One year after Donald Trump became President of a clearly deeply divided United States, the Sundance Film Festival will be among various cities and towns in America next week rallying in commemoration and continuation of 2017’s Women’s Marches.
Of course, after the sexual harassment and sexual assault claims that have dominated Hollywood the past few months, this year’s gathering takes on even deeper implications, especially in one of the Ground Zeros of Harvey Weinstein’s allegedly vile actions.
Being billed as a Respect Rally, organizers of last year’s March on Main are pulling together a gathering for January 20 at 10 AM Utah time in Park City. “After Trump and then (Harvey) Weinstein, Sundance is an essential spotlight for promoting the issues that we took to the streets last year,” said one insider of the planned rally across from the Library in Park City.
“We take this opportunity to join in solidarity with members of the local community and visitors from the global creative community to demonstrate and voice our respect for all ethnicities, religions, genders, political and sexual orientations, to commune in respect for our land, our water and our air, and to show deference for each person’s individual experience and belief system,” organizers have said on social media of the assembly.
While a Hollywood heavy contingent is expected on what will officially be the third and certainly packed day of SFF 2018, the speaker’s list is still being finalized we hear. Not officially a Sundance event, the Rally, like last year’s March, is likely to attract Sundance Institute boss Keri Putnam and others from the Robert Redford founded fest.
Here in LA, where last year’s Women’s March drew a massive crowd of 750,000, the speaker’s list for next week looks to be pretty settled and solid. Having taken the stage in DTLA last year before heading to Park City for the film Burning Sands, Alfre Woodard will be speaking this year in Grand Park on the morning of January 20.
The Luke Cage star will be joined by the Black Widow herself Scarlett Johansson, Larry Wilmore, Chloe Bennet, Rowan Blanchard, Yvette Nicole Brown, former Chicago PD star Sophia Bush, Laverne Cox, Scandal’s ex-POTUS Tony Goldwyn, Paris Jackson, Megan Mullally, Idina Menzel, Maxwell Olivia Munn, Nicole Richie, departed E! News host Catt Sadler, Adam Scott and Olivia Wilde. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and Melissa Etheridge will be performing too.
With an emphasis on preparing for the 2018-midterm elections, more names are expected to be added in the next week. We know that LA Mayor Eric Garcetti will be at the event this year as he was last year along with representatives of the ACLU, the Black Lives Matters movement, Planned Parenthood, and GLADD.
Starting a bit later than last year’s 8,000 strong attended March on Main, the 2018 Park City rally is scheduled to go to around 11:30 AM MST and hence will allow buyers, dealmakers and moviegoers to hit their marks on one of Sundance’s critical days. The Los Angeles’ Women’s March will start at 8:30 AM PST at DTLA’s Pershing Square before heading over to near City Hall later in the morning. Similar events are planned for NYC and elsewhere across America on January 20.
We will update as we learn more about the Respect Rally’s speakers and other information.
