The 2023 Slamdance Film Festival — an annual event focused on emerging artists — took place in-person from January 20-26 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah and virtually from January 23-29. The DGA is a longtime sponsor of the Festival.
On the first night of Slamdance, the festival held an orientation where DGA Field Representative Jennifer Peat spoke with the filmmakers whose projects were selected to screen. During the orientation, she discussed the economic and creative protections and community that DGA membership can provide and relayed that many filmmakers who are now DGA Director-members screened their early work at Slamdance such as Christopher Nolan, Lee Isaac Chung and Anthony and Joe Russo. The attendees of the orientation then introduced themselves and spoke about their projects.
On January 23, Peat traveled to University of Utah in Salt Lake City to speak again about the advantages of Guild membership with filmmakers attending the first-ever, in-person Slamdance Unstoppable Showcase.
Slamdance Unstoppable features films made by filmmakers with visible and non-visible disabilities and is programmed exclusively by disabled artists. Inspired by a letter to Slamdance Co-Founder Peter Baxter from filmmaker and disability awareness advocate Juliet Romeo, Slamdance Unstoppable aims to eliminate the prejudices and gate-keeping that have historically kept disabled filmmakers from being represented in the entertainment industry and has now become an integral part of the Festival’s DNA.
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