Advertisement
Last week after California passed the gay marriage ban Proposition 8, gay rights advocate and blogger John Aravosis called for a boycott of Utah businesses, specifically the Sundance Film Festival, which is headquartered at the Park City Marriott, which is owned by pro-Prop 8 donor Brent Andrus. Aravosis’ logic was that if the Mormon church was going to pump money into supporting a law that would impact Hollywood liberals, Hollywood liberals should enact their revenge by refusing to pump money into Mormon businesses.
I didn’t hop on this story when I first heard about it over the weekend, because it seemed so obviously crazy that I thought it would never stick. With Prop 8 now in the hands of the appellate courts, why waste energy on a revenge gambit that would inflict major collateral damage on innocent bystanders? And in fact, by Monday the indie film community at large began speaking out against the proposed boycott.
Yesterday, the festival released a statement urging against the boycott: “Sundance Institute was founded on the idea of championing diversity and freedom of expression. It would be a grave disappointment to us if our Festival were to be singled out for a boycott, especially as we celebrate 25 years of showcasing independent voices.” And at indieWIRE, Eugene Hernandez collected further statements from the Sundance camp, as well as criticism of the boycott from filmmaker Alison Anders and producer Ross Katz. Other members of the indie film world, including producer Bob Hawk and AFI’s Shaz Bennett, chimed in with anti-boycott sentiment in the comments.
Even Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has given his blessing to the ongoing Prop 8 protests (and in the language of bodybuilding metaphor, no less!), but –and do correct me if I’m wrong — I can’t find evidence that anyone in the film community thinks the Sundance boycott is a good idea. Aravosis hasn’t published anything about it since Friday; it’ll be interesting to see if he keeps fighting for the boycott in the face of so much indie film opposition, or if he just quietly lets the idea die.
UPDATE: Below, Salt Lake City-based journalist Sean Means comments: “Except that Andrus’ company, while it owns plenty of Marriotts in southern California, doesn’t own the one in Park City. Another firm does.” According to David Poland, there’s evidence that the hotel was owned by Sunstone Hotel Investors as recently as 2005; it’s possible the hotel has changed hands since then, but since the website for Andrus’ Huntington Hotel Group is currently down for “maintenance,” it’s hard to verify it either way. Even if Andrus doesn’t own the Marriott in question, it probably doesn’t really matter, since the boycott seems to be more about punishing the people of Utah en masse anyway. Which, of course, is one of the reasons why it is dumb.
Kevin Buist
FLAME + CITRON Review
Christopher Campbell
Happy Halloween Links. Today in Film...
Brandon Harris
5 80s Literary Adaptations Worse Than...
Kevin Kelly
John Krasinski, Brief Interviews With...
Karina Longworth
SpoutBlog, Now Available in Book Form
Paul Moore
October 31, Karina’s Last Day
Lauren Wissot
Sasha Grey Interview
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
Ugh, this frustrates me. Yes, I’m mormon, but just because I’m mormon doesn’t mean I support the church’s opposition to gay marriage. I think punishing Utah as a result of the mormon church would be like punishing hollywood because of scientology.
Can they move Sundance to another hotel not owned by someone who supports discrimination? Is this the only hotel in Park City, UT?
I used to spend several weeks and tons of money each summer in Utah. Now, I’ll not even drive through it (don’t want to drop a dime even for gas).
Fuck Utah and the bigots who control it.
I am sure that all the producers and operators involved in Sundance are certainly 100% devout Mormons.
This is a great idea! Next, everyone should boycott Italy. After all, the Catholics were right there with the Mormons for Prop. 8, and they run Italy.
The Mormons are laughing their heads off at the protests and the screams. Free publicity, and advancing their name to first place as Defender of Traditional Marriage. Think about it. Gays protesting outside a church makes the target audience for churches more likely, not less likely, to attend. The gay backlash against the Mormons has made other Christian churches reach out in support to their beleaguered Mormon neighbors, accomplishing something the Mormons have been unable to achieve without gay help.
Politics always strives for maximum collateral damage. That’s how they call attention to issues and themselves. See? We are already discussing it! And I am not in the US either. I was just following the Sundance tag. So there, they have their attention.
It does look like politicians (and their supporters) have set out to hijack the festival in some way or other. It will soon become a “you are with us or against us” kind of situation. Whether we agree with the “issue’ or not, collateral damage is a reality that we have to face.
Let’s just hope better sense will prevail… over the years Sundance definitely has grown beyond its Utah origins or reach!
For gays, the only character trait that they have is that they are gay. They have no individual opinions but follow their club leaders to whatever demonstration or boycott. It’s about time that people become aware of the dictatorial, collective nature of the gay movement, and the many people in politics and the judical system that support it.
Except that Andrus’ company, while it owns plenty of Marriotts in southern California, doesn’t own the one in Park City. Another firm does.
I think it’s hard to boycott the entire state, and especially liberal leaning Park City and the festival. I do agree however with the idea of boycotting Marriott and encouraging the festival organizers to go with a different hotel.
