Redford Keeps Rein on U.S. Film Festival

SUNDANCE, Utah — “You’ll have to excuse the way I’m dressed,” Robert Redford in business suit said to a visitor, “but I’ve just gotten back from Washington.”

The suit did seem incompatible with Redford’s normal casual attire when he’s at his 7,000-acre wilderness retreat. But with the actor-director’s constantly expanding role at the Sundance Institute overseeing career developments in film, dance and music, business suits are often the order of the day.

Redford established the Sundance Institute in 1980 as a kind of summer camp for film makers. Then, four years ago, Sundance took over the then-faltering United States Film Festival and the Park City, Utah, event has grown since.

The festival, which ends its 10-day run Sunday, has broken its attendance record this year with 33,000 attending. Four years ago, the festival attendance was about 15,000 for its 10-day run.

While Redford is pleased at the festival’s growing popularity, he’s also wary of too much success: “I feel very strongly about scale; I don’t think we should keep expanding both our audience size and our program size to suit the need. I think there’s a cutoff point for the sake of quality and management. I’m more attracted to keeping the festival small. I like the idea of it being outside a major metropolitan area. I think it’s a more fun atmosphere.”

Since taking over the festival, Redford has also begun focusing on the films of a particular country each year, which has had the effect of turning Park City into a venue for exhibition of international independent films. Redford was particularly enthusiastic about this year’s country of choice, Argentina, which is part of the festival’s three-year plan to focus on Latin American films. “It’s a tremendous form of cultural exchange,” he said. “I just think the Latin American culture is about to give us a great deal of interesting projects and talent.”

The expanding Sundance program for film makers this year added a music composition program with film makers to provide an opportunity for the creative forces in each discipline to overlap. “There are six film projects and six composers,” Redford said. “Each composer gets an opportunity to score the six different films and the film maker gets six renditions for his work.”

Then, using the recently completed dance rehearsal hall, “we have the Utah Symphony Orchestra come up and we mix as we record the compositions. That way everyone can sit and discuss what the final work is.”

Redford has also added dance to the repertory of Sundance offerings. “We’ve had Martha Clarke and Twyla Tharp come up,” he said shaking his head. “The synergy that goes on here is just incredible. . . .Well, I’m prejudiced.”

The actor grinned: “More than anything I love the idea of skiing and looking at film. There’s nothing else for me.”

But there’s also his own career as actor-director-producer, which at present involves putting the final touches on “The Milagro Beanfield Wars,” a movie about a fight over agricultural water rights. It is scheduled to open in March.

Redford said he was “pleased” with the final result, which he said would be ready to screen in “a few weeks.”

However, he added, “It’s not easy for me to talk about what’s going to happen, I’m more comfortable with the here and now.”

For now, Redford said, “I’ve given up a lot of career time in the last four or five years, and I feel now that everything is pretty well in place.

“Now it’s time for me to get back to my career.”