Word: redfords
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...America's 25 Most Influential People, and I know most readers have their own ideas about who should and should not be on the list [TIME 25, June 17]. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about people such as William Julius Wilson and Stephen Covey. I was glad to see Robert Redford and Toni Morrison included. I even thought the controversial choices, like Louis Farrakhan and Michael Hammer, were O.K. too. They certainly are influential today. ELAINE PONDANT Carrollton, Texas...
Look at an American independent film, and chances are the background trees will be in bloom. You can thank Robert Redford for that. Sundance Film Festival, the Park City, Utah, showcase he took over in 1985, is now so crucial for indie auteurs that many plan their movies around it. "They'll shoot in the spring," says Todd Solondz, whose Welcome to the Dollhouse won Sundance's top prize this year, "then edit in the summer and finish by the fall deadline so they can be shown at Sundance in January...
...springtime for off-Hollywood film, with maverick hits like Fargo, Flirting with Disaster, The Brothers McMullen--and Pulp Fiction by that spawn of the indies, Quentin Tarantino. Redford had a fine, leathery hand in all that too. In '85 some 50 independent films were made; last year there were 700. They earned $735 million at the U.S. box office, nearly triple the gross in 1992. Redford's festival created an aura that welcomed young directors and persuaded Hollywood to do the same. Says indie producer John Pierson: "Sundance totally dominates the independent landscape...
...would a hunky Hollywood star want to promote un-Hollywood films? "I've never been at ease with formula," says Redford, 58. "And around 1980 films were getting more formulaic, more like cartoons. Diversity was in danger. Helping independent film was a way to keep the industry broad." So in 1981 he created the Sundance Institute. It was host to powwows with indie and industry heavyweights, gave grants to some films and in February launched a Sundance cable channel. The institute has even gone global, inviting foreign talent to Utah...
...Redford frets that independent film now has a "Belle Epoque fashion." But if it's lucky, it will last as long, and weather as smartly, as its most cogent cheerleader...