Sundance Day 3: A Gen Z Congressman and a ‘Totally F*cked Up’ Racist
Two years after I interviewed Rep. Maxwell Frost at Sundance, he is attacked. Plus: indie films’ signs of life
I’m sending daily dispatches to celebrate the final Sundance in Park City. So far, I considered this year’s Sundance It Girl, revealed indie film’s plan to fight industry consolidation, and laid out why this year’s fest is make-or-break for film. Reach out if you’re on the ground: richard@theankler.com.
Saturday began with an ugly reminder of the world as it is right now.
Word slowly trickled out about an attack on Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democratic congressman from Florida, during a party hosted by CAA at Park City’s High West Saloon.
“Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face,” Frost wrote on social media on Saturday evening. “He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested and I am okay.”
Coming amid news of the latest horrifying violence in Minneapolis, as ICE agents shot and killed a Veteran’s Affairs hospital ICU nurse in the street (video of which circulated online quickly and greatly undermined whatever threadbare narrative the Trump administration tried to present as justification for the killing), it felt as though the world’s nightmares were spilling over directly into our world, and a moment of true horrors was at hand.
Fortunately, it seems the incident involving Frost was more random racist lunacy than an organized attack — which, in this environment, isn’t much less terrifying, but there it is.
I spoke with a friend who was standing close to the congressman during the assault. Here’s how he described it, via text:
“The guy was totally fucked up and snuck into the party. Once it happened, the security people at the event were extremely supportive of Maxwell Frost. They very quickly apprehended and held the guy while the police came. I don’t want to diminish what happened. The guy was definitely a racist asshole, but it was handled well by security and police. It did not seem as if he knew who he was attacking… it seemed like the guy fucked with the wrong dude. The guy was totally fucked up — seemed like he was on drugs or something — maybe just drunk, but def fucked up.”
He concluded, “It’s funny the people supporting ICE say ‘fuck around and find out.’ Meanwhile, this guy was professionally separated and handled by the police with total professionalism.”
“Random outbreak” in the unlikeliest of places, we have entered a world now so on edge, where the worst among us are so emboldened, and we’re all braced for random outbreaks of violence to seem less random. If it can happen at an agency party at the Sundance Film Festival…
Anyhow, not to make this about me, but I can’t help recalling how two years ago, I moderated a panel right here at Sundance on Gun Safety, featuring Congressman Frost, who was extremely eloquent on the subject of violence in America. It took place about half a block from the spot where, two years later, he’d become the target of an outburst of it, with an extra awful racist tinge.
Below: A reminder of why people still believe in independent movies, the fragile systems holding them up and how stories that connect us matter A LOT right now. Plus: Some who’s who pictures from the FilmStack party: