Sundance's Eugene Hernandez: The Rushfield Conversation
A week before Park City, the fest's programming chief on the films to watch, its big move and the political climate
The 41st Sundance Film Festival begins next week in Park City, Utah in a more uncertain moment than it has seen perhaps since its founding. First, it takes place as the embers still smolder from the fires here at home in L.A. Then it confronts the continuing uncertainty about independent film’s place in the industry landscape. Finally, there’s the question mark about the festival itself. As a decision looms about Sundance’s new home, this will be the penultimate gathering taking place purely in Park City.
Amidst all that, I spoke yesterday with Eugene Hernandez, now in his second year as Director of the Sundance Film Festival and head of public programming, as he sifted through the world from his Santa Monica home, preparing to head off for the mountains later that day.
Richard Rushfield: We’re a week out from the start of the festival, and you’re doing it in the shadow of the fires here in L.A. Your offices in Santa Monica are literally down the block. How has it all gone?
Eugene Hernandez: So many of us have been disrupted or displaced the last week or so. Thankfully, my apartment is intact and I was able to get back to it on Saturday. But we have staff and also a number of artists and filmmakers who’ve been impacted. Taken as a whole, I think getting out of town will be a nice thing, because we’re all going to a place where we can all be together in a smaller community and environment. The vibe will probably be a little bit different. I’ve been reflecting on that myself, thinking about how meaningful that will be.
In a weird way, it’s a chance to get the kind of L.A. community that you don’t get in L.A. Every year, there are people that I only see at the festival who live three blocks away from me. From my earliest days — my first festival was ’93 — it was always this opportunity either to connect with people who you might live in the same city with but you don’t have that opportunity to watch a bunch of movies with and have a drink after or dinner or whatever. It’s always been this place of renewal and reconnection. I think this year we’re going to feel that in a different way. It should be pretty nourishing for all of us.
RR: What’s keeping you awake in these final hours?