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Robert Redford’s influence on indie films

Scott Myers

• 3 min read
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Amazing that Redford’s vision from nearly 30 years ago is still pretty much the same today. Per Roger Ebert [note the date]:

BY ROGER EBERT / July 5, 1981
Sundance, Utah — Up here above Provo, in the resort he has carved out of a little mountain meadow, Robert Redford is conducting an experiment that Hol­lywood regards with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. He has selected 10 low-budget films that are in the middle-to-late stages of prepara­tion and invited their directors to spend the summer at Sundance working on their scripts in the company of established directors, writers and editors.
On the surface, this seems like an admirable and uncomplicated idea, a cinematic summer camp at which you bring home a screenplay instead of a woodcarving and an Indian belt. But the movie industry is not so sure. Rumors float around that Redford is starting his own studio, that his dream is to be a major producer of independent features, that just as Francis Ford Coppola wants his own major Hollywood studio, so does Redford want his own mini-­studio here on the mountain he is developing.

The truth is apparently somewhere in be­tween. Redford says he has no desire to produce personally any of the movies that are under construction at Sundance. But he might hope that eventually the Sundance Institute, a non­profit foundation headquartered here, will be­come a clearinghouse for independent film­makers working outside the studio system. There are countless summer writers’ workshops nestled away in the wilds of Vermont and Iowa — why not a workshop for filmmakers?

And here we are in 2010 with the Sundance Institute in place and the workshops still running:

The directors lab projects and fellows are:
  • 40 Days of Silence/Saodat Ismailova (writer/director), Uzbekistan
  • Bluebird/Lance Edmands (writer/director), USA
  • Drunktown’s Finest/Sydney Freeland (writer/director), USA
  • Martha Marcy May Marlene/Sean Durkin (writer/director), USA
  • My Favorite Nightmare/Myna Joseph (writer/director), USA
  • The Perfect Moment/Ondi Timoner (director) and Bruce Goodrich (writer), USA
  • The Ruined Cast/Dash Shaw (writer/director), USA
  • Shelter/Kasem Kharsa (writer/director), Egypt/USA
The screenwriters lab projects and fellows are:
  • Aqui Y Alli (Here and There)/Antonio Mendez Esparza (writer/director), Spain/USA
  • Nobody Walks/Ry Russo-Young (co-writer/director) and Lena Dunham (co-writer), USA
  • Run and Jump/Steph Green (co-writer/director) and Alibhe Keogan (co-writer), Ireland/ USA
  • Wolf/Bogdan Mustata (writer/director), Romania
  • Zero Motivation/Talya Lavie (writer/director), Israel
This year’s creative advisers include Robert Redford, Allison Anders, John August, Caleb Deschanel, John Gatins, Keith Gordon, Randa Haines, Ed Harris, Christine Lahti, Doug McGrath, Walter Mosley, Susan Shilliday, Stewart Stern and Audrey Wells.

With the Workshop and Film Festival, Redford has been perhaps the major influencer of indie films in our lifetime. Here is Redford appearing on “Inside the Actor’s Studio”:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

[Part 4 is a duplicate of Par 1]

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Pay particular attention to this last segment where Redford discusses storytelling:

“We were a family of storytellers, great wit, great humor. And they were intelligent… you had to find your own way. If you had a problem, you didn’t come and complain about it, you had to figure it out for yourself. So the way you got information was through storytelling. If I asked a question, I’d be given a story. And I had to figure out what that meant. I was given that as a kid, going to bed at night, I was always told a story. Would tell my kids story until they grew up. And I realized later on in my life how important it really was. I had a very narrow window to look outside the small window I was living in and it was through storytelling.”

This reminds me how in Eastern traditions, the Student seeks out the Teacher and asks a question. The response: A story. Jesus would often respond to a seemingly simple question by providing a parable, forcing the listener to interpret it for themselves. That speaks to one of the magical qualities of stories — multiple dimensions of meaning.

There’s also that line from Redford: “you had to find your own way.” Doesn’t that speak to the heart of being a writer? We have to find our way into and through the story as we craft it into words.

What’s your favorite Redford film, either as actor or director?

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