In the wake of the passing of Proposition 8 (the bill that bans same-sex marriage in California), the all-mighty of the American born film festivals, Sundance, is finding itself in the middle of the debate.  If, unwillingly so.

Apparently, Utah (the state Sundance calls its home) is home to one of the biggest "fundraisers" for supporting the bill, channeling a reported $19 million into backing the bill.  That's right, the group is the Mormons.  Most will grasp that Utah has a large Mormon-base, which is the group of silly geese that are notable for throwing hissy fits whenever American life is threatened by "the gay".  But, because of this act that occurred in the state of Utah, many opposers of prop 8 are apparently staging boycotts of Sundance until it (hopefully) relocates from said Utah.  The outrage against the bill and Utah in general is forming a rift that might spell major problems at the forthcoming installment of Sundance (January '09).  IndieWire has posted an insightful look into this bewildering matter:

"There were times in my 20 years here when I felt like Sundance was one of the only places these voices were heard," Sundance Film Festival director of programming John Cooper told indieWIRE today, via email from a screening room. He emphasized his own very personal stake in the issue of marriage equality, noting that he and his partner, married earlier this month, live in California and have three daughters with a lesbian couple. Continuing, Cooper added, "Our location in Utah puts us in the heart of America which makes our mission just that much more important. Through the last 25 years this irony has not been lost on me...even though I usually don't talk about it in these terms."

A discussion thread on Facebook today included a number of comments defending the festival and discouraging the boycot talk. "Boycott Sundance because Mormons live in Utah?" asked filmmaker Allison Anders today, responding via Facebook, "How absurd -- I am showing my students "Safe" today by Todd Haynes and in my lecture will talk about how groundbreaking it was that "Poison" was at the festival even before the 'Class of '92' -- and in that class of '92 was included in the competition of 12, Greg Araki's film "The Long Weekend (O' Despair)" (one of the earliest indies to deal with AIDS) , and Tom Kalin's "Swoon". Sundance was for decades one of the tiny few hands that fed gay filmmakers, women filmmakers, browns, blacks, reds and everyone underrepresented on the screen, and it continues to be that for all of us. If people continue to misplace their rage over Prop 8 passing, they will change not one thing and none of us who supported the No on Prop 8 vote wants to see that happen."

I, for one, think it's ridiculous.  That's like saying if a murder happens in an apartment complex, everyone who lives in the complex should be held responsible for letting it happen in their building.  Now, I support same-sex marriage as much as the next non-Mormon, but attacking Sundance simply because it's in Utah just seems like an unecessary outlet.  Hopefully this non-related controversy won't impede the festival or its organizers so much.  It's still probably the best fest around in terms of seeing successful faces taking artsy detours, and one can only hope that radical viewpoints on same-sex marriage won't be the death knell it doesn't deserve.

Well, you can still check out the Sundance site for some uplifting viewpoints on what to look forward to this coming January.  You can also read up on the IndieWire story here.