I had the privilege of working with Robert Redford and the wonderful team at Sundance Institute from 2010-2021, including Michelle Satter who has brilliantly led Sundance’s artist programs from the beginning, the Festival team, led by John Cooper during most of my tenure, the staff and volunteers that dedicated their professional lives to advancing Sundance, and the Board and community of artists and supporters who make the work possible. My heart goes out to all of them, of course especially to Amy Redford, who sits on the Sundance Institute board, and the entire Redford family. I hold dear my many personal memories of Bob and my time at the Institute.
I have also been reflecting on the larger impact of Robert Redford and Sundance, and the enormous impression he left on our industry. Though challenging to encapsulate, here is my attempt to put pen to paper on what Bob meant to all of us.
Robert Redford’s most enduring gift to American culture isn’t a single performance or even an Oscar-winning film; it’s his profound contribution to building infrastructure for independent film and media. He founded the Sundance Institute to give emerging artists space to experiment, fail safely and find their voices—well before “indie” was a marketing label. Bob’s idea has been the Institute’s heartbeat for 43 years (and counting).
Sundance grew from Bob’s personal convictions as an artist and his belief in art’s power to connect and inspire. He did not set out to build a brand or a movement but to devote his fame and resources to something he cared about deeply. The authenticity of that founding impulse—and the stewardship of a passionate team—helped Sundance resonate then and remain relevant now.
Across four decades, Sundance has offered support and a platform to thousands of new voices who created a vital independent counterculture, took creative risks and fed fresh, personal perspectives into the mainstream. Building an independent film and media counterculture would have been enough — in a democracy, dominant culture needs to be balanced by counter cultural voices. But that this movement then became the mainstream speaks to just how successful the entire Sundance ethos was.
The festival evolved into a launching pad for successful box office hits and movies that won Hollywood’s most prestigious awards, and the major studios soon launched their own “indie” labels to create films of the Sundance ilk. The effect on Hollywood was never the goal, but as often happens the counterculture seeped into the mainstream and created change. The list of artists who received early support from Sundance is too long to name, but their influence is everywhere: from the explosion of new talent at Sundance in the late 1980s and early 1990s that still shapes American cinema today, to the Independent Queer Cinema movement; from the creators behind major franchises, series and Broadway plays, to the many Sundance alumni who became Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winners and nominees.
From its inception, Bob’s vision took institutional form in programs that widened the circle of who tells American stories. The Institute’s first labs and fellowships were designed to advance narratives from across the full spectrum of society. Since the 1980s, Sundance has supported multiple generations of Indigenous filmmakers, an extraordinary roster of storytellers of color, and a vital cohort of women directors (a mid-2010s study by ReFrame and Dr. Stacy Smith at USC Annenberg found that nearly half of the women directing top box-office films in Hollywood had early support from Sundance.) The Institute’s deep investment in early talent and story development—often missing in commercial contexts—is essential to the innovation and fresh perspectives that reach new audiences.
Redford’s own values shaped this ecosystem. A rebel and risk-taker, he believed in artistic autonomy and in building community around that autonomy, so creators weren’t forced to choose between expression and survival. The labs—quiet, collaborative, process-first—model a creative citizenship that favors curiosity over commerce and long horizons over quick wins.
He also linked storytelling to civic life. Long before “social impact” became a buzzword, Sundance paired artist development with field advocacy and audience engagement. The Sundance Documentary Film Program, the first of its kind to offer grants and lab support for global nonfiction storytellers, helped elevate documentaries as both art form and public discourse; by platforming them to audiences and buyers, the Sundance Film Festival expanded the commercial opportunity for nonfiction in the United States.
Bob often noted that Sundance’s first grant—$25,000—came from the NEA. He championed Americans for the Arts and public funding in Utah, New Mexico, and nationwide. Though he proudly worked in Hollywood, he was wary of art shaped mainly by corporate imperatives rather than human truths. I mourn the loss of a man who inspired me personally with his curiosity and challenged me to do better at every turn. I picture him speeding on his motorcycle down the steep mountain at Sundance to spend his day working with artists at the labs, listening and guiding with extraordinary generosity. I feel so grateful to have known a man like Bob who used his power to stand with voices too often unheard and to amplify artistically fearless, political and personal independent storytelling.
Robert Redford’s values feel especially urgent today. We live in a media economy dominated by consolidation, algorithmic distribution, and brittle attention cycles. Against that backdrop, Sundance offers a countermodel: patient development, peer mentorship, imaginative risk and a stubborn belief that audiences will meet artists halfway.
Over the years of American independent film, the commercial market proved that thesis: a robust indie marketplace took off in 1989 with sex, lies, and videotape, rode peaks and valleys, and culminated in the 2017–2021 streaming-library bubble. That bubble has burst, as mainstream buyers retreat from acquiring indies. New ways of connecting with curious, adventurous audiences are emerging, and new generations will break old rules. But early-stage investment and community-building platforms—defined by Robert Redford’s clear Sundance vision—remain essential to their success. Filmmakers need the support and infrastructure of organizations like Sundance more than ever to survive, thrive, and keep shaping culture.
The artists who came up through Sundance—spanning generations and genres—demonstrate that infrastructure, not hype (well, maybe a little hype at the festival), creates a durable impact. Redford’s name headlines the history, but the legacy is collective: a republic of artists who were given time, space, and trust—and who reshaped American film and, in turn, how we see ourselves. That is the culture he helped build: quietly, persistently, for the long run.
Keri Putnam is a film and television producer, strategic advisor to companies and nonprofits, and board director who works at the intersection of the creative and business sides of the media and arts fields.
As CEO of Sundance Institute from 2010-2021, she and her team helped launch a generation of ground-breaking cinematic talent. As President of Production at Miramax and Executive Vice President at HBO, Putnam guided strategy and led global creative and production teams to support, develop, finance, and supervise production on a wide array of highly acclaimed work from new and established talent, garnering multiple Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmy Awards for her slates.
Putnam produces film and tv through her production company, Putnam Pictures. She is Board Director at AMC Entertainment, Board Chair at New_Public, and co-founder of ReFrame which advances women in the screen industries, and AD White Professor at Large at Cornell University. She was the ‘23-24 Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy and currently serves on the Shorenstein Center Board. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and of BAFTA North America.
