Sundance’s Raison d’Etre

The Sundance Film Festival has its critics, of course. Indy producers complain that the Utah-based festival has become too enamored of big-budget Hollywood types in recent years, and big-budget Hollywood types grouse that they can’t get a film shown there unless it stars Parker Posey. But Kenneth Turan thinks that Robert Redford’s festival has found its niche, and it has little to do with budget size: Sundance is the place for films which just don’t seem to fit anywhere else, and its organizers have never abandoned their effort to keep the event fresh and exciting.