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Insider Conversation with Geoffrey Gilmore

With the ’07 Sundance Film Festival now in full swing, Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore shares his thoughts on the how this year’s lineup fits into the history of independent film, how Sundance is celebrating the emergence of a new arena, and what he hopes you’ll take with you when you leave Park City.

Insider: This is your 17th year as Director of the Sundance Film Festival. How many films have you watched in that time?
Gilmore: It’s almost impossible to know for sure, but my best guess is that it’s over 15,000.

“The fact that films like An Inconvenient Truth and Super Size Me can reach so many people suggests that there is an audience for films about specific broad-based social and environmental themes.” — Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore

Insider: During your tenure, you’ve witnessed the explosion of independent film – both creatively and in the marketplace. In the films at this year’s Festival, how do you see that evolution of American independent film continuing?
Gilmore: I’m sure not everyone would agree with me, but I think there’s been a gradual and graceful evolution of independent film over the years and I particularly see it this year when it seems we’ve entered a new phase. The independent world seems to be maturing in terms of subject matter and also a new level of sophistication in the craft. We’re seeing work that encompasses broader visions and spirit. I really do have a sense of a new form of American independent film as an engaged cinema.

Insider: Many of the narrative films in the Independent Film Competition this year use languages other than English. Is this part of what you mean by a more “engaged cinema”?
Gilmore: That’s definitely part of if, but it’s not just the use of other languages. I see filmmakers confronting both personal and social issues and they’re also seeking solutions. It’s reflective of a more engaged America in a post-9/11 world, and we’re starting to see filmmakers contemplate not only a sense that the world’s about to change, but also how it will be changed.

Insider: Do you mean that you’re seeing more activist filmmaking?
Gilmore: Yes, although it’s not necessarily activist in an ideological sense. These aren’t films about political revolution – they’re more about social evolution, and they seem to be reflecting a self-conscious decision to try to change things on an individual, grassroots level. It’s about a set of issues directly related to individual lifestyle, i.e. the effects of climate change on our daily lives, the personal repercussions of the war, etc. I see the ‘activist’ films moving out of a narrow niche, and I think that speaks to a more general appreciation of the state we currently find ourselves in, which I think includes a feeling that change is possible.

Insider: Do you also see a parallel evolution of the audience appetite for these new kinds of films?
Gilmore: The fact that films like An Inconvenient Truth and Super Size Me can reach so many people suggests that there is an audience for films about specific broad-based social and environmental themes.

Insider: Specifically in documentary, do you think the expanding audience is directly related to the way the films are being made?
Gilmore: Absolutely. There used to be a very compartmentalized documentary arena – social and political cinema, TV docs, and certain auteurs. We’ve most definitely moved into new territory – thematically and stylistically – and audiences are responding. Both the filmmaking itself and the new level of audience engagement are alternatives to the old state.

Insider: This is second time ever you’ve chosen to open the Festival with a documentary – Chicago 10. Why was this film a fitting choice to open the Festival?
Gilmore: I had to ask myself if this would be a film that shows boomers once again proclaiming the importance of their own existence. But that is exactly what this film [Chicago 10] doesn’t do. It’s a film about the kinds of risks people take to create social change and in that sense it’s inspirational and completely relevant to today.

Insider: This is the inaugural year of the New Frontier program. Why is this the right moment to add this element to the Festival?
Gilmore: The American avant-garde has a long and checkered history. In a lot of ways, remnants of the old avant-garde passed away in the late ‘80s. In the last decade we’ve seen a whole new synthesis between the art world, film world, and technology. There really is a new arena being established. I think this arena will offer an exciting range of experimental and innovative work that will speak to those beyond the traditional avant-garde.

Insider: Do you think audiences are ready for this kind of work?
Gilmore: I do. The climate for aesthetic change may be fueled in the same way that social change is. There is an engagement and an openness with new forms. Limits of the past have faded, and that creates a sense of optimism that new things are possible. It’s not dissimilar from the way that the technological revolution is a constant inspiration to artists, audiences – to everyone. A big part of this is the collective acknowledgement that we don’t know exactly what the end of the revolution will be or what it will mean. For change to occur, there needs to first be a sense of the possible and right now this realm of film, art, and technology seems limitless.

Insider: What do you hope people will take away from the Festival this year?
Gilmore: I hope people will come away having found that Sundance is still a place for discovery and a place that revitalizes and energizes. What I love to hear is that someone returned home completely inspired by what they’ve seen. I want to hear that they went home and wrote, that their experience here gave them a strong sense of all that is possible.