Top

film

Stories

 

Sundance's Rebel Yell

The festival goes back to its roots — or does it?

I had been asking people all week what they thought of Sundance's anti-establishment branding, and no one had come out as guilelessly supportive of it as Radnor. Privately, they'd roll their eyes and bemoan the self-serving hypocrisy of a festival that accommodates so many boldface names and indie clichés pushing its rebel credibility. "There's no aggression in any of these films," protested a producer who just completed a five-figure movie, and who singled out the surprisingly conventional, Sundance cliché–ridden NEXT films for using the "freedoms" afforded by new technology "for evil instead of good."

Bernard recalled a conversation he'd had with Sundance's Groth. "I said, 'Trevor, what exactly does rebellion mean? Are you rebelling against your mom? What's the deal?' He said it was a shorthand, and there had been a long meeting as to what the meaning of rebellion was. Which I never quite got from him."

Fanning and Stewart as The Runaways' Cherie Currie and Joan Jett
Fanning and Stewart as The Runaways' Cherie Currie and Joan Jett
Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo in Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, the biggest sale at Sundance this year
Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo in Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, the biggest sale at Sundance this year

Related Content

More About

Like this Story?

Get the Screeners: Screening previews, news, reviews and features on everything from the silver screen.

Make sign up easy with:

That the festival had subjected the decision to be "rebellious" to a bureaucratic process would seem to validate the complaints.

But when speaking on the record, many were more diplomatic. Hope referenced James Fallows' Atlantic essay "How America Will Rise Again," with its emphasis on "the peculiarly American cycle of crisis and renewal," as a parallel to how the indie industry can heal itself.

"We can be cynical about going back to our roots," Hope said, but just as the '70s American new wave rose out of Hollywood's post-television '60s bloat and panic, "there's always a rise after a fall, a cleaning house."

Durra nodded vigorously. "Look, if someone told me to rebel, I'd be, like, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand what that means, I'm just going to make my film,' " she said. "But when people see that a film like mine was chosen as a 'rebellion' film, they might understand that rebellion is just a move away from enforced stereotypes. It's just about cleaning house."

The consensus is that this housecleaning was overdue — for Sundance and the movie business in general. "Things are changing dramatically," Bernard acknowledged. "But I think they're changing for the good."

<< Previous Page | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
 
 

Find A Movie

for free stuff, film info & more!

Most Popular Stories

Box Office

  1. Marvel's The Avengers, 55.6 mil, 457.7 mil
  2. Battleship, 25.5 mil, 25.5 mil
  3. The Dictator, 17.4 mil, 24.5 mil
  4. Dark Shadows, 12.6 mil, 50.7 mil
  5. What to Expect When You're Expecting, 10.5 mil, 10.5 mil
  6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 3.2 mil, 8.2 mil
  7. The Hunger Games, 3.0 mil, 391.6 mil
  8. Think Like a Man, 2.7 mil, 85.8 mil
  9. The Lucky One, 1.8 mil, 56.9 mil
  10. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, 1.6 mil, 25.5 mil
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

Trailers

Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places

    Voice Places

    Discover restaurants, nightlife, travel, shopping...

  • VOICE Daily Deals

    VOICE Daily Deals

    Get 50 to 90% off every day on restaurants, movies, massages...

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    More than 10,000 of the BEST things to eat, drink, and experience

  • My Voice Nation

    My Voice Nation

    Join the Village Voice community and get exclusive deals and info

  • Happy Hour

    Happy Hour

    Your local Happy Hour guide at your fingertips

or

Log in or Sign up

Social Connect:

Use your favorite account to access My Voice Nation.


Use your My Voice Nation account to log in:





Forgot password?
or

Sign Up or Log in

Social Connect:

Sign up for My Voice Nation with your preferred network.


Sign up for a My Voice Nation account:



Privacy policy