Go Inside IndieWire’s 2024 Sundance Chili Party: See All the Pics
The annual IndieWire Sundance Chili Party cooked up some fun on January 21 in Park City, Utah.
A staple of the Sundance Film Festival, the 2024 bash was presented by 1497 and SAG-AFTRA, with additional support by Rabbit Hole, and took place at the 1497 South Asian Lodge. IndieWire editor-in-chief and SVP Dana Harris-Bridson and publisher and SVP James Israel welcomed guests ranging from filmmakers to journalists alike.
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1497 is an advocacy group supporting and uplifting talent of South Asian descent to challenge their historical exclusion from and underrepresentation in the American film and TV industry. “Alok” subject Alok Vaid-Menon was thus a perfect host for the event. In their speech, Vaid-Menon meaningfully spoke out on the new anti-trans Utah bill onstage, and talked about the importance of artists in a time of turmoil.
“When I’m feeling despair, I turn towards artists,” artist Vaid-Menon said. “What art teaches us is that beauty will forever be more powerful than violence, and that beauty is anti-violence. And what the stakes are ahead of us is not just to criticize what’s wrong, but to create something that is so compelling, so irresistible, so tantalizing, so succulent that it has the potential to redefine the world, not just reflect it. So I just wanted to say, please give yourself permission to be a little bit more beautiful. Please give yourself permission to make art that reminds people of the urgency of beauty. I believe beauty is a gravitational force that roots us back in everything that matters.”
Check out a video recap below.
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland was in attendance and gave a moving speech about the return of filmmaking after the SAG-AFTRA strike.
“If I could just get serious for one minute, I want to just say, because you don’t often get a gathering like this of the independent film community, how important the support that you gave the SAG-AFTRA members and writers was,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “Thank you. I really want to applaud you. In the case of SAG-AFTRA, as you know, we chose to have an interim agreement strategy to help us achieve what we needed to achieve at the bargaining table. And indie productions stepped forward and signed up to our interim agreement terms, showing clearly to the rest of the world that what our members were demanding was not only possible, but it was reasonable and doable. So to every one of you who helped make that happen, just know you helped bring the strike to an end. You helped our members achieve the agreement that they needed to achieve to move this industry forward, and that is appreciated and recognized by all of us.”
Crabtree-Ireland specifically thanked IndieWire for “their important role in bringing important news about what’s going on in the industry” as a whole. He additionally credited 1497 for uplifting underrepresented voices in the filmmaking community.
“Alok” director Alexandra Hedison also addressed the audience at the party, and shouted out SAG-AFTRA, 1497, and Rabbit Hole. “I’m loving what you’re doing,” she said to them. “And everyone has talked already about community and solidarity in doing this together. I want to thank IndieWire for this amazing party. To James, to Dana, for your support of independent filmmaking and creative work. This is an independent film festival, and Christopher Nolan talked a bit about how this is the one art form that we depend on each other, we depend on community.”
Go inside the annual event in the photos below.
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