By — Jeffrey Brown Jeffrey Brown Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/reporters-notebook-back-at-sundance Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Reporter’s Notebook: Back at Sundance Arts Jan 23, 2015 6:17 PM EDT When the letter came inviting me to be a juror at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, I figured there must have been some mistake. I cover arts and culture, yes, but I thought you had to be in the film world itself to sit as a juror. I called the contact on the letter, Trevor Groth, then, as now, the director of programming at Sundance, and he assured me that, yes, I was indeed being invited to join them, that they had begun to open up the jury panels to include people who don’t spend their entire lives thinking, making, writing about films. I was excited, of course, but also terrified: I’d never done anything like this. How exactly do you judge films? Well, it turned out to be one of the most unusual and stimulating weeks I’ve ever spent – watching films from morning (and I mean early morning) until (late) night, meeting a bunch of thoughtful and interesting people, gathering at day’s end in the bar with fellow jurors to talk about movies and life. Great experience, great memory. Five years later, I’m back to do several stories for the NewsHour. We’ll update the state of play in independent filmmaking as video on demand takes greater hold, fewer people go to theaters, new players (Amazon, Netflix and more) get involved, and television seems to be where a lot of good action is. We’re also going to look at the latest experiments with virtual reality filmmaking in an exhibition here called New Frontiers. And I’ll be talking with several filmmakers, focusing especially on documentaries this year that tackle subjects very much in the headlines. I’ll try to write about this as we go. For today, arrival day, I can report the differences in my new Sundance status. A juror gets royal treatment: a kind of magic pass that gets you into any film, a driver for each panel that makes it almost effortless to get to one film after another, a room in the central hotel that serves as home base for the festival. This time, I’m a mere working stiff with a press pass that only goes so far (into long lines), the town is already crowded with traffic, the hotel a good ways away. Not complaining – this is a fine assignment – just saying. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Jeffrey Brown Jeffrey Brown In his more than 30-year career with the News Hour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the News Hour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with The New York Times.
When the letter came inviting me to be a juror at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, I figured there must have been some mistake. I cover arts and culture, yes, but I thought you had to be in the film world itself to sit as a juror. I called the contact on the letter, Trevor Groth, then, as now, the director of programming at Sundance, and he assured me that, yes, I was indeed being invited to join them, that they had begun to open up the jury panels to include people who don’t spend their entire lives thinking, making, writing about films. I was excited, of course, but also terrified: I’d never done anything like this. How exactly do you judge films? Well, it turned out to be one of the most unusual and stimulating weeks I’ve ever spent – watching films from morning (and I mean early morning) until (late) night, meeting a bunch of thoughtful and interesting people, gathering at day’s end in the bar with fellow jurors to talk about movies and life. Great experience, great memory. Five years later, I’m back to do several stories for the NewsHour. We’ll update the state of play in independent filmmaking as video on demand takes greater hold, fewer people go to theaters, new players (Amazon, Netflix and more) get involved, and television seems to be where a lot of good action is. We’re also going to look at the latest experiments with virtual reality filmmaking in an exhibition here called New Frontiers. And I’ll be talking with several filmmakers, focusing especially on documentaries this year that tackle subjects very much in the headlines. I’ll try to write about this as we go. For today, arrival day, I can report the differences in my new Sundance status. A juror gets royal treatment: a kind of magic pass that gets you into any film, a driver for each panel that makes it almost effortless to get to one film after another, a room in the central hotel that serves as home base for the festival. This time, I’m a mere working stiff with a press pass that only goes so far (into long lines), the town is already crowded with traffic, the hotel a good ways away. Not complaining – this is a fine assignment – just saying. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now