To the editor: Los Angeles and the Hollywood neighborhood general will quickly really feel the results of the Sundance Movie Competition’s resolution to maneuver to Boulder, Colo. Up to now few weeks, a variety of storylines have emerged, inserting blame anyplace from politics to funds, nevertheless it’s far more nuanced (“Of course Sundance is fleeing. Utah has become a hateful place,” April 4).
As one of many unique founding workers members of the Sundance Movie Competition, I do know precisely the place and the way this story started. Sundance was born, not simply as a movie competition, however as a cultural drive grounded in place. Robert Redford didn’t select Utah as a result of it was straightforward or apparent. He selected it as a result of it was totally different. As a result of the facility of Sundance was by no means simply in regards to the movies — it was in regards to the house it created for impartial voices to emerge in a setting that challenged, impressed and remodeled.
The actual story is that this: Sundance is dealing with monetary headwinds, introduced on by a shifting impartial movie business and income losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The brand new management workforce, as an alternative of working with Utah’s private and non-private companions to rebuild a stronger future, selected to stroll away.
As the present mayor of Salt Lake County, I proposed a summit — on the Sundance Resort itself — the place we might meet as companions and decide the right way to evolve the competition, given the altering panorama. A gathering of native leaders, artistic voices, and neighborhood companions, in a spot constructed for dialogue and reflection. That provide was by no means accepted.
Moreover, monetary gives from Salt Lake County and the state of Utah had been additionally severe and substantial; proposed to extend funding, provide infrastructure and supplied a transparent path ahead. It nonetheless wasn’t sufficient.
Let’s be sincere about what occurred right here: The present Sundance management didn’t need to remedy issues. They wished to maneuver on from them. As a substitute of working inside a neighborhood that stood by the competition via many years of progress, they opted for a clear break — and used politics because the handy excuse.
However politics should not the true story. In the event that they had been, Redford would by no means have planted his imaginative and prescient in Utah to start with. A progressive himself, Redford understood that affect occurs whenever you communicate reality in laborious locations — not whenever you run from them. He used his platform to guard public lands, elevate marginalized voices, and push for change. Sundance turned highly effective as a result of it operated in a spot the place that energy meant one thing.
As a Democratic mayor in a conservative state, I don’t draw back from Utah’s challenges. I face them day by day. However I additionally know that the presence of Sundance right here made an actual distinction. It opened doorways for underrepresented communities. It gave audiences entry to new concepts and new views. It planted seeds for change the place it was wanted most.
This can be a loss for Utah. However it’s additionally a loss for Sundance. This exit leaves behind the surroundings that gave it its identification, however extra importantly the folks and the ideas that gave it that means. Sundance forgot its roots, the neighborhood that constructed it and the essence of what made it nice within the first place; impartial voices aren’t simply wanted in comfy locations — they’re wanted within the locations the place they will really make a distinction.
Jenny Wilson, Salt Lake Metropolis
The author is the mayor of Salt Lake County.
