I read an article in the Jan. 19 Deseret News stating that Robert Redford feels independent films and freedom of expression in art are a threat to "narrow-minded" people.
I have not had much involvement in viewing the films presented during the Sundance Film Festival until now. They require that I view five films for a class I am taking through a school district.I have had a very difficult time finding a film that I feel is "decent," i.e. without foul and crude language, sexual innuendos and violence. If avoidance of these types of films makes me "narrow-minded," I hope that I am the most narrow-minded person in the world.
The films that you are promoting in your festival leave a bad taste in my mouth. If freedom of art means that we have to view man's base nature, then as far as I am concerned, we have regressed into a barbaric people. The type of art I enjoy promotes some type of beauty that inspires us to reach for a higher plane of humanness and makes us feel good about ourselves.
I viewed the film "Prisoner of the Mountains" with my 13-year-old daughter because the Sundance Institute in Salt Lake informed me that it was a fairly decent film. Fortunately, it was in Russian and had English subtitles so that I was able to look away from the screen and cover her eyes.
As an educator I hope for a brighter future for our children. With "artistic freedom" exposing every degenerate thought, action and word possible, I shudder to think what our children will be exposed to in the future.
Dorothy C. Bradford
Sandy