Opinion Robert Redford’s legacy: An indie film movement that began at Sundance

While individual geniuses often become catalysts for major creative movements, they can only take root and thrive in the right ecosystem. For Soderbergh, it was the Sundance Film Festival in Utah which provided the necessary fertile ground. The festival — originally called the Utah/US Film Festival — itself owed its burgeoning reputation as Ground Zero for indie film talent to the vision of Robert Redford, the screen legend and filmmaker who had founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 in Utah’s Provo Valley to support independent filmmakers. Named for the charming, scrappy outlaw Redford played in his breakout film, 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the institute took over management in 1985 of what had until then been a fairly bland festival chiefly featuring retrospectives. Under Redford’s guidance, the event did not just get a new name; it underwent a complete overhaul, the focus shifting from celebrating the past to exploring the possibilities of the future. A series of filmmaking labs were established, beginning with the Directors’ Lab in 1981, with the idea that those with a story to tell should be able to, at the very least, realise it on the big screen.

All this was happening at the same time that Redford, who remained a busy actor, was launching a filmmaking career of his own. Beloved for his all-American good looks and warm screen persona, Redford was an easy choice to play the romantic lead in films like The Way We Were (1973) and Out of Africa (1985), but there was always something in him that kicked at the notion of being reduced to his face. It may have had something to do with his early exposure on the stage and television, where he played a wide variety of roles unconstrained by his handsomeness. Or, maybe it was the same yearning for the artistic life that had once led him to leave college to pursue (unsuccessfully) a career in art in Europe.

As much as this streak of rebelliousness shaped his choice of roles throughout his career — leading him to pursue projects like The Sting (1972), All The President’s Men (1976), The Natural (1984), Sneakers (1992) and All Is Lost (2013) — it defined his oeuvre as a filmmaker. He had little interest in the blockbuster films that were beginning to replace the auteur-driven fare of the 1960s and early 1970s Hollywood. Ordinary People (1980), his first feature as director, told a story of grief that was several shades darker than most mainstream films of the day. It won him an Oscar for Best Director (as well as Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Timothy Hutton), but the point was never just about winning hardware that could be proudly displayed on a mantle. It was about creating a legacy built on storytelling that was not afraid of the complicated and the offbeat.

This vision was more than realised at Sundance, which launched the careers of some of the most daring and creative minds working in cinema today, including Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, the Coen brothers, Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler. In that sense, Redford the institution builder was simply an extension of Redford the actor and filmmaker who used his tremendous clout and goodwill — and his millions — to push the cause of cinema and foster talent that would otherwise have gone unrecognised. Those who love cinema and those who pursue this uniquely demanding art in the face of overwhelming odds owe much to Redford, for he helped keep the faith alive. As a nursery for indie cinema, if Sundance has few parallels, it is because there are few others like Redford who use the megawattage of their stardom to shine the light on others.

pooja.pillai@expressindia.com