Celebrating Innovative Storytelling at Sundance Film Festival 2019

Our sweaters and snow boots are packed and we’re ready to join thousands of storytellers at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off this week in Utah.

Dell and Sundance Institute are committed to supporting filmmakers, editors, and others in the media and entertainment industry; and we are excited to be the official technology sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival (January 24 – February 3) for the second year running. Dell will also be a Sundance sustainability partner, working closely with the team to bring attention to the importance of recycling and driving social and environmental good throughout the festival and beyond.

Dell enables customers to accelerate the cycle of innovation. We see how technology can empower creators to push boundaries; whether that be through the incredible films showcased at the festival, or the innovative ways in which technology is used in the creative process.

We are proud to provide the technology that creates an immersive, incredible experience for Sundance attendees. Dell workstations, displays and PCs will power the New Frontier showcase and support the Sundance Institute team to develop everything from billboard signage to demos, presentations, and the creation of daily recaps. Behind the scenes, Dell EMC infrastructure solutions have been deployed to provide compute and storage to support the ticketing process and keep the festival running smoothly.

Open to all from January 25 – 28, the Dell Den in Park City will offer a relaxed, social atmosphere to network with like-minded creators, and we’ll be hosting workshops and panels focused on a broad range of topics impacting the industry.

The #DellDen program this year includes:

  • The Women of Sundance
    • Two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Ondi Timoner will host live WeTalk panels to spotlight some of the most innovative work being made by women. This special WeTalk event will feature some of the most highly-anticipated titles premiering at the festival. Ondi will be joined by the directors and producers of The Great Hack, The Inventor, This is Personal, Before You Know It and Shooting the Mafia. The show will culminate with a panel featuring filmmaker Amy Berg and the DGA-nominated, Chai Vasarhelyi, director of Free Solo – the highest grossing documentary of all time.
  • Creating Positive Change
    • Environmentalist and Waterkeeper Alliance founder Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the team behind Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky) will discuss the intersecting ways artists, activists, lawyers, politicians and citizens can affect positive change in the face of human-caused environmental crises.
  • The Business of Multicultural Hollywood & Storytelling Innovations
    • JuVee Productions’ Josh Nelson and Rob Williams will discuss the economics of the entertainment industry, why supporting multicultural-driven content and creators is great for business and will also share how technology innovations are key to the process of turning out next-level work.
  • Making the VR impossible, possible without breaking the bank
    • Dell’s commercial VR/AR solutions specialist Gary Radburn, and industry experts from CreamVR will explore the technology and resource developments for the future of VR Storytelling.
  • Storytelling Techniques and fast editing fixes
    • Maxim Jago is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, author, keynote, and futurist. As well as directing more than 30 short films, Maxim is an Adobe Master Trainer and the author of the Adobe Premiere Pro Classroom in a Book. Maxim will be sharing the valuable tips and techniques he lives by as a director, storyteller, technologist, and communicator.
  • WSJ: The future of film
    • The Wall Street Journal will be joined by special guests to drive a series of panels to explore the future of storytech, the future of equality and the future of deals.

Alongside these sessions, attendees will have an opportunity to get hands-on with systems that are designed for professional creators, like our Ready for VR Dell Precision workstations and 8K displays for the highest resolution visuals and immersive workflows, plus our latest laptops for creators on the go.

An “Ask an Expert” area will be staffed by Adobe product specialists who also support the biggest Hollywood productions using Premiere Pro. They will be on hand to provide technical guidance, workflow advice and post production tips and tricks. We’ll also have cutting-edge, immersive Virtual Reality experiences to try, and an opportunity to have a stunning portrait taken by the renowned photographer, Mark Mann.

Sundance always features a profoundly inspirational group of creators and we’re so proud to support their work and empower their storytelling with the best possible tools. We’re looking forward to a great festival!

If you’re in Park City this weekend, please feel free to stop by the Dell Den at 528 Main St., or check out the highlights using #DellDen #Sundance.