Philippe Aractingi (right) during his meeting with Robert Redford at the Sundance Festival in 2008. (Credit: Philippe Aractingi)
It was 2008. My film "Sous les bombes" had just been screened in Venice and Dubai, drawing interest from numerous festivals. I then found out it was selected for Sundance, the festival that Robert Redford had strengthened and grown into a can't-miss event. At the time, it was a bold, even risky move, because the film was critical of Israel.
When I met Robert Redford, I admit I was impressed. But, with the simplicity of a man from the Utah mountains, he explained to me that despite the debates stirred by this selection, the principle of Sundance remained unshakeable: defending the independence of cinema. “Diversity comes out of the word independence. Basically, that’s the principle we operate from,” he said.
Sundance was thus one of the very first festivals to open its doors to Arab and independent cinema. For me, it was an immense privilege. I remember that large hall where Redford gathered committed filmmakers from around the world to talk to us about this fragile and vital cinema we were making, which needed protection from industry pressures. He wanted to offer a platform to new voices — to films that would otherwise never be seen anywhere else.
I remember that feeling of kinship with him and all those other “mavericks,” as he called them, from all corners of the world, fighting to keep cinema alive outside the mainstream circuit.
Later, in 2009, when the film represented Lebanon at the Oscars, it did not pass the first round. “Over my dead body,” one of the Hollywood selectors even told us. There was no longer Bob and his team to stand up for the film.
At a time when there are efforts to silence divergent and independent voices, Redford is not just a fading figure. He is a symbol of independence departing with him. More than the death of a man, it is a certain idea of free thought that is leaving us.
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.
