Critical Writing Index

Surviving The Goldrus: Sundance '97

by Patricia Thomson

The Independant Film & Video Monthly, Apr. 1997, v. 20, no. 3, pp. 18-23

This article draws a metaphor between the frenzy of the gold rush and the overly commercial tendency of the "world-class festival-cum-market" that is Sundance. Once a screening party that included the pleasures of the air and sights of the Wasatch Mountain Range is now, as Thomson describes, a battle ground on which grown men fight over their place in the film queue.

The article also discusses three activist filmmakers and how the Sundance festival has helped bring exposure to their causes.

Judith Hefland's A Healthy Baby Girl is a personal documentary about being exposed to nerve gas as a baby. Hefland was interviewed by local television stations and newspapers which helped create buzz for the film and awareness of the issue.

Kelly Anderson and Tami Gold's film Out at Work is about gays and lesbians in the workplace and the discrimination they face. The festival helped the filmmakers launch a major distribution effort with labor unions and local organizations.

ITEM 1997.101 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

A Healthy Baby GirlJudith Hefland

Out at WorkKelly Anderson

Tami Gold