Next year's Sundance Film Festival is reportedly stepping up in a big way to help those hoping to participate in inauguration gatherings and demonstrations. The Sundance Institute will "facilitate requests" from outside groups seeking to host demonstrations at the Utah festival, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Given the mountain of protest-worthy bullshit that comes along with allowing this President-elect anywhere near the White House, we can most certainly expect a much different tone at Sundance 2017 than, say, the day of President Barack Obama's historic inauguration back in 2009.
"As an arts organization that supports freedom of speech and empowering the individual voice, we always look to create a safe space for artists and will facilitate requests from outside groups that want to host demonstrations at our 2017 festival by connecting them with the city of Park City to organize," a representative for executive director Keri Putnam said Wednesday. Though not official marches or demonstrations have been planned, festival organizers are clearly hoping to provide a platform for concerned artists to voice their frustrations at the dawn of an uncertain era.
The festival is also making a big push for climate change awareness in 2017, including the introduction of the 'New Climate' lineup of films which directly counter many of the President-elect's most troubling campaign promises. This push, festival director John Cooper told THR Wednesday, is both a direct appeal to the President-elect and an effort at getting as many as eyes as possible on what is considered by most to be one of the defining problems of our time.
"This is one of Robert Redford's personal fights," Cooper said Wednesday. "We got a lot of films this year [tackling the issue], and it all worked out. When people are questioning, 'Is it real?,' we have plenty of examples that tell the story in complete and complex ways."
