
Editor's Note: In honor of his 86th birthday, we're looking back at a profound interview with our founder Robert Redford. In 2007, Redford spoke with us about the power and future of documentary filmmaking and his words are as important today as they were 15 years ago.by Cara Mertes
The Sundance Film Festival's longstanding commitment to documentary has been driven by the personal connection founder and president Robert Redford feels for the form. Leading up to the premiere of Chicago 10, the second doc to ever open the Festival, we talked to Redford about the past, present, and possible future of documentaries.
You made an early commitment to documentary. Why was that?
A lot of what Sundance is today has to do with my early impressions as a kid. I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Los Angeles, and our main entertainment was going to the movie theater on Saturday night. I remember being impressed by the Pathe newsreels, which were really an early form of documentaries.
They brought you information, including images of the Second World War that was going on, and if you had relatives in the war there was a personal connection that probably hooked me. There was also something about the grainy sense of reality that really stood out against the feature presentations of narrative films and animation. So the early genesis of this goes back to being very impressed with those newsreels.
When did you start to think of documentary as something other than straight journalism?
In the 1950s, I remember the McCarthy hearings on television, and it was all extremely dramatic and it really struck me. Then, in the '60s I saw Emile DeAnontio's films on the same hearings, and it was suddenly clear how a filmmaker could work with real events and also tell you more of the whole story. And I realized that documentaries could carry a weight that fiction films didn't seem to have, and I started to get hooked on them.
But at that time, almost all documentaries were in the talking-head style and were primarily academic. And then they started to take a new turn with the work of people like Drew Associates, Lee Pennebaker, the Maysles. Suddenly, the camera was moving, and they were covering live things that were so dramatic that I began to think, This drama of reality is as strong, if not stronger, than the narrative theatrical films in the marketplace.
And this was the impetus for you to become involved in the making of documentaries?
That's right. In the late '60s and early '70s, as a sidebar to my own career, I began to think that I wanted to get into documentaries in some way. I started by supporting documentarians by either narrating or producing or co-producing or arranging money for them.
It started out with smaller films about the threats to the environment or Native American issues on Indian lands where developers were coming in trying to wipe them out. My interest continued to build until finally in the mid-'70s, I began to feel that there would be a future for documentaries as they evolved and that someday they would evolve to a place where they would be equivalent to mainstream, narrative filmmaking. I just really had that belief.
You started the Sundance Film Festival in 1984. How did documentaries fit into the idea for the Festival?
From the very first Festival, we've screened documentaries. And by the early '90s, the Festival had formed enough of a visible platform that we could start leveraging it more aggressively to promote nonfiction work. So we started pushing documentaries by positioning them more highly, giving them more screenings, showing more of them.
In 2001, the Institute began giving grants to documentarians when the Soros Documentary Fund became the Sundance Documentary Fund. How did this come to fruition?
By that time we had a solid platform to show documentaries at the Festival, we could see the potential for audiences to grow, and we wanted to provide resources to get more of these films made. By providing both funding and a strong platform for exhibition, we hoped we could raise awareness about international issues of human rights.
We went to Diane Weyermann, who had been instrumental in starting up the Soros Documentary Fund at the Open Society Institute, and we worked out how the fund could come over to Sundance. A lot of the pieces came together at the right time. And now, we also provide labs for documentarians to support the creative side of their work.
Are you surprised at the level of success that documentaries are now achieving?
I've always believed in these films and have always been committed to them. I'm very surprised by many other things, but not that documentaries are catching on.
Do you consider documentary as a way to directly approach deeply political and urgent questions?
Definitely. I want Sundance to be a forum for cultural exchange and for political dialogue. We're not hearing the truth about a lot of issues and I'm worried that people are giving up and getting numb and not even bothering to look for the truth. It's often in documentaries-when the focus is on personal stories-that we learn the truth of current situations and events. They're not just a cultural force for storytelling; they're also political truth. If you look at Born into Brothels and Hoop Dreams and Super Size Me, these kinds of films really are a huge channel to get back to the truth. So, yeah, it is political.
Do you think that documentaries can inspire change?
I do think it's possible for a film to inform, to wake people up to the real truth of our situation. Al Gore's film [An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim] is a great example of a documentary that creates real impact-it just happens to fortunately coincide with facts about the state of our environment being publi
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
08/04/2026
The September 19, 2025 YEP Newsletter highlights a group visit to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, where participants explored exhibits showcasing the art...
08/04/2026
The L3Harris HBTSS satellite is proven on orbit, successfully demonstrating trac...
