‘Commercial’ Films at Sundance? That’s Not What It’s About

I was amused by Kenneth Turan’s plea for the Sundance Film Festival’s dramatic competition to be more “commercial” (“Shadow Over Sundance,” Feb. 3). The reason that Sundance exists is to resist such categories. The pressure is already so intense to conform to the standards set by Hollywood studios that it is actually a breath of (icy) fresh air to be able to view so many films that do not adhere to conceptions of the “well-made screenplay.”

At the turn of the last century, the well-made play almost obliterated theater as an art form. The creative interventions of Ibsen and Strindberg changed all that, and led the way for innovations in playwriting that informed the fledgling motion picture industry as it turned to narrative.

The winners in the category of dramatic film at Sundance may not satisfy the rank-and-file filmgoer, but winning there demonstrates excellence born of daring and experimentation. Let’s leave commerciality where it belongs, and protect any venue that celebrates unconventionality and risk.

LEIGH KENNICOTT, Instructor, screenwriting, University of Colorado, Boulder

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If you’re there to be entertained and you want to see mature, accomplished films, perhaps you could stick to the Premieres section and let others advise you on which of the newbies are worth seeing. But to make first-time filmmakers compete for the Grand Jury Prize with the likes of Victor Nunez or Paul Schrader would be wrong.

I’m delighted that Sundance preserves a central spotlight for newcomers. I can’t think of another approach that would be fair.

AMY DAWES, Hollywood

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Turan suggests that the Sundance Film Festival has an anti-commercial bias in selecting entries for its drama category and uses “Gods and Monsters” as an example of a commercial film that was rejected by Sundance in the drama category.

“Gods and Monsters” looks beautiful, is terrifically acted and directed, but it has no coherent story. I missed the point, assuming there was one. Maybe Sundance saw the same thing wrong with “Gods and Monsters” as I did.

CAMI BERKUS, Los Angeles

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The interesting story of Sundance was the vast domination of the Sundance Institute. For the promoters and participants of any event that did not receive the Sundance stamp of approval, the feeling of being an outsider in Park City, Utah, was strongly felt.

If Sundance’s purpose is to give a forum to a diverse and ever-changing community of filmmakers who believe in working outside the Hollywood system, then why would it shut out fellow filmmakers who have made the holy pilgrimage to Park City? After all, they just want to be let in to the cathedral.

COLLEEN O’MARA, Santa Monica