WASHINGTON TAKES SUNDANCE BY STORM
World Cinema Begins at Home

Washington Life Magazine, April 2nd, 2008

by Danny Glover

I hadn’t been to Sundance since 2004 when I was on the jury, so it was with pleasure that I attended again this year with my producing partner Joslyn Barnes. Braving plunging temperatures and massivesnowfall, as well as the now notorious “Sundance Flu of ’08,” we trekked out for opening night. Robert Redford opened the festival by placing emphasis on what he termed “the trueagents of change” – meaning filmmakers. This notion provided some of the subtext at one of the many interesting panels, “Black in America,” organized by Cara Mertes. The event was standingroom-only. Provocative questions were raised by the panelists and the audience: Were conditions better for black filmmakers now than in the early ’90s? Were black filmmaker any more in control of the means of production than before? And the Elvis Mitchell zinger: “A lot of black filmmakers don’t think of coming [to Park City] because they don’t believe they havea shot. Does Sundance have a responsibility to reach out to them?” We all have a responsibility to reach out to one another and in so doing dig deeper than the idea of diversity to practice genuine inclusiveness. As I stated on the panel, quoting the great Paul Robeson, “It’s not enough for an artist to create the reality he sees, it is incumbent upon him to create the reality he can imagine.” Doesn’t the power of art really lie in cultivating understanding, empathy and connection among us all?

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