Redford looks back at Sundance legacy

Redford speaking at Sundance Film festival '06

The festival, which is backed by Redford's Sundance Institute, has grown into the top gathering for independent filmmakers in the United States. It now draws tens of thousands of movie enthusiasts to Park City, a mountain town east of Salt Lake City, and getting tickets is no easy task.

Many of the films here feature some of Hollywood's biggest names. Thursday's opening night drama, Friends with Money, features Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack and Frances McDormand.

Redford focused his opening night remarks on the institute. "A lot of people don't know the heart of Sundance is all about the institute," he said.

Sundance has brought audiences such films as 1989's Sex, Lies and Videotape, which launched the career of director Steven Soderbergh, to 2004's Garden State, which showed off the writing and directing talents of actor Zach Braff.

Redford, who is known for his political activism as much as his acting, said that five years after the institute began its work, the Sundance filmmakers needed a place to show their movies because Hollywood wasn't listening to them.

Source: Reuters