Extraordinary Documentaries – 2008 Sundance Film Festival (VIDEO)

Robert Redford, Academy Award-winning actor, motion picture director, producer, businessman, model, environmentalist and philanthropist began the Sundance Institute in 1984. Its annual Sundance Film Festival is in its 24th year and opened this week in Park City, UT. The 11-day event, which runs January 17-27, 2008 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, UT, will include 122 feature films from 25 countries, chosen from among 3,624 entries.

Six juries will be awarding prizes at the Festival. The juries are comprised of 24 individuals from the global film community, each of whom bring a unique perspective and a broad range of experience. They include award-winning directors, screenwriters, actors and cinematographers. The awards ceremony takes place on January 26, 2008 at Park City.

In a recent interview, Robert Redford confessed that he has deep affection and appreciation for film documentaries and was instrumental in establishing a relationship with the Soros Documentary Fund at the Open Society Institute, so that more documentaries could be produced for Sundance.

“When you have a film that illustrates how we’re being lied to and the consequences of those lies, then I think you have some power. I do think it’s possible for a film to inform, to wake people up to the real truth of a situation.” Redford said. “The Sundance Film Festival proudly presents a selection of extraordinary documentaries from talented nonfiction storytellers around the world and invites us to glimpse the staggering scope and complexity of the human experience.”

Redford claims that he has loved documentary-type productions since watching the old Pathe Newsreels in movie theatres as a child. You remember those, the old black and whites (see video below) with antiquated audio that introduced you to politics, current events, Roy Rogers, and Rin-Tin-Tin.