If the Sundance Film Festival in Park City is the granddaddy of film events in Utah, then X-Dance is more like a younger cousin who likes to play tricks and get attention when friends come to visit.
This year, however, as the extreme sports film festival moved out of Park City into its new home in Salt Lake City, the 8-year-old film festival has grown up — with a little help from some new friends.
X-Dance moved to Utah's capital city this year when it seemed they wouldn't fit in Park City, but the move had other advantages. Sponsorships and support from the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau and Governor's Office of Economic Development gave the festival a major hand up when its other sponsors backed out at the last minute.
"Financially, it's been an extremely difficult year, but the support of the community is what has brought us back," said Brian Wimmer, who founded the festival. "We almost weren't able to do it this year, if we didn't have the local support, but they just realized they really need to pay more attention to these types of sports because they're becoming increasingly more and more popular. It's just remarkable."
The films involved with X-Dance, which wrapped up on Wednesday, feature "anything adrenaline-based," says media director Ann Wycoff. A majority of the films — including "Bra Boys," a documentary of a group of surfers in Sydney, Australia, that won its category — have international ties, but all of the films are related to aspects of the extreme sports industry.
That's what prompted the visitors bureau and the governor's office to lend a hand to the struggling event. The timing of X-Dance coincided with the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market Tradeshow taking place this week at the Salt Palace. Executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development Jason Perry said he hopes the common thread of extreme sports, as shown in the festival and displayed at the tradeshow, would strengthen Utah's standing as a mecca for outdoor recreation.
"We've been working really hard to make Utah the premiere place for outdoor equipment," Perry said. "We have great Utah companies here. These are all equipment manufacturers that the people in these films are using and we wanted to make sure to make the connection that Utah is where these films are, and this is where you need to be."
Perry said his office helped X-Dance by buying ads, helping the festival find other sponsors and working out logistics. The convention and visitors bureau helped promote the festival.
The bureau has been a sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival for the past three years — and they plan to continue to be involved with Sundance — but this is the first year for the bureau to support any other film festival.
"It was a really natural thing," said Scott Beck, CEO of the visitors bureau. "We don't do this with other festivals. We try to find and support those things in the community that represent part of the community ."
There needs to be some connection with something that's endemic to this state."
X-Dance is the only extreme sports film festival of its kind, so it's not surprising that the event draws the attention of world-renowned sports stars like extreme skier Scot Schmidt and skateboarding mogul Tony Hawk.
Both of the men were involved with the festival this year promoting films and encouraging filmmakers to raise the bar.
"The only way to expand something like (X-Dance) is to get filmmakers to do bigger budgeted projects with more Hollywood production value," said Hawk, who received the Best Athlete award this year. "Having festivals like this inspires filmmakers to ... rise above the rest, and otherwise they might not be motivated to do that."
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