The 2011 Snowflake: Shovel

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Nate von Zumwalt

Over the next few months we’ll be chronicling memorable moments in Festival history as we reveal the mystery behind the 2011 snowflake icon. This week we deconstruct the shovel.


Joel and Ethan Coen at the 1985 Festival

Joel and Ethan Coen arrived in relative anonymity at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival with their directorial debut Blood Simple. The crime thriller garnered the first-ever Grand Jury Prize and kick-started the celebrated careers of the Coen Brothers (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men).

 

Not only did Blood Simple spark wider public interest in independent film, but the soon-to-become film noir classic paved the way for smaller films to succeed both on the festival circuit and at the box office. Our shovel icon alludes to Marty’s (Dan Hedaya) burying, perhaps the most disturbing scene in a film saturated with sin.

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From the Archives: Revisit Robert Redford’s Words of Wisdom

To much of the world Robert Redford is Roy Hobbs, Bill McKay, Jeremiah Johnson, or invariably, The Sundance Kid. He is an artist, an activist, and a creative leader. But Robert Redford also inhabits another world, one where he’s known simply as “Bob.

From the Archives: Sundance Institute Founder Robert Redford on Why He’s Always Believed in the Power of Documentary Filmmaking

The Sundance Film Festival’s longstanding commitment to documentary has been driven by the personal connection founder and president Robert Redford feels for the form. Leading up to the premiere of Chicago 10, the second doc to ever open the Festival, we talked to Redford about the past, present, and possible future of documentaries.You made an early commitment to documentary.

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