THIRTY years ago, movie star Robert Redford decided to create a film festival to promote America’s fledgling independent film industry. “But I didn’t want to do it in New York or LA,” he says. “I said, let’s put it in Utah, let’s make it hard to get to. Let’s make it weird.”

    Three decades on, the Sundance Film Festival at Park City in Utah is showing indie movies from 37 different countries and is bringing in about US$375 million to the local economy.

    But Redford doesn’t see Sundance’s business as being business.

    “We are nothing to do with the box office, we are a nonprofit organization.

    “We started Sundance as a place to come and develop new artists, with the ambition of creating a community and giving them a platform for their work. I don’t think our mission has changed at all.

    “Thirty years ago, these people had nowhere to go. Now I’m very proud that actually, the directors of ‘Gravity’ and ‘American Hustle,’ Alfonso Cuaron and David O Russell, actually came up through Sundance, and now they work in the mainstream.

    “I think independent films are seen by a bigger audience these days, and we do know that changing the platform of distribution is inevitable, and we will ride that wave.

    “But look at something like Kickstarter — that is an innovation which is giving new life to independent cinema.”

    Zach Braff’s first film “Garden State” became a cult hit after it was shown in 2004. One Kickstarter-funded film screening at Sundance is “Wish I Was Here,” the first film Zach Braff has made since 2004’s “Garden State.”

    As well as Braff, the festival boasts its usual stellar list of acting talent who brave the snows of Park City, including Kristen Stewart, playing a Guantanamo Bay guard in “Camp X-Ray,” the debut feature film by graphic designer Peter Sattler.

    Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon bring comedy with Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip to Italy,” while Keira Knightley has already received rave reviews for her part in “Laggies,” a coming of age 20-something comedy directed by Lynn Shelton, who set it in her hometown of Seattle.

    “Doing independent cinema is often a better experience than doing studio films,” explains Knightley.

    “There are so many retakes, and waiting to set up shots in blockbusters, that you can lose the momentum, particularly if you have to act against a green screen.

    “In a low-budget film, you have to get it right and it’s like being in the theater — you’ve only got one chance.

    While the actors’ pay in independent cinema is often so low that only established stars can take the roles, Sundance has, nevertheless, launched new stars every year — from Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone” to Felicity Jones in “Like Crazy.”

    However, the festival’s biggest success remains its documentary program, one of the first to be established at an event like this.

    Four out of the five Oscar nominees in this year’s documentary category debuted at Sundance in 2013.

    This year, the event is screening films on subjects as diverse as former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney, film critic Roger Ebert and “Star Trek” icon George Takei, as well as real-life thrillers like “The Green Prince” — the true story of the friendship that formed between a Hamas informer and his Israeli handler.

    “I think Sundance has been a game-changer for the documentary,” remarks John Battsek, the British producer behind “The Green Prince” and last year’s Oscar winner, “Searching for Sugarman.”

    While 56 films compete across the different categories at Sundance, the reality is that only a handful will receive a theatrical release.

    Redford is adamant though, that the festival has a winning formula:

    “We are who we are and we’ll stay who we are,” he says. “And if I had a message for other festivals who want to do the same thing, I guess it would be ‘don’t even try.’”

    The Sundance Film Festival runs through Sunday.(SD-Agencies)“Storytellers broaden our minds: engage, provoke, inspire, and ultimately, connect us.”