Losing its indie edge

By Nicole Rodriguez

Amid the awards and glamour the winter season brings to Hollywood, there is still a place to go where the main concern is more about movies than headlines and designers - or, rather, there used to be.

The place was Park City, Utah where Hollywood veteran Robert Redford sponsors the annual Sundance Film Festival. Named for Redford's star-making performance in 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," the festival was founded in 1981 as a means of helping new talent showcase their work to potential distributors. Some of Hollywood's biggest independent films owe their success to Redford's annual gala, including 1999's smash hit "The Blair Witch Project" and last summer's Jennifer Aniston/Jake Gyllenhaal dark romance, "The Good Girl."

This year's festivities, which opened with Sony's "Levity" on Jan. 16, marked a distinct change in the festival's focus on the surface level. As a first year attendee to the annual festivities, it was disappointing to find that the rumors of the commercial dominance of the festival seemed to be true.

The most obvious example of this was the large number of attendees who were not linked to the showcased films. Park City was overrun with starlets seeking little more than a photo opportunity and the chance to exchange business cards. Case in point, new pop couple Britney Spears and Fred Durst cuddled for the cameras at the Chrysler Lounge parties, while "American Idol" host Ryan Seaquest posed with fans to promote the latest season of the series.

More importantly, however, one couldn't help but notice the large number of films that had already attained distribution prior to entering the festival, including Paramount's "The Singing Detective," Miramax's "The People I Know" and Focus Features' "The Shape of Things."

This is not to say that these films did not deserve the recognition they received. A few exceptions aside, the majority of the already-purchased films proved to be brilliant both in conception and execution. However, it was sad to see that these films not only dominated the program, but were also the most hyped of the films shown, always screened in large venues at prime times.

At the heart of it all, there still seemed to be some people who kept the original Sundance spirit alive.

"I have always felt the need for artists to have a place where they can try new things, experiment with new ideas and have the freedom to fail," said festival founder Robert Redford. And, when all is said and done, it appears that Redford is still doing his best to stick to his original plans.

Despite the large number of studio films entered in the program, all of this year's awards were bestowed upon new films and filmmakers, the highest honors being given to "American Splendor" in the dramatic competition and "Capturing the Friedmans" in the documentary category.

Some attending stars also chose to use their prestige to support the unknown filmmakers. After fiancee Jennifer Lopez departed for the Fred Segal spa, actor Ben Affleck and his partner Matt Damon set out to use their fame for a good cause. Specifically, the two attended the festival to promote the winners of the latest installment of "Project Greenlight," the HBO series in which the actors sponsor a contest in which an unknown writer is picked to have his work turned into a film.

"Greenlight's" first winner, Pete Jones, was given the opportunity to screen his writing/directorial debut "Stolen Summer" at last year 's festival to critical praise, and Damon and Affleck (who shot to stardom after penning the script for the Academy Award winning "Good Will Hunting" in 1997) decided to start a second season of the show in order to assure that new talent was given a fair chance in Hollywood.

Hosting parties at Park City's famous Henry O's bar, the dynamic duo focused on bringing as much attention as possible to the project's newest discovery Erica Beeney (for her screenplay "The Battle of Shaker Heights"), as well as Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle (who shared a win for the directing contest).

Although the commericialism of Hollywood has plagued the Festival, no one can deny that, at its heart, there are still those who, like Damon and Affleck, believe in the ideals on which the festival is founded.

Says Redford, "Above all [is] the fact that it is for and about the filmmakers, their loves and the product that results."