Sundance Film Festival: A Shocking Surprise

It's off to my second year as a Sundance Film Festival full time volunteer. Every January, Park City, Utah transforms itself into little Hollywood as it hosts the annual Sundance Film Festival. Meanwhile, a chosen few wannabe filmmakers participate in Robert Redford's original vision of Sundance Institute - the numerous writers' and filmmakers' workshops held at Sundance Resort, about an hour from Salt Lake City, Utah.

My reason for volunteering at Sundance Film Festival is simple: to give back to Robert Redford for all the years of helping to save Austin, Texas from environmental destruction by developers. I met Robert Redford while he was filming Indecent Proposal in Las Vegas. At the time, Austin environmentalists organized the "Save Our Springs" coalition to stop developers from polluting the natural Barton Springs that feeds into Town Lake in the heart of downtown Austin. Mr. Redford made several public appearances in Austin in support of Save Our Springs and he was gracious enough to meet with me in Las Vegas to let me thank him and learn how I could do more for Barton Springs.

I was completely shocked during my first Sundance Film Festival in 2007. It is the most exciting event I have ever attended, but not at all what I imagined as the vision of Robert Redford or something he would enjoy. What started out to be an informal venue for unknown independent filmmakers is now a venue for major movie stars, a barrage of vendors including those not officially affiliated with the Sundance Film Festival, streets full of young, gorgeous dolly divas waiting to be discovered, media trucks from all over the world, and traffic jams despised by the locals. To say it is wild and crazy is a complete understatement. It is a giant mixmaster of moviemakers and movie lovers, swirling around in circles for two weeks, with only adrenaline keeping the body going.