27/04/2012 - Hollywood icon criticises David Cameron’s ‘narrow view’ of film

Hollywood legend and founder of the Sundance Film Festival Robert Redford launched the festival’s first ever London edition with a broadside against British Prime Minister David Cameron. The PM had said in January that he wanted “UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions.”

Redford took exception to this, saying, “That may be why he’s in trouble. That's a very narrow view. I don’t want to say it speaks of the man, but that doesn’t speak to the broad category of filmmakers and artists.”

Speaking about Sundance London Redford said, “When Sundance started, it was a path for new voices that wouldn’t get a chance to be heard otherwise. We didn’t know if the festival was going to survive, but it did. The audiences grew, and became as diverse as the filmmaking. There’s a hunger for other films, and that’s what we represent. So as well as supporting the filmmaking, we decided to try and grow audiences for it. Coming to London is a continuation of that.”

“This is a scaled-down version of what we do in the mountains in Utah. We want to offer the alchemy of what we do at Sundance, and see how it is received. That’s why we’re here,” Redford added.

Redford’s next directorial venture, The Company You Keep, his first since 2010’s The Conspirator, is currently in post.