This year we achieved a long standing goal - to offer artists the opportunity to exhibit and patrons the opportunity to watch in their own communities, the finest independent entertainment in first class, state of the art cinemas on a daily basis, not just for ten days in January. The Sundance Cinemas are born.

The community of Sundance started with the simple intention to create something respectful of the natural environment, which also helped develop new voices and get them to wider audiences. Along the way, the community of Sundance, of course, grew and diversified. Sundance, the place at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains in Utah anchored these intentions.

There, embraced by the natural beauty of these wild lands, the non-profit Sundance Institute was founded by myself and some friends. We went on to build the learning experience embodied in our filmmaker labs, which continue to this day. Over the years we kept an ear attuned to the needs of the artist, and it resulted in a full array of innovative programming dedicated to independent art and voice. We started the Sundance Catalog, in part, to support the work of the Institute but to also support a different kind of artist and their craft.

The Sundance Film Festival was the natural extension for our work with emerging film artists. It would allow us to bring their stories to more and more people who wouldn't have had the opportunity to experience them otherwise. Throughout the years, we premiered many 'small' films that went on to critical and audience acclaim. In order to emphasize the independent nature of our mission, we made the Festival the first and only festival dedicated to the exhibition of independent film. It remains so today.

The emergence of cable television as a formidable distribution force provided the next piece in the puzzle in our quest to get new and often provocative voices out there in a bigger way and to more people. Today, Sundance Channel reaches tens of millions of homes with a diversified offering of great entertainment from the arena of independent film and original programming.

The goal was to create opportunities for new and independent work to flourish all year, and so the notion of bringing Sundance physically to communities in a creative collaboration seemed a great idea.

This year we achieved a long standing goal - to offer artists the opportunity to exhibit and patrons the opportunity to watch in their own communities, the finest independent entertainment in first class, state of the art cinemas on a daily basis, not just for ten days in January. The Sundance Cinemas are born.

Please let us know how we're doing,

RR