Sundance Film Festival Press Welcome Opening Day 1

Sundance Film Festival Press Welcome Opening Day 1 with Sundance CEO Keri Putnam and the Sundance Film Festival Director Tabitha Jackson. The Press welcome took place virtually January 28, 2021, at 12pm EST and was moderated by Gina Duncan who is the Producing Director at Sundance.

In the beginning, Keri welcomed and thanked all the members of the press who attended this invite-only experience for those who are accredited Sundance 2021 press across a number of media outlets indie to industry.

"We're thankful for all of you who are returning and for so many first-timers who are with us today and throughout the week. I just want to amplify was a crucial part of our ecosystem that you are helping amplify the work that we showcase here at Sundance. Without you the artists would have such a harder time getting discovered and reaching audiences so that means so much to us.

Also, beyond Sundance, you are such a critical part to the culture, media makers, reporters, critics, and editors you are helping set the agenda and setting this course while centralizing around the arts. So I just want to say thank you and welcome!"

- Keri Putnam (CEO, Sundance Film Festival)

Gina Duncan: Tammy Reese from New York Women in Film and Television asks: Sundance is inclusive and diverse more than ever, what overall goes into the process of creating a festival that is welcoming to all?

Tabitha Jackson: Ooh, that's a good one! It's really important Tammy that we could feel that even in this online space that we were opening the doors and we wanted to be welcoming.

We wanted people to feel safe and that they belong to a community even if they are coming for the very first time just to see a film. Of course, in the real-life space of Park City, we have been thinking very carefully about what it is to welcome people and keep a safe space.

In the online environment, we had to think of a whole set of procedures that double down on that. We did some years ago institute a code of conduct that has a different sensibility for Sundance to take responsibility as individuals and to have a respectful place.

Keri Putman added to the question stating that much thanks go to the team and vendors at Sundance. Everyone, including moderators and partners, goes through training. Keri is very impressed by the entire team that manifests inclusion and diversity at the festival.

During the press conference, Tabitha mentioned that artists are the same as anyone else who is dealing with tragedy and an uprise for racial justice too. Also, artists are victims of economic crisis. This all has made film submission numbers were slightly down. A part of that is because production stopped in the United States for quite some time.

However, during the pandemic artists became more creative and began to make art by any means necessary. Many of the Sundance selected films were made during the pandemic.

With distance casting or distance filming the creativity that came through during a pandemic has been very interesting. Tabitha expressed that she has been very pleased with the submissions and film selections. Programs this year are which isn't a bad thing. It allowed the festival to emerge and give each film its moment.

Tabitha did an epic self-plug during the press conference for everyone to be sure to check out this awesome film talk event. Details are below:

THE BIG CONVERSATION: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT: A PERSONAL JOURNEY THROUGH RACE, HISTORY, AND FILMMAKING

“History is not the past, it’s the present.” -James Baldwin

James Baldwin’s words reverberate throughout Raoul Peck’s work, his activism, and his remarkable filmmaking career. Peck joins Festival Director Tabitha Jackson in a conversation about white supremacy, history, creative expression, and his personal journey from the Academy Award–nominated I Am Not Your Negro to his upcoming work Exterminate All the Brutes, which interrogates over 600 years of history— from the Native American genocide to the systemized enslavement of Africans, to Hitler’s extermination of the European Jews—a history to which our present is inextricably bound.

Raoul Peck is an Academy Award–nominated director, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Haiti, then raised in the Congo, U.S., France, and Germany, Peck is among the most significant filmmakers of our time, recognized for his historical, political, and artistic work. His films include The Man by the Shore, Lumumba, Sometimes in April, Moloch Tropical, The Young Karl Marx, and the documentary films Lumumba, Death of a Prophet; Fatal Assistance, and I Am Not Your Negro. The latter won an Emmy, a BAFTA, and César.

View the full Sundance Day 1 Virtual Press Conference HERE.