Thank you, Sundance! This year’s 40th edition produced so many great moments.
Didn’t it seem fitting to learn mid-festival that first-time director Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” which premiered here last year, is nominated for a Best Picture and Best Screenplay Oscar, a perfect snapshot of Sundance’s sweeping cultural and cinematic influence? Or that “Past Lives” producer Christine Vachon was in town when the news broke, participating in the forum, “Forty Years of Taking Chances” at the Egyptian? The forum title could be a Sundance slogan, after all.
In its earliest Park City days, Sundance featured “maybe 25 films,” and “about 100 people wandering around,” Robert Redford recalled in a recent NPR interview. Chamber staff — the festival’s first volunteers — hand-painted street banners and sold tickets from shoeboxes in a rented double decker London bus in the Alpha Beta (now Fresh Market) lot on Park Avenue. To keep the festival atmosphere going, organizers asked us for a filmmaker party every night, and all our Main Street restaurant members enthusiastically pitched in.
The plot behind our small out-of-the-way mountain town and its tiny festival growing together so brilliantly over the years could be a submission to the documentary category.
Today, Park City’s spirit and beauty lies at the heart of the Sundance legacy, co-starring with the festival’s outstanding films and making our town synonymous with artistic excellence. It is a distinction few places can rival. We are very fortunate.
Economically, the festival is a winner in every category. More than 100,000 people attend the event annually, approximately 40 percent from out of state. Visitors spend an estimated $135 million in Utah during the festival, dollars that would probably otherwise stay at home.
More than 2,700 Utahns can attribute their jobs to Sundance, jobs generating almost $90 million in wages. In total, Sundance adds $165 million to the state’s domestic product and $18 million in local and state taxes.
Behind the numbers shimmers the soul-stirring magnetism that Sundance exerts. The many who have discovered Park City because of the festival bring talent, creativity, artistic vision and an environmental sensibility that benefits us all.
We are a community that expresses itself in the way we live — in our kindness to each other, our admiration and respect for human cultures, our vision for a sustainable future, our love for and devotion to the land.
I believe these deeply rooted artistic impulses are informed by the spirit of Sundance, a spirit which lingers long after the festival is concluded. Our old mining town would be a very different place if not for four decades of Sundance’s influence.
It’s notable that we are also celebrating 100 years of film in Utah during this year’s 40th edition of Sundance. Nature has graced the entire state with variety, drama, and beauty, presenting visual artists with a stunning canvas for allegory and metaphor that resonates with their audiences — us. Our unique dynamic of natural setting and cinematic art is yet another reason to feel grateful.
In celebrating Sundance, let’s applaud the artistry while savoring the festival’s impact on our cultural identity as Parkites. From a shoebox of paper tickets to the Oscar stage, 40 years of Sundance — and 100 years of film in Utah — testify to the power of art to shape a community. Thank you, Sundance!
Jennifer Wesselhoff is the president and CEO of the Park City Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau.