For over a quarter century, two fests have existed alongside each other in Park City, Utah’s Main Street. The Sundance Film Festival brought the world to the quaint township, and in response to its exclusivity, Slamdance was established to shine a light on more first time filmmakers. This year, Sundance spread out its programming from its usual Eccles and Egyptian Theaters etc all the way to ones in Salt Lake City. Slamdance remained concentrated at The Treasure Mountain Inn. Many people from around the globe brave the snow and blowing their bank accounts to get a taste of what these fests have to offer. From A-list stars to hopefuls with no credentials, Sundance and Slamdance have thousands hoping to make a dent, get some attention and sell their projects.
Both fests have vowed to help bring more intersectionality to their events, after decades of “diversity initiatives” not moving the needle much. Sundance brought their **#WomenatSundance** event with people like Pat Mitchell of Ted Talks, Hillary Clinton, Eva Longoria, Tessa Thompson and more. With stats from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and USC Annenberg, Refinery 29 showed us that there are more women directors at the fest and that films directed by women do perform at the box office. Slamdance provided discounted entry fees for Women of Color to change their numbers. According to a Times Up and USC Annenberg study called “Inclusion in Film Festivals”, only 8% of films across five top film festivals are directed by Women of Color. This has to change for anyone who stands for real intersectionality.
Stand-out films from Sundance make heads turn and jaws drop. One this year was **_Zola_**, based on a series of tweets known as #TheStory. Director Janzica Bravo takes us on a romp with two strippers through Florida. The film was picked up by Sony and A24. The big seller this time around was a feature called Palm Springs with a 17.5M USD haul. Many big sales from Sundance have resulted in flops. We’ll see how this one does. Woman rockers and filmmakers Carrie Brownstein and Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, were on hand to present their female friendship “documentary” **_The Nowhere Inn_** to sold out showings.
[The Wind. A Documentary Thriller - trailer](https://vimeo.com/374385485) from [KFF Sales&Promotion](https://vimeo.com/user28384495) on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com).
Slamdance had a more relaxed atmosphere and gave us a look at life for a couple interesting women outside of The US. These real women included a female poet lumberjack, named Teresa, in the “documentary thriller” called **_The Wind_** by director Michal Bielawski and a teenage car spinner named Kayla in the documentary **_An Ordinary People_** by director Ernest Nkosi.
Other offsite highlights were examples of multiculturalism. One was #APAParkCity - Asian-American Creators at both fests, with a kick-off event hosted by Asia Society and Gold House. Latinx House held events to show the dearth access and opportunities given to this particular group of Women of Color. Blackhouse held events to showcase Black filmmaking talent. Charles King’s MACRO House gave boosts to creators of color. Woodside Collective hosted their fellows and fed armies, led by Jennifer 8 Lee and friends. UTA House (United Talent Agency) held a talk with Haifaa al-Mansour**,** Director Effie T. Brown**,** Producer, Poppy Hanks, Senior Vice President, Development & Production, MARCO, hosted by Shirley Li of The Atlantic.
Other learning opportunities included official Sundance panels, such as one about finding the right partners for your film with Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch and producers Michael Y. Chow, head of XRM Media (with his heads of development Sue Turley and Bonnie Bucker) who’s brought us films like Fruitvale Station and Dope, and Arcadiy Golubovich of Primeridian as Silicon Valley looks at ways to leave personal legacies through independent film and content.
Gucci threw a party to draw attention to the plight of child brides with Chime for Change #LetGirlsDream was the theme of the night. A short film was screened by director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Here are some fest-ing takeaways from others:
> The 7 Totems of [#Sundance](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sundance?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw):
>
> 1/Scam an entire entourage into a party y’all were definitely not invited to.
>
> 2/Fall on some ice right after warning someone not to fall on some ice.
>
> (1/4)
>
> — Alex & Ra (@Aleekza) [January 29, 2020](https://twitter.com/Aleekza/status/1222325541090365440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Now that you are armed with all of this knowledge, start collecting your warm fuzzies and begin planning for next year.
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