Ladies and gentleman welcome to the Sundance Festival 2012!
If you haven't heard of such event before, check this link http://www.sundance.org/festival/ and read briefly about its story:
Sundance began in Salt Lake City in August 1978, as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah.
The goal of the festival was to showcase strictly American-made films, highlight the potential of independent film. What helped the growth of Utah/US Film Festival was the involvement of actor and Utah resident Robert Redford, who became the festival's inaugural chairman. By having Redford's name associated with Sundance, the festival received great attention.
In 1981, Robert Redford gathered a group of his friends and colleagues in the mountains of Utah to create an environment designed to foster independence, discovery, and new voices in American film. That spring, ten emerging filmmakers were invited to the first Sundance Institute Filmmakers/Directors Lab where they worked with leading writers and directors to develop their original independent film projects.
Many famous independent filmmakers received their big break at Sundance, including Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino. The festival is also responsible for bringing wider attention to such films as Saw, Garden State, Super Troopers, The Blair Witch Project, Better Luck Tomorrow, Primer, Reservoir Dogs, Little Miss Sunshine, El Mariachi, Moon, Clerks, Thank You for Smoking, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, The Brothers McMullen, and Napoleon Dynamite.
In March 2011, Robert Redford announced that the Sundance Film Festival would be held at The O2, in London from 26th – 29th April 2012, the first time it has travelled outside the United States.
This year, Sony Entertainment Network Europe will be the official sponsor of SUNDANCE and we are going to have the pleasure to be there for two days 
Here's the list of events we are going to take part of:
Actor/writer/director Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (GI Joe, The Bourne Identity, LOST,
OZ) brings together a collection of talented actors for a rare look inside the creative
process of filmmaking. He will direct a live table read of his compelling true story
Farming.
In this panel we will hear from filmmakers from both sides of the pond as US filmmakers face off with counterparts from the UK. How are we alike and how are we different?
- Filly Brown
Maria Jose 'Majo' Tonorio is a tough LA street poet who spits from the heart. After meeting a talented DJ she cuts her first demo under the guidance of a small time hustler more interested in promoting Majo's sexuality than her lyrics. Soon a major label and its strong-arm executive come calling. Convinced that a record deal will deliver much needed money for the family, Majo is suddenly faced with some stark choices. Does she accept the deal and turn her back on the friends who got her to the precipice of success or does she let a golden opportunity slip away.
Writer:
Youssef Delara
The impact and the creative process behind music in film will be discussed by Gina
Rodriguez who stars in Filly Brown as a young woman trying to make it as a rapper;
Filly Brown’s director Michael Olmos; and Terence Nance who directed An
Oversimplification Of Her Beauty and created much of the music in the film.
- Liberal Arts
When thirty-something Jesse is invited back to his alma mater, he falls for a young 19-year-old college student and is faced with the powerful attraction that springs up between them.
Director:
Josh Radnor ("How I met your mother")
I have a number of questions I would like to sneakily throw in!
1) What ingredients of a film do you think Sundance look for?
2) Do you think the festival leans towards subversive/shock films rather then traditional narrative (in the past it has recognised Saw, The Blair With Project, Resevoir Dogs etc)
3) Can any independant film maker enter Sundance, provided the production is American, or is a prior body of work needed?
4) How significant is recognition from Sundance, above any other film festival?
Filly Brown-
5) For the Directors- what modern film/ media inspired the look and feel for the film?
6) In the film 'Majo' is faced with a choice, accept the deal and loose friends, or let the opportunity pass her by. Is there a right decision to make in this circumstance and do the directors know which they would choose?
7) How did you find the actors for the parts in this film? were they auditioned, and did they have some experience of the life style portrayed in the film?
8) How significant is it that the lead is a female, and if the story was told with a male charcter would the decisions still be the same?
9) The directors wrote much of the music in the film, did the film concept come before the music, or were the musical ideas brewing before then?
Liberal Arts-
10) In Liberal Arts, a romance blossoms between a 30 something and a 19 year old, is the film saying there is no difference with the age gap? or that the seperation and experience acrued causes a greater seperation.
11) What is the significance of setting this in a (Liberal Arts) college? Would the story have worked in a different setting?
12) Going by clips of the film, the older male character seems to have a romantic image of youth whereas the younger girl is more a realist about the age difference. Is this traits of the character, or a deeper message to say the older you get it does not necessarily make you any wiser?
13) If the characters were reversed and it was an older woman and a young man, how do you think the attitudes of the characters (and our opinions) would change? Do you think the romance would be more or less likely to succeed if this were the case?
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