Prof. Wilkinson Attends Sundance Film Festival

Alissa Wilkinson, who serves as an assistant professor of English and humanities at The King’s College as well as chief film critic at Christianity Today, recently had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance Film Festival Marquee
Home News & Events Stories

Alissa Wilkinson, who serves as an assistant professor of English and humanities at The King’s College as well as chief film critic at Christianity Today, recently had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Film Festival. Thousands of people gathered from January 22 to February 1, 2015 in Park City, Utah for this festival that that showcases the work of American and international independent filmmakers. We asked her about her experience at Sundance.

What are the details on how you got to Sundance?

As with every film festival, journalists can apply for credentials from the festival that allow them into special screenings for press and industry, along with some other perqs. Christianity Today often covers festivals—in the past year we’ve published coverage from SXSW, Virginia Film Festival, True/False, New York Film Festival, and Toronto Film Festival—and this year we squeezed Sundance into the mix, since I could make time in my schedule to cover it. Sundance is relatively open to a variety of journalists, critics, bloggers, and podcasters, and I received press credentials as well. I haven’t done many film festivals because they’re usually too great of a time commitment, but it worked out this year.

What was the Festival environment like?

Sundance was started by Robert Redford in 1969 in order to support independent filmmakers. They accept about 2% of the films submitted, which means only about 120 narratives, documentaries, and shorts get in from filmmakers in the U.S. and around the world. None of the films have distribution; one of the big goals of Sundance is for independent films to find a distributor, which happens for about 40% of them. So the initial buzz from critics matters a great deal, as does the response from audiences, who buy tickets or festival passes.

Members of the press have to get in line quite early for Press & Industry screenings – I generally showed up about an hour and a half early and caught up on news/writing while sitting on the ground in a heated tent, because it’s cold in Park City, Utah in January. Screenings start at 8:30am, and the final screening of the day is at midnight. There are many films running simultaneously all over Park City, so you have to carefully map out what you want to see and how you’ll get there. I saw about three films most days, but some of my colleagues were seeing five or more. I stayed in a condo (rented on Airbnb) with some other critics.

How did you approach the festival as a “Christian reviewer”?

This was actually really funny—as far as I could tell, aside from some local (likely Mormon-leaning) press, I was the only critic there whose credential was through a religious outlet. And yet there was a huge number of films dealing seriously and thoughtfully with religion, religious contexts, and religious questions. There are also several groups of Christian cinephiles who come to Sundance, and groups from Christian colleges and seminaries. This year there was even a panel on faith and film sponsored by the Festival.

For me, though, having Christianity Today on my tag meant that people asked me a lot whether we were required to write only about religious movies, and so on. Of course, the answer is no. Being a “Christian film critic” isn’t any different from being a humanist or an agnostic or a liberal or a conservative or a feminist critic, because it just means you start from how your particular context and mindset shapes your reaction to films. There were a few films where I was the only one laughing at a joke that was a bit of an inside gag that only those who grew up in church might recognize. But in general, my job is to watch movies with my eyes—eyes informed by my understanding of how God made us, God’s plan for us, and things God loves, like beauty and creativity—and write from there.

My ears perk up when I see a context I’m particularly familiar with onscreen, like Scripture or religious questioning, and my response to films is shaped by that. But in general, I’m like anyone else: I start from what I know, look for the good, and try to generously but analytically evaluate the art I’m seeing.

What were some of your favorite films that you saw, and who are some of the people that you met?

Nearly every film I saw was really great, but here are four of my favorites:

The End of the Tour, aka “the David Foster Wallace movie,” which will surprise nobody who’s taken one of my classes. I was nervous about the film, but it’s perfect.

Mistress America, a screwball comedy from Noah Baumbach about being young, creative, and in New York City. If you liked Frances Ha, you’ll love this.

The Witch, a creeptastic horror film set in pre-Salem New England with dialogue drawn from actual transcripts from the Salem witch trials. I don’t like horror, but this was exquisitely shot, and it was a first feature from a Brooklyn-based director.

Best of Enemies, a very exciting and interesting documentary about the 1968 televised debates between William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal. Fiery and scintillating, and even-handed about the political aspects of the debates, instead acting as a critique of our shouting-head media culture, which I loathe.

I also saw Last Days in the Desert for the second time, after writing a long piece for Christianity Today on it before the festival – it was even better the second time around. In the film, Ewan McGregor plays both Jesus and Satan. And because I knew the cast and director from extensive interviews before the profile, I got to hang out with them a bunch at the parties after the film’s premiere, which was fun. I also enjoyed interviewing several directors and running into all kinds of interesting people everywhere I went—record producers, writer/directors, interesting critics with whom I’d only interacted on Twitter. Sundance is a good time to meet filmmakers and people who love movies—and that’s the best environment for movie lovers.


View more stories about: