\n<\/p>\n
Gifford doesn\u2019t work in the film industry, but was attending the festival with a group of friends who do. \u201cI\u2019m actually trying to shield them\u201d from the news, Gifford said. \u201cThese are all people who are very politically active, and their films are politically active. They\u2019re documentarians. They have got to try to focus for this period of five days. I don\u2019t have that obligation, so I am reading the news, which is why I\u2019m crying in line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even those who tried to ignore the news this weekend might have found the task impossible. Reality rudely intruded on a private party thrown by talent agency CAA Friday night, where Democratic Florida congressman Maxwell Frost<\/strong><\/a> was allegedly punched<\/a> by a man who crashed the event. Police say that<\/a> 28-year-old Christian Joel Young<\/strong> allegedly told Frost, \u201cWe are going to deport you and your kind,\u201d before yelling a racial slur and striking the representative. (Young, who has been denied bail, faces charges of aggravated burglary, assault, and assaulting an elected official.)<\/p>\n On Sunday afternoon, Vanity Fair<\/em> even stumbled across a very small protest<\/a>\u2014about seven people marching down Main Street, anti-ICE signs in hand. None of the participants appeared to be directly affiliated with Sundance, but their message seemed geared toward those at the festival. \u201cYou have a voice!\u201d one cried. \u201cUse it!\u201d That evening, even more people gathered on Main Street, holding their phone flashlights aloft<\/a> in a show of solidarity against ICE.<\/p>\n In yet another line on Sunday, Park City local Michele Glicken<\/strong> told me that she usually experiences Sundance as something of a bubble. \u201cI spend so much attention on the movies and the logistics,\u201d she said, \u201cthat it\u2019s almost like I put my mind on hold.\u201d Still, she and her friends didn\u2019t seem to be bothered when a pushy journalist punctured that bubble. A film festival is not the real world\u2014but manufactured as the experience might be, it\u2019s a communal one nevertheless. Processing difficult moments is always harder in isolation. So is survival.<\/p>\n Perhaps nobody understands that last point better than Rushdie. The writer received a sustained ovation when he appeared onstage at The Ray Theatre with his wife, poet-novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths,<\/strong> and Gibney following the premiere of their documentary, which follows Rushdie through the aftermath of the 2022 knife attack that almost killed him<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though the subject matter is heavy, the movie is leavened by Rushdie\u2019s wry sense of humor. He cracked several jokes during the post-screening Q&A as well, including when Gibney steered the conversation toward the present moment. The movie, Gibney said alongside Rushdie, Griffiths, and Sundance director Eugene Hernandez,<\/strong> feels especially resonant right now, as it\u2019s about \u201chow violence unleashed by an irresponsible political leader could spread out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know who you\u2019re talking about,\u201d Rushdie said dryly, earning a big laugh.<\/p>\n Then he got serious. At this moment, said Rushdie, \u201cmaybe all of us now are feeling the risk of violence. All of us are feeling that danger is just around the corner.\u201d And not just physical danger: \u201cI really believe that for the authoritarian, culture is the enemy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Gibney spoke up, noting that he felt anxious about asking Rushdie to relive this painful experience both onscreen and again onstage. \u201cAnd yet somehow,\u201d the director said, \u201cthe film helps us kind of work through it, to a certain extent, even though it doesn\u2019t relieve the pressure or the stress. But it helps us think about it maybe a little differently.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, this is what art is for,\u201d Rushdie replied. \u201cIt\u2019s to help us think, and to help us understand, and to help us feel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n