The First Trip There Was Just Wild: Sony Pictures Classics Tom Bernard Recalls Sundance in All Its Glory

In July 1981, Robert Redford collected a bunch of characters from the industry. He wanted to talk about what the Sundance Institute could be, because he wanted to do something to help the independent film scene. So, we all sat down and talked about it. I remember Roger Ebert went nuts because he couldn’t write about it. [Redford] said, “No, this is like a serious meeting. We’re talking about the future of what I’m going to do here.”

At that point in time, tons of people had money and movie ideas. I don’t know if they were radicals, but they were certainly people from the ‘60s who had things they wanted to say. The conclusion was that there were tons of people who wanted to make these independent films, but they didn’t know how to make them very well. [Redford] decided he was going to put out an invitation for scripts. He got 100 scripts and chose 10 that would go to his new laboratory in the summer. His idea was simple: “We will invite all of my friends from L.A. to come, and we’ll bring the filmmakers here and teach them how to make movies.”

I was at United Artists Classics and got invited as somebody to give information about distribution. The first trip there was just wild. You had Sydney Pollack teaching guys how to direct. You had László Kovács teaching people how to do cinematography. The Last Waltz producer Jonathan Taplin was there. Cheech Marin was there. It was just an odd collection of characters.

Redford had built all these condos in Sundance, where everybody was staying. Waldo Salt [Midnight Cowboy and Day of the Locust screenwriter] every night wanted me to drive him to all the different condos in this old Volkswagen Bug. He brought a briefcase full of pot. He would go to a condo, and he would roll joints and get everybody in that place stoned, then we would go to the next one. There were always crazy things like that.

This was a new experiment. We’re putting all these people together, and we’re gonna make movies.

I went to the Sundance Film Festival [then, the US Film Festival] for the first time in 1983. I was just at the end of my tenure at United Artists Classics, and we had brought a movie called Grey Fox, and we put it in the festival. They were trying to get people to attend, so they put us in these brand new, beautiful condos on the way to Deer Valley. There was nothing else around us, then. I was sharing a bedroom with Jeff Dowd [who inspired Jeff Bridges’ “the Dude” character from The Big Lebowski) and Eagle Pennell, who made a movie called The Whole Shootin’ Match, and actress Ronee Blakley. We’d go skiing during the day, and then at night we’d watch movies.

Back in those days, the unions would not let union people work on independent films. There wasn’t a contract. So, people came from all walks of the industry came to Sundance, and you would see movies coming together, with guys saying, “I can shoot it under another name.” It was really the beginning of the organized independent film movement.

Each year you came, more and more of the mountains had million-dollar mansions on them. The stores started to get nicer, and the traffic started to get crazier because there were more cars. You started to see less of a generation of indie filmmakers there, because they really couldn’t afford to stay there.

Park City priced itself out of the culture.

At Boulder, Sundance will have kids from a new generation, and they are going to be there every year [because of the University of Colorado Boulder]. That’s what Sundance was like in the beginning. Then, all of a sudden, Sundance became a sea of gray hair when you’re looking around the room, and people are laughing at the wrong moments. We’re in a time of disruption, and this is one of those moments in time where there’s going to be big changes, including cultural changes, and it’s going to be this younger generation taking charge.

Redford was there to teach people how to make a movie. Now, anybody can make them. So, what do we do? How do we make sure these movies have a bigger impact on the world? It has to be on the big screen.