This January, shortly following winter break, a group of students will be attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The festival takes place from January 19-29.
Students underwent a brief application process to receive entry into the OBU Sundance program. Anyone can apply, and students accepted receive either mass communications, speech communications or English credit.
The Sundance website summarizes the Institute as “a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences. Through its programs, the Institute seeks to discover, support, and inspire independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world and to introduce audiences to their new work.”
“Filmmakers want to have a chance to present there because the filmmaker industry descends onto Sundance,” said Rebecca Jones, associate professor of communications. ”Those filmmakers hope their work gets picked up for production and distribution.”
Sundance is a highly competitive festival, often heralded as the most prestigious film festival in America.
“I’m extremely excited to have the opportunity to go on this trip,” said Caleb Smoke, a junior political science major from Pine Bluff, Ark.
Smoke has been an avid film enthusiast for the last seven years.
“Sundance has always been a dream of mine, and it’s so crazy to see it finally being a reality,” Smoke said.
Not only will students have the opportunity to see films that directors have poured their passion and creativity into, but they will also be given the chance to attend the Windrider forum each morning they are there. The Windrider forum gives emerging filmmakers a chance to show just how much their independent films reflect the values of creativity, compassion and respect. Visual media is the most common form of storytelling in today’s culture, and Windrider harnesses that method and challenges forum attendees to delve deeper into the workings of film.
“We don’t have a film program, so we don’t have film majors, but we certainly have students who are interested in film. Going to Sundance for those students is a big deal,” said Doug Sonheim, chair of the Department of Language and Literature. This is Sonheim’s third year attending Sundance. He is looking forward to attending Sundance this year not only with the group of OBU students but also with his son.
Often times, the cost of Sundance is a major obstacle for those who want to attend the festival. The most prestigious film festival often comes with many “prestigious” people trying to get into the festival.
“We’ve been really fortunate to have funding made possible to us. We had a generous donor, Taylor King, the principle partner of a local law industry, who provided funding to help continue this program,” Jones said.
With the cost of Sundance being so high, this is an extreme relief and blessing for students with their hearts set on Sundance.
“I think he sees value in the program, which has allowed us to continue going to Sundance,” Jones said.
For more information on Sundance or films being shown at the festival, visit www.sundance.org.
If you are interested in the Windrider forum and all that they have to offer, discover more at www.windriderforum.info.
Students interested in attending Sundance in 2018 will have the opportunity to meet with a team in the spring to talk about the festival and learn more about the program.
By Will Blase, staff writer
