Was Sundance just a cash grab for Park City?

The Park Record announced, “Sundance 2021 brings no movie stars, film moguls or corporate bigwigs to fill hotels.”

Is that what it was about? Filling hotels? Seeing stars? Airbnb-ing your second home’s mortgage so you could ski once a year? Enabling corporate takeover of Main Street? Sales Tax revenues? Transient Room Tax?

It sounds so far from what Robert Redford seemed to want in 1978. He wanted a competition for independent American films. He wanted filmmakers to be able to talk about their work. He wanted to provide an opportunity for those people outside the Hollywood system.

The 1978 festival featured a number of films that many of us remember today: Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Midnight Cowboy.

I don’t think Redford ever worried about the fate of the Waldorf Astoria.

Now the Salt Lake Tribune is wondering, Could Sundance Leave Park City?

Granted, Redford was shown the door a couple of years ago. That was all too apparent when he was ushered off the stage during his opening comments at Sundance 2019. Redford has since sold the Sundance Resort to Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners this December. He has said he found the right people to maintain his legacy. I’ll have to trust him on that.

Today, Sundance seems much more like a business transaction that an art project. If the Sundance contract falls through, then so be it. If online streaming allows Netflix and HBO Max to make more money, then so be it. If we really care about the fate of Sundance, we should be worrying about the loss of art this year — not the money.

Yes, many Parkites’ living was made whole by Sundance. Yet, it seems to me the soul of Sundance has been eroding over the years. The foundation was weakened because it is being built on money and not the original purpose.

If we truly want this part of Park City to thrive, maybe we should worry more about the movies and less about the hotels. It’s not about the number of Uber rides a person can sell or how to maximize space in a restaurant. It’s about the movies. It’s about the art.

If it’s not about the art, then it’s a transaction. Those are heartless. We likely need to focus a little more on why Sundacne came her ein the first place if we hope to keep it.