Sundance reflects central US economic concerns
PARK CITY, Utah: The Sundance Film Festival opened last night with four features, including a documentary examining the US housing crisis, the fractured American dream and values humbled by today’s lacklustre economy.
The documentary, The Queen of Versailles, follows self-made billionaires Jackie and David Siegel, who at first glance may not seem in touch with many Americans who have struggled in the current, downbeat economy.
The film opens with the couple constructing their dream house: a mansion named “Versailles” inspired by the French palace.
But director Lauren Greenfield said the story eventually came to resemble many of the lessons learnt by those who have lost their homes and jobs and experienced the effects of the economic crisis. “The American dream has always been this idea of homeownership,” Greenfield said. But the film shows the Siegels dealing with the impact of the economy, and “how they downsize and cope with the situation”, eventually rediscovering what is important to them.
“They do take on this everyman quality that ends up putting them nearer to us in terms of the overreaching of America and downsizing and getting back to core values,” said Greenfield.
Versailles is one of several films here that show Americans tackling problems associated with the economy and broken dreams.
“It’s no secret that times are dark and grim,” Robert Redford, whose Sundance Institute for independent filmmaking backs the festival, the largest gathering for US independent film-makers, told reporters yesterday.
Overall, there are more than 100 fiction and documentary films showing at the festival that runs for the 10 days in the ski resort town of Park City, Utah, east of Salt Lake City.
Other opening night screenings included two fictional tales, Hello I Must Be Going starring Melanie Lynskey as a demoralised, divorced 35-year-old who moves back in with her parents and Wish You Were Here, an Australian film starring Joel Edgerton as a man clinging to a shattered family.
Searching For Sugar Man, competing in the world documentary section, completed the opening night line-up. It is one of many films here centred on musicians and shows two fans looking into the mystery of how a 1970s rock icon declined into obscurity.
Festival director John Cooper said the opening night films reflect the choice of more experienced storytelling at a festival that prides itself on being a launch pad for careers and for premiering low-budget hits such as Little Miss Sunshine and documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
“Partly we look for film-makers who are seasoned,” he said addressing opening night. “We like a film-maker who knows the ropes – something that will play well.”
Coming into the festival, other films on which audiences and buyers are focused include Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, Red Lights with Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro and Stephen Frears’ Lay The Favorite starring Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-jones. – Reuters