It’s the final year of Sundance in Park City, and while most festivalgoers will spend their time posting online about celebrity sightings or emotionally unraveling in the Library Center Theatre over a documentary about rehabilitated hummingbirds, a small crew from Boulder will be squinting at sightlines, studying shuttle routes, and treating the festival like a very cold, very crowded masterclass in event logistics.
Boulder County Film Commissioner Bruce Borowsky is among them. This week, he’ll make his inaugural pilgrimage to the Sundance Film Festival, not just as a first-time attendee but as part of a larger advance team watching closely before the festival relocates to Boulder in 2027. The Sundance Film Festival starts on Thursday in Park City, Utah, and runs through Feb. 1.
“There’s a whole contingent coming to Park City from Boulder,” Borowsky said. “We’re going to be paying a lot of attention to how the festival takes place, all the nuances and such. There are lots of little things, a lot of moving parts that happen during a film festival, so we want to see how Sundance does it and take lots of notes.”
Borowsky couldn’t confirm the final local headcount, but he said the Boulder group includes people from public safety and other city departments, all traveling to Utah to better understand how the sausage of an internationally watched cultural event gets made.
“You know, as a filmmaker myself, I’m always interested in the user experience,” he said. “I want to see what they’re doing to accommodate filmmakers, particularly filmmakers coming from out of state or out of the country. How do they make filmmakers feel welcome and engaged with the festival, not just through the showing of their film, but through how they involve them in all the goings-on at the festival?”
He also plans to do a bit of what he lovingly calls “schmoozing.”
“My goal is to meet as many people as possible and make connections so that when Sundance comes to Boulder, people already have some connections here and it feels like we’re all part of a community.”
And of course, catch some flicks.
“We’ve already got tickets to see a number of films,” he said. “There are some exciting documentaries and some exciting narrative films, so we’re looking forward to seeing as many films as we can.”
Back in Boulder, Jason Phelps, the programmer of the University of Colorado Boulder’s iconic International Film Series (IFS), will be attending the festival virtually, something he has been doing for the past five years. That’s partly due to pandemic-era habits, partly because he became a new dad last year, and partly because the online platform lets him dig deep into the kind of films that will never play at a Regal Cinemas but that CU students will line up to see in Muenzinger Auditorium, 1905 Colorado Ave., Boulder.
“When I’m watching films at Sundance, I’m looking at them through the lens of what I might bring to the International Film Series once those films are picked up by a distributor,” he said. “I’m usually looking for things that are a little off the beaten path … films people aren’t necessarily going to see at a standard AMC, Regal, or Century theater. Something just a little bit different.”
One of those films, “By Design,” which screened virtually at Sundance last year, is now part of this spring’s IFS calendar.
“It’s a film about a woman who swaps souls with a chair,” Phelps said. “It’s really interesting and very unique, and those are exactly the kinds of things I’m looking for — projects where the premise isn’t mainstream, but I know IFS audiences will say, ‘Oh, that sounds interesting. I’m there for that.’”
Established in 1941, IFS is Boulder’s first locally programmed arthouse series. The series is one of the few places in the nation where reel-to-reel 35mm film projectors still operate, according to the series website. IFS helped shine a regional spotlight on works from cult filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes and more.
When Phelps is attending Sundance virtually, he’s keeping a spreadsheet. He’s also watching other outlets in real-time, including The New York Times and The Hollywood Reporter, for buzz about in-person premieres he can’t access online. (Virtual audiences get a selection of films curated by the festival, typically including the award contenders, but not the full slate.)
While he’s not flying to Utah, Phelps has been busy with a different kind of Sundance preparation, namely working with Sundance’s tech team to prepare CU Boulder’s Muenzinger for next year’s festival.
“They’re planning to update a lot of the systems in that room, which is a huge benefit for IFS,” he said. “This summer, they’re focusing on replacing the screen and adding Dolby Atmos to the auditorium. When I found that out, I about lost it. It’s incredibly exciting.”
The updates will be permanent.
“Sundance is here for two weeks, but IFS gets to benefit from those improvements all year,” Phelps said. “They’ve said that’s a perk they’re happy to provide, which is really exciting.”
Phelps said he’s also been talking with senior Sundance programmers, including John Nein, senior programmer and director of strategic initiatives at Sundance, about how to co-present artist events leading up to and beyond the 2027 festival, with a particular emphasis on bringing visiting filmmakers into the classroom and student programming opportunities.
That collaboration has already yielded results. Last fall, IFS screened “Sorry, Baby,” a short by Sundance alum Eva Victor, with a video introduction from the filmmaker herself, something Phelps said came together through the new partnership. He hopes to bring more filmmakers to Boulder in future semesters.
“I won’t name names, because nothing is confirmed yet, but there are a lot of exciting opportunities taking shape,” he said. “Overall, it’s been very positive from every angle.”
Phelps added: “What really struck me once I started talking with Sundance staff is how clear they were that they don’t want to overtake or negatively impact the community. Their goal is to lift up what’s already here, not clash with things like BIFF(Boulder International Film Festival) or IFS. They don’t want to ‘Walmart’ the place. They want to be a year-round presence that supports the local art scene. That was incredibly reassuring.”
Jeffery Orlowski-Yang, pictured shooting in Uummannaq, Greenland, in the summer of 2007, is one of the local Boulder filmmakers attending Sundance in Utah this week. (Courtesy photo)
That sentiment is shared by Jeff Orlowski-Yang , a Boulder-based filmmaker whose work has screened — and won awards — at Sundance. As the co-founder of Exposure Labs (“The Social Dilemma,” “Chasing Coral,” “Chasing Ice,” “Chasing Time”), Orlowski-Yang has spent much of his career thinking about the ripples of storytelling — what happens after the credits roll, and what it means to actually connect with people.
“Sundance coming to Boulder shouldn’t be seen as just one week of watching movies,” Orlowski-Yang said. “It’s an opportunity to build a year-round culture around film and the arts. What matters most is how to begin cultivating community, supporting artists and making people feel like they’re part of a living, evolving arts community that exists far beyond a single event.”
Of course, he’s not skipping the final Park City installment, and, like everyone else who grew up regarding Robert Redford as both an esteemed actor and a handsome lifelong steward of sustainability, he’s expecting a few feelings.
“I expect there to be a bittersweet energy at the festival this year, especially with Robert Redford’s passing and a celebration gathering happening for him,” Orlowski-Yang said. “I think it will be a beautiful way for the film community to honor his legacy in Utah, and recognize it as the end of an era.”
Keep track of our Sundance Film Festival coverage at dailycamera.com/sundance.