I can’t believe anyone is wasting time or energy on this. What a joke.
I’ve written all of the Sundance sponsors asking that they exert their influence to move Sundance outside of UT this year, to respect the LGBT Boycott over Prop 8.
Sonsors listed here
http://www.sundance.org/festival/press_industry/releases/2008-01-14-sponsors.asp
These companies and the Sundance organizers KNOW gays/lesbians, do they suppose the people they KNOW will remember or forget who stood with us while our families were attacked and who didn’t.
If you thought the later, you don’t know gay folks, I still won’t buy FL orange juice or Coors beer…decades later.
[...] and it’s headquarters ( the Park City Marriott - owned by pro-Prop 8 donor Brent Andrus) in an effort to get folks to boycott the festival. The logic being that many in Hollywood are affected by or disagree with Prop 8 and therefore they [...]
The entire maternal side of my family are LDS members, who love and respect me as openly gay. It’s not individual Mormons who are my enemies, the LDS elders are. It will take an entire boycott of UTAH to exert the displeasure with the LDS elders to stop attacking LGBT families in other States. If Mormons can’t attack from Utah where they have the strongest percentage of undilluted LDS voters, they can’t do it ANYWHERE…again.
i will NEVER return to UT or spend a dime on UT products…no matter what happens in the appelate court in CA.
If you smug straight folks think a State being boycotted by queers and our friendsis a JOKE,,,,ask Colorado where over 40 Million in tourism in the 90s went?
It’s funny, as now they are focusing on companies that are tied (even loosely) to the church. While eBay founder and executives voted against Prop 8, will eBay be targeted based on the fact that they have a large support operation in SLC?
What a joke. As a non-mormon Utahn…no one likes to be judged by blanketed statements. Yet the Prop 8 naysyayers (who hate blanketed judgements) are now saying…yeah, let’s ruin the Utah brand…it’s a hate state.
You can say fuck Utah all you want…but there are so many here that were against Amendment 3 in 2004 - who were also against Prop 8 in 2008…but fuck us, right? Funny how the Californian’s weren’t up in arms when Utah passed Amendment 3 four years ago. Funny how it’s such a big deal now.
Do you hate states if they are predominately black? Do you hate neighborhoods because they are predominately gay? Probably not…but go ahead, hate Utah - we must all be backwards here. I know plenty of mormons and non-mormons that don’t support the church opposition.
You might want to research the other crappy things that have been passed here - but also research how many were opposed to it.
You smart a$$ straights are all bravura when a Boycott begins, when your tourism CRATERS…ya ain’t throwin’ sh*t at queers anymore, you’re trying to find out how do we FIX THIS? How do we get them queers to spend their money with us again? what queer (Mary Cheney) do we know who might even get in the door to talk with queers?
BITE ME!
LDS you put your foot on our throats for the LAST TIME. You began this fight,, and gays/lesbians and our allies will end it.
Well, sure It was all Utah’s fault. We have plenty of non-mormons living here. We have a very large GLBT community here. Don’t you remember Elton John thanking his friends in Utah? Some of our gays own businesses. But yeah, fuck ALL the citizens of utah, because we voted for prop 8. Oh wait, that was a majority of Californians….
Fuck California, and fuck your boycott.
I’ll be boycotting any actor that goes….
This is in response to more than a few posts. First of all, the Marriott is not the sole reason for the boycott. The main theater is owned or managed by someone who donated $10,000 to yes on 8. Going to Sundance would mean putting money into somebody’s bigoted pocket. And to sb…i want to understand, so please help me…you are saying that the gay “club” are just followers?!? I’m sure I would never make that statement about the Mormon “club” or any other whack job religious group. And finally, of course we would not boycott a state because it is predominantly black…only predominantly Mormon.
We have had family reunions in Utah for many years, and plan our vacations so we can all attend the Sundance Festivals.
We also have a gay son, who is married ( Massachusetts ), to his partner of 14 years …. they own a home, a business, and pay a lot of property and school taxes.
The Mormon ‘Church’ has poured millions into a zealot crusade to destroy the legal / civil right of Gay people to have legal protection for their relationships ….
WE WILL NOT spend another penny in Utah, period.
The Mormon cult can wet their magic undies about it, but I hope the idea of boycotting that Mormon controlled state takes off and costs them millions.
They are religiously insane fascists working to destroy other peoples civil rights.
We will vacation in Massachusetts from now on.
Gays on Sundance Boycott:
indieWIRE
PARK CITY ‘09 | In the Wake of Prop 8, Film Community & Fest Organizers Defend Sundance Amidst Talk of Boycott
Boycott Utah.
Boycott Mormons.
Boycott Sundance.
[...] and it’s headquarters ( the Park City Marriott - owned by pro-Prop 8 donor Brent Andrus) in an effort to get folks to boycott the festival. The logic being that many in Hollywood are affected by or disagree with Prop 8 and therefore they [...]