--- title: Robert Redford Explains the Sundance Effect | TIME description: Robert Redford, icon of both Hollywood and Independent Cinema, reflects on story of the iconic film festival he founded 30 years ago canonical: https://time.com/video/0fLDD8s1/ og:title: Robert Redford Explains the Sundance Effect og:description: Robert Redford, icon of both Hollywood and Independent Cinema, reflects on story of the iconic film festival he founded 30 years ago og:url: https://time.com/video/0fLDD8s1/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0fLDD8s1/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Robert Redford Explains the Sundance Effect twitter:description: Robert Redford, icon of both Hollywood and Independent Cinema, reflects on story of the iconic film festival he founded 30 years ago twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0fLDD8s1/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Robert Redford Explains the Sundance Effect > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Robert Redford Explains the Sundance Effect [Watch (HLS stream): Robert Redford Explains the Sundance Effect](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0fLDD8s1.m3u8) (6:18)  _Published 2014-04-24. Robert Redford, icon of both Hollywood and Independent Cinema, reflects on story of the iconic film festival he founded 30 years ago_ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:24 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Robert Redford's Advice to Aspiring Filmmakers](/video/MibFceLw/) ### Robert Redford's Advice to Aspiring Filmmakers [Robert Redford on Almost Quitting Acting](/video/Fv0tloEu/) ### Robert Redford on Almost Quitting Acting [10 Questions for Robert Redford](/video/97CgxKNv/) ### 10 Questions for Robert Redford --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I was able, with the success I'd had as an actor in mainstream film, it allowed me to at least be able to make these smaller films. Son, you're a politician and that were, were the stories I wanted to tell about the America that I saw. [ MUSIC ] I remember at the end of the Second World War there was a lot of sloganeering in the country about, there was all red, white and blue talk. How great we were, and we are great, we're a great country. Did Deep Throat say that people's lives are in danger. Yes. What else did he say? He said everyone is involved. But when I became a filmmaker, I wanted to tell a story about the America that I grew up in that was different than the one that was being popularized. I lied to the American people, I lied about what I knew. That I would see a gray zone. [ INAUDIBLE ] There was a grey area that wasn't being touched on, where things were more complex and so that, Sundance became an extension of that giving other people a chance to do the same thing. [ MUSIC ] But what I wanted to do was to create a mechanism where new artists would have a place to come develop, and I would call on my own colleagues who were experienced. They were, writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, editors. Would they come up for period of about a month to, the other place where I could afford to give over was the property in Utah, in a month. Would you come up and work with these new filmmakers? At the time, I didn't know if it was going to last or not. You could see that we were, we were building some, some new talent and they were being able to get their movies made. Say your names. Mr. Brown. Mr. White. Mr. Blonde. Mr. Blue. Mr. Orange. Mr. Pink. Why am I Mr, Pink? Then there was Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino. Mathematics is the language of nature. Darren Aronofsky in Pi. He had Kimberly Peirce in Boys Don't Cry. And, you know, there were a number of films that came through. Why not you're beautiful? And that allowed me to stay alive because it got just enough attention to keep going, but it was a rough road for about ten years on Sundays. [ MUSIC ] But the mainstream wasn't allowing any space in the threatre. Well it'd be sad to just have it evaporate after they come through this lab, so maybe what we can do is create a festival, and have them gather and just create a community of, of film- makers to look at each others work. The next think was to how do you get people in Utah, a lot of people see Utah as a theocratic state, you know, you know, a culture that's very religious basically. And that religion doesn't seem to, let's just say would frown on, on all kinds of films so what are you doing, you're crazy. I said well maybe that's why we should do it, we should, we should make this weird. What are you doing up in Utah? Let's make it in the winter now, it's really getting weird. Maybe it's just so weird people will come because it's weird. I think about that first year, when we only had one theatre there, the old Egyptian Theatre and there was no promotion, no support. When some of these films came through, Quentin's film and then Soderbergh's film 'Sex, Lies and Videotapes'. Suddenly there was an attention there in Park City that didn't exist and we were able to survive but just barely. I think Roger Ebert was the first real supporter and he stayed that way all the way through, I won't be forever in debt to Roger and to Harvey Weinstein. That's why Harvey Weinstein was so valuable because he came in and he wanted to, to buy films there and then build them into something that was, that could be considered more mainstream. Now, I didn't feel that that was our mission to see who buys, it was our mission just to show the work. Things started to move with Hoop Dreams. Well Hoop Dreams was a documentary that came the mid 90s suddenly documentaries step up a level. Can I watch you walk? Sure. So the people begin to look at them differently rather than just something that you do like castor oil. This is a story of us and our band over seven years. And suddenly the documentaries begin to really move, and the support of them begin to move, and I was thrilled. [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] Things really started to move in the '90s I thought, wow. Oh, I get it. People are coming here because they, they're gonna be able to see something they wouldn't get to see normally in the, in the mainstream market. Success is, it has a dark side and I realize that the tension we were now were now going to be facing was going to be tight, but I didn't want to us to be chasing the money, it was tempting to chase the money. There's a reason I didn't have this in the beginning in Beverly Hills or New York City. It's gotten very big obviously, but everyone's been super supportive. I wanted to be removed, I wanted to be removed and isolated, and more intimate, but completely free of any kind of influence that money can bring. I just feel that if we don't close this down now, it's gonna grow itself into a mess. I don't think we can do what we started out to do. To do equal. That hasn't happened yet, but in, if that moment came, I, you know, what do you do? You ever see Manhattan? You ever see the Seven Sea where they have these great dialogues with these great backgrounds? I think we created an aspiration. I think creating something new that gave people a chance who wouldn't normally have that chance to be seen. And to give audiences a chance to see something they might not normally see. 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