"Hints on how to enjoy the Sundance United States Film Festival," Jan. 12, 1990

One of the illustrations for this piece by Cal Grondahl

By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner

The people who run film festivals struggle with this question constantly: Is the festival for the general public or those in the business?

The suspicion on John Q. Public's part is that film festivals are for cineastes -- nose-in-the-air film buffs and glitter people. But that's not the case, at least in Utah. The 30,000 or so people who flock to the Sundance United States Film Festival in Park City every year are mostly regular folks looking for different film fare than that offered at their neighborhood malls.

So, in the interest of destroying the myth that film festivals are the exclusive domain of filmmakers, actors, producers, journalists and the rich, here's a thumbnail instruction manual on how to enjoy yourself at the Sundance United States Film Festival, which runs Jan. 19-28 in Park City.

"Outtakes" movie column, Jan. 19, 1990 -- Alberto Garcia, film programmer for the 1990 Sundance United States Film Festival

The 1990 festival's poster

It was customary for me to do stories in advance of each year's edition of the Sundance United States Film Festival. (Notice the name still retained remnants of the Utah/U.S. Film Festival.) I interviewed Alberto Garcia in an upper-floor, makeshift warehouse office in northwestern Salt Lake City a week or two before the festival began.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Some might say Alberto Garcia has a dream job. Beginning this year, he's been given the monumental task of selecting the competition films at the 1990 Sundance United States Film Festival. He's the man who has the final say on which films will play, and which ones won't.

Given this level of responsibility, you assume that the man who programs the festival -- who selects all the dramatic and documentary films to compete in 1990 -- would be, shall we say, older.

Then Garcia enters the room to be interviewed, and all preconceived notions go rocketing out the window. All of 23 years old, ponytail falling down his back, black T-shirt and jeans, he looks like a student volunteer, not one of the people running the show.