08/04/2026
Image Credit: NASA. Artist rendering of a space communications satellite in orbit, representative of the resilient, multiband infrastructure supporting mission ...
08/04/2026
Latest evaluation validates image quality, Inertial Navigation System performance and long-range tracking in operational flight conditions....
08/04/2026
New Gracenote study finds behavioral change well underway, but trust in AI-gener...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Integration eliminates ingest bottlenecks by ensuring content is immediately usable across cloud and hybrid editorial workflows. See it at NAB 2026.
Nevada Cit...
08/04/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the commercial availability of Dalia, its media-aware, agentic AI...
08/04/2026
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced Senza Ignite, a cloud-based platform that transforms existing connected devices through a single firmw...
08/04/2026
Modernised architecture increases operational control and agility, while reducing cost and simplifying nationwide media transport across affiliates and news bur...
08/04/2026
Company to Feature DMX Dual Relay, High-Density 48-Channel Relay Panels, and New Private Label Power Program
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of innovative ele...
08/04/2026
Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), a European media technology and services partner, today announces a technology partnership with BCNEXXT, a Netherlands-based c...
08/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media today announced the expansion of its Master Control Room (MCR) facility in Riga, Latvia, establishing it as one of the most advanced and...
08/04/2026
Leading video solutions provider Synamedia is back at The 2026 NAB Show with innovations that connect tomorrows audiences today. On display will be a range of t...
08/04/2026
COW Jobs: Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
Brie Clayton April 8, 2026
0 Comments
Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
March 17, 2026COW ...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Marshall Electronics introduces its latest POV camera with the new CV376 Compact NDI |HX3 HDMI POV Camera at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). Designed for versatile 4K c...
08/04/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, enables interoperable live video workflows across multi-vendor environments, helping broadcast...
08/04/2026
Back to All News
Agent from Above' Celebrates Divine Ascent to Global Rank...
08/04/2026
Back to All News
Official Poster Revealed for My Two Cents, the New Animated Se...
08/04/2026
ICG is gearing up for a busy day on 14th May in Manchester.
First up, we'll be joining the Northern Marketing Festival as one of the event's marketing ...
08/04/2026
The Teatro Col n in Buenos Aires is not a venue that tolerates compromise. Built in 1908 and routinely ranked among the worlds finest concert halls, it has an a...
08/04/2026
Young Forever: The Death of Ageing? airs Monday 13 April and 20 April on RT One and RT Player
Around the world, the race to beat ageing is on. From cutting ...
08/04/2026
Scripps Research scientists uncover new mechanism cancer cells use to survive DNA damage Discovery reshapes understanding of how tumor cells repair broken DNA, ...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA will launch a refinement to the UHK-X700 and UHK-X750 3-CMOS -in. UHD cameras in the UNICAM XE series plus two new 7-in. viewfinders at NAB 2026 in...
07/04/2026
The NAB Leadership Foundation and NAB PILOT will host a career mixer for technology students at NAB Show 2026 on April 18, 5-6:30 p.m., North Hall, Room N225/22...
07/04/2026
Audinate Group Limited and Futuresource Consulting have published results from a...
07/04/2026
Eluvio has announced the commercial availability of its Content Fabric Bucharest...
07/04/2026
Eluvio has unveiled a new architecture for video AI and an updated Eluvio Video Intelligence Editor (EVIE) ahead of NAB Show 2026. Eluvio AI runs analysis and i...
07/04/2026
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a deal with Sky New Zealand...
07/04/2026
The NBA and Enjoy Basketball, the digital media company co-founded by YouTube cr...
07/04/2026
The 4,000-sq.-ft. space in Frisco, TX, has produced live and packaged programmin...
07/04/2026
What began as a referee training tool is evolving into a powerful production ass...
07/04/2026
Manifold Technologies will announce at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C.1808) that its manifold CLOUD platform will be available as a deployable application within NEP Pl...
07/04/2026
Shaquille O'Neal, Authentic Brands Group, and TNT Sports, in partnership wit...
07/04/2026
Telos Alliance will debut the Omnia XII, a new FM/HD/DAB audio processor, at NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas.
Built on a 2RU hardware platform, Omnia XII features a...
07/04/2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth W1701), with demonstrations, speaking sessions, and int...
07/04/2026
Synamedia will demonstrate AI by Quortex at NAB Show 2026, a framework that applies AI capabilities to video workflows on demand rather than continuously. The s...
07/04/2026
TVNewsCheck will present its 15th annual Women in Technology Awards on Tuesday, April 21, at 5 p.m. PT at NAB Show, in the Media and Entertainment Theater (W146...