Reflections on 10 Days at Sundance and Working Towards a Truly Inclusive Creative Journey

quotThrough the Sundance Institute which had been going already for a few years before the festival started nearly 40 years ago we realized that independent artists and storytellers were getting mentored and supported through the lab programs to get their stories told but we needed to also build an audience to see their filmsquot Redford saidamp160 quotThat39s why this festival was createdamp160to open up a twoway street for artists and audiences to connectquotAnd that39s what happenedamp160 Over the years the audience for independent films has grown worldwideamp160 This year nearly 80000 people traveled to Park City Utah to see the films selected by the festival39s curatorial team from the more than 14000 films submitted for the feature film documentary world cinema and short film competitions as well as other quotout of competitionquotamp160screenings of premieres such as the groundbreaking New Frontier section that features VR AR and other new formats for storytelling from the world39s growing independent artist communitiesNo question that artists and audiences were connecting this year even more than at any festival in my memory amp8230 and I39ve been going to the festival for more than 20 years and serving on the Sundance Board of Trustees for 25 years the last six as Chairamp160 At SFF 2019 along with the most positive quotbuzzquot I can remember about the films the words often heard were quotmost diversequot and quotmost inclusivequotamp160 Itamp160was all that and moreIn terms of festival film offerings 2019 marked the first year that the US Dramatic Feature Competition achieved gender parity with 56 of films directed by womenamp160 Of the 112 films in the official selection 40 are directed or codirected by a woman and among the 61 directors in all four competition categories 39 are people of colorWhat differences besides being more representative of the population of artists and audiences do the numbers makeamp160 That was a question my granddaughter 21 and studying film at UCLA asked me after her first few hours at the festivalamp160 She was hearing the positive reviews of so many films and noting the deep engagement in the conversations during the excellent panels and discussions following films and at the filmmaker lodgeMy response to her and others who also observed a difference in this year39s overall program was that just as inclusion and more representative voices make for better government better performing businesses and greater social justice at every level of societies a more inclusive group of storytellers offering new perspectives ideas and stories has a positive impact on both communities amp160artists and audiencesamp160 I felt that so strongly at every screening andamp160at every filmmaker QampampA and I believe that the impact of this work from a more inclusive community of artists will be felt way beyond one festival especially since so many of the films at this year39s festival were bought by studios theatrical distributors Amazon and Netflix and I might add at some of the highest prices ever paid for films helmed by women and people of colorNo surprise then that when the Grand Jury awards for feature and documentary were awarded at the end of the festival all four went to women directors two of whom were women of colorThere was also a profound shift in the press contingent covering the festivalamp160 In the wake of recent studies that show 82 of film reviews are written by white men and noting that this quotlack of inclusion has realworld implicationsquot for how films are received in the press Sundance Executive Director Keri Putnam announced that this year after overhauling its press accreditation process 63 of press passes went to underrepresented groups including women people of color members of the LGBTQIA community and people with disabilitiesNone of this just happens of courseamp160 Increasing representation from underrepresented communities means making inclusion a strategic priorityamp160amp160Keri the Sundance Institute team and the board have done that for many years nowamp160 This year39s festival manifested this commitment and showed impressive progress towards true parity in the representation of stories and storytellers but there is more work to be done to ensure that every step of a creative journey from artist to audience is more equitable for allTo help further identify the barriers to full parity across the board of all underrepresented communities of artists and storytellers the Sundance Institute partnered once again with Dr Stacy Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at USC to analyze the data on the Sundance Lab programs and the festival selections that the Institute has been collecting for 9 years amp160data on race and genderamp160 The research was shared publicly at the festival and tells the fuller story of the challenges remainingThe opening to the pipeline for women and persons of color is getting more equitable but getting their stories to bigger audiences is where more work is neededThe good news is that the total percentage of female USbased dramatic submissions to Sundance lab programs and the festival has increased but not yet at the 51 that women represent in the general populationamp160 Directors of color submitted 29 of dramatic films and while the acceptances of films by directors of color exceeded parity in short films and was at 38 of features with a director of color there is need to address the barriers to entry at the beginning of the creative journeyamp160 Across all accepted features episodic projects and short films only 18 were directed by women of colorIt39s important to see where the pipeline failsamp160 While noting that women and people of color are well represented now in the Institute39s labs and artist support programs amp160more than half of the participants in the Sundance Institute39s Directors Lab last year were women 55 and people of color 60 amp160the pipeline starts to fail on inclusive measurements when the artists advance to Hollywood and the mainstream film industryPeople of color directed only 22 of topgrossing films in 2018amp160 Moreamp160telling and more challenging is this number only 4 were directed by women That percentage has stayed at 4 in spite of improvement at every entry point from labs to festivals for women and people of coloramp160 In fact for women of color the drop off is even more significantamp160 According to another report from Annenberg of the 1335 directors of the most popular 1200 films of 2018 only nineamp160were women of coloramp160 One of them however was the awesome Ava DuVernay pictured below who directed the blockbuster Wrinkle in Time for Disney and just signed a multiyear multimilliondollaramp160deal with Warner Brothersamp160 Go Avaamp160 She is committed to opening up opportunities every step of the way for other women and people of colorAnother step was taken to address this disparity amp160the 4 challengeamp160amp160announced by Dr Stacy Smith at the festival challenging every actor producer and studio to commit to working with or hiring a woman director in the next 18 monthsamp160 That would significantly raise the percentage of women with the opportunity to prove their value in the marketplaceThe report concludes that quotas a leader among festivals Sundance can showcase upcoming talent nurture budding directorsamp160and launch careers Ultimately however the responsibility for carrying this talent into wider industry work must be borne by othersamp160 Until the pipeline to TV topgrossing filmsamp160and higherbudgeted entertainment is widened to allow more diverse talent through these figures will tell the story of talent left untapped and stories untoldquotTalking about the study findings director Lena Waithe said quotGood stories depend on diverse perspectivesamp160 Those perspectives will only be supported with intentional outreach and support for intersectional voices across the spectrumamp160 The audience is there to support good stories but we have to work harder to see those stories brought to lightquotI agree wholeheartedlyamp160 I saw so many films that elevate explore expose and engage both features and documentariesamp160at this year39s festivalamp160 Over the next few weeksamp160I39ll be writing about some of themamp160 Until then vote with your ticket purchases and TV and streaming choicesamp160Building and strengthening a connection between independent artists storytellers from all communities and an audience was the twoway street that Redford envisioned and one that the Sundance Film Festival curators and Institute teams are committed to continuing and strengthening doing the work to make that creative journey more equitable for artists and more valued for audiences everywhereMore Highlights from the FestivalHow Sundance Became a More Inclusive and Diverse Film Festivalamp160VarietyStudy Shows Promising Directorial Pipeline for Women and People of Color Sundance BlogFemale Filmmakers Dominate Sundance Film Festival The GuardianYour Guide to Latino Movies Series and Shorts at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival RemezclaSundance Wrap Amazon Takes Control of an Explosive Market Hollywood ReporterPhoto credit for Robert Redford at top amp160Rick Egan The Salt Lake TribuneClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Reflections on 10 Days at Sundance and Working Towards a Truly Inclusive Creative Journey

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Pat Mitchell

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Reflections on 10 Days at Sundance and Working Towards a Truly Inclusive Creative Journey

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