A lot of summertime Chicago events can be elevator-pitched in four words. The Air and Water Show: planes in the sky. Lollapalooza: music in Grant Park.
For the newbie known as Sundance Institute x Chicago, starting Friday, how about: A three-day gathering of Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival leaders, local and national filmmakers, producers, screenwriters, directors, industry workers and movie audiences eager for a taste of Sundance festival programming (with four films screening at two venues), along with public panel discussions (requiring free reservations) addressing heavy questions about filmmaking, including the heaviest question of what the hell the future of moviegoing even looks like.
There. Did it in 66 words. It works as an elevator pitch if you’re heading to the observation deck of the Michigan Avenue building formerly known as the Hancock.
But it’s an intriguing first-timer all the same. To Jonah Zeiger, deputy commissioner of the Chicago Film Office and the key Chicago factor in making this Sundance pop-up happen, the June 28-30 event is “an opportunity to say ‘let’s get all hands on deck,’ and figure out how to support and strategize our future.”
To Ilyse McKimmie of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, the Chicago experiment is a chance to “come and highlight a lot of the work we do on a year-round basis.” Sundance has established a regular presence with “best of” festivals and workshops in London and Mexico City, but this is the first U.S. satellite operation of its kind.
“It’s a chance for Chicago artists to take what they can from what we’ve learned,” she says, “and apply it to their own work in their own environment.”
McKimmie acknowledges the split between the very public Sundance Film Festival and the more development-oriented Sundance Labs she oversees, focused on screenwriters and directors still in the early phases of realizing the movies in their heads.
“De-mystifying the Institute’s work,” she says, is important.
The Sundance Film Festival, founded in 1978, remains the best-known part of the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit founded by Robert Redford. But the year-round calendar also includes those research and development labs and many festival hits began as Sundance Institute lab projects, from Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” to Paul Thomas Anderson’s early film “Hard Eight.”
Like so many cultural nonprofits, and so many film festivals, Sundance now faces a headwind made harder by post-pandemic uncertainty. The Park City, Utah, contract expires after the 2026 festival and the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival may end up staying in that resort town, or it may not. Other interested cities include Santa Fe, New Mexico; Athens, Georgia and San Francisco.
At one point Chicago Film Office deputy director Zeiger contacted Sundance with the idea of Chicago hosting one of the Sundance Labs. And maybe more? Some in the Chicago film festival community worried that the city might be enticed to get the Sundance Film Festival, creating (some said) additional competition in an already crowded festival calendar.
Here’s the latest on that, from Zeiger: “We did explore (the idea of a formal Chicago proposal to get Sundance Film Festival). And both Sundance and Chicago came to the conclusion that this partnership, Sundance Institute x Chicago, coming up, would be of much greater value. We are not under consideration to host the Sundance Film Festival in 2027 and beyond. … We have a huge and vibrant film festival scene and there’s no need to add (Sundance) to that.”
Of the four films this coming weekend, two are documentaries: “Luther: Never Too Much,” directed by Dawn Porter about the R&B powerhouse Luther Vandross; and “Sugarcane,” directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie about abuse perpetuated in the Canadian Indian residential school system.
Feature films include Aaron Schimberg’s dark comedy “A Different Man,” addressing themes of disability, identity and body horror; and director Caroline Lindy’s “Your Monster,” starring Melissa Barrera.
From what I hear, more so than the four movies making their Midwest premieres, it’s the panels generating some attention. Tickets for the films go for $20; the panels are free but require reservations and seating is limited.
“Stronger Together: How festivals, art houses, and independent exhibitors are working together to revive and reinvent the theatrical experience in the post-pandemic era” takes place June 30 at the Cultural Center and will include Facets executive director Karen Cardarelli, Mimi Plauche of the Chicago International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival director Eugene Hernandez.
“I’m generally optimistic,” Hernandez says. “I don’t see the practice of watching movies declining. But I see the ways in which we watch them evolving.” The upcoming Sundance Chicago venture, he says, should provide all sorts of interested parties a series of gathering places, formal and informal. “My hope,” he says, “is that it really piques the interest of the creative community in Chicago. You have an exceptional festival scene and film community there. Look at ‘Ghostlight.’” The Chicago-made film, just released by IFC, made its world premiere five months ago at Sundance.
“That beautiful film is emblematic of what’s happening in Chicago right now,” Hernandez says.
He’s well aware of the initial skepticism from the Chicago festival ranks regarding this mini-Sundance endeavor, which looked to some like the City of Chicago paying for a rent-a-brand and three days of imported prestige. (The weekend is supported by $175,000 from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and an undisclosed amount from Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism and conventions bureau. The Chicago International Film Festival receives just a fraction of that.)
“I hear that,” says Hernandez, who knows many of the skeptics and has for years, in his various roles as festival programmer, or festival-traveling critic, or a combination of both. At one point in our conversation he characterized Sundance Institute x Chicago this way: “There’s the screenings, but the meat of this really is an opportunity to come together. And if we can brings more attention, internally and externally, to all the great work happening in Chicago? To me that feels like a win.”
Sundance Institute x Chicago runs June 28-30 at Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St.; Davis Theater, 614 N. Lincoln Ave.; Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. For more information go to SundanceInstitutexChicago.com.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
