What Does It Mean To Be A "Sundance Rock Star"?

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• Eric | December 5, 2011 10:31 AMReply

  Chaz: I'm not saying that the festival lineup is mandated by said friendships, but rather that, because many of these filmmakers have played Sundance in the past, they are naturally friendly with its programmers. And I don't think anything is wrong with that. I also firmly believe that, while most festival programmers actively program bad movies for various reasons, they also (at least at this festival) don't accept anything solely based on existing relationships. So it's not JUST the friendship that counts, nor do you need that friendship to get into Sundance. I think it's more that the friendship happens as a natural result of getting into the festival.

• chaz | December 5, 2011 11:04 AM

  I think you protest a little too much. At a festival where celebrity films already consume programming space which unknowns consider priceless, it's a little strange to be told that these friendships are inevitable and that they don't in slightest affect programming decisions, that the filmmakers and the producers who are back year after year are just better than everybody else. Maybe there are, but that's all the more reason to keep everyone at arm's length. And if you really believe that Sundance doesn't accept anything based on existing relationships, I have a bridge a sell.

• nancy olmez | December 2, 2011 10:59 AMReply

  It means your friends with Trevor Groth usually

• chaz | December 5, 2011 9:45 AM

  I can't speak to Trevor Groth's conduct or his relationships, he may be a model of probity and disinterested programming for all I know, but it would be entirely inappropriate and unethical for any festival director to maintain friendships with festival applicants, either directors or producers. That Mr. Kohn sees nothing wrong if the films and the friendships go "hand in hand" (see his response below) is remarkable. This is rather like the other story in indiewire, which finds Scott Rudin and Dave Denby corresponding on a first-name basis, and nobody thinks twice about how inappropriate this kind of relationship is.

• Eric Kohn | December 2, 2011 3:59 PM

  Nancy, I'm not crazy about these kind of hit-and-run observations. Is the implication that Groth only invites people he likes? And does that invalidate the work of the filmmakers in question? If Groth likes the movies these people make, so what if he's also friends with them? Don't those two things go hand in hand?