: “This festival has found a new iteration, that will be exciting and imperfect and might feel like our beginnings 40 years ago. We will ground our next chapter in the founding values Dad articulated on a single sheet of paper; if you’ve read them, they are simple and strong.”
Redford also gave a shout-out to the “shivering filmmakers who you’d never heard of .. .who might be the next one who will change the world.”
Concluding her speech, Redford said, “to seek the unknowns and find out who they are — it was really my Dad’s favorite part.”
The Sundance Film Festival kicks off Thursday.
