Sundance Roundtable, Parts 3 & 4: "Who's the audience?"

Producers gather to talk about the state of movies and moviegoing at last year's Sundance Film Festival. Photo by indieWIRE

A question that Christine Vachon was hearing at last year's Sundance Film Festival surrounded Lee Daniels' "Precious" (then called, "Push"). "Who's the audience," she heard people wonder. "It kind of pisses me off," she said during a roundtable conversation with a leading group of producers at Sundance '09.

Ted Hope from This is That and Vachon from Killer Films gathered an illustrious group of film producers to talk about the state of movies and moviegoing and this week we are showcasing the conversation on indeWIRE.

In Park City, at the Swan Ecocenter, they were joined by Rachel Cohen (producer, "Motherhood”), Lisa Cortes (producer, “Precious”), Katherine Dieckmann (director, “Motherhood”), Bill Horberg (“The Kite Runner