To my filmmaker friends, please read, especially if you are at Sundance

By James LeBrecht
Founder and Lead Sound Designer
Berkeley Sound Artists

The Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker's lodge is located in a historical building where there is no elevator to take you to the lodge. I have been trying to convince the festival for well over 7 years to fix this issue.

The festival's best solution is this: "Sundance Institute works to make each of its venues physically accessible for all Festivalgoers. All Festival venues and theatres are ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible. For reservations or more information, contact Sundance Institute at (435) 658-3456.

The Filmmaker Lodge, housed in the Park City Elks Building, falls under historical preservation standards and does not have an elevator. However, Sundance Institute does have a Stair-Trac on site that meets ADA requirements. A 24-hour notice is needed and appreciated for patrons needing access to the Stair-Trac. For additional information on this, please contact Sundance Institute at (435) 658-3456"
 

24 hour access is better than no access, but the 24 hour policy does not allow for spontaneous meetings or networking to happen at the lodge. If you needed 24 hour notice to get to the lodge because you were Jewish or a woman, you would be as outraged as I am.

The festival moved the location of the lodge to the Elks building a number of years ago after using another location. I had repeatedly asked the festival to move the Lodge to an accessible location, but they say that they can't. They say they have a limited number of venues that they rent.

I cannot attend Sundance anymore because I can't get enough air at that altitude. But there are others with mobility issues that continue to go to the festival and they are being discriminated against.

I think that it would be helpful if people attending Sundance took notice of this and were as vocal as possible about the festival’s lack of commitment to accommodating the disabled at the festival. A stair lift is a big expense for them, but 24 hour notice still leaves us as second class citizens.

If the disabled are to become employed and seen as equal participants in the world and in our industry, then we need to be treated as such. No wait periods to join the party, no exceptions that might be legal.

Thanks, Jim LeBrecht

PS- If you are at a party sponsored by an organization (HBO or PBS for example) that is being held somewhere that is inaccessible, please point that out to those you know in those organizations. I pursued this issue with PBS years ago and they told me that they had no choice, that the venue was specified by the Festival. I think that if any large organization threatened to pull their sponsorship if their event's venue wasn't accessible, Sundance would have found them a suitable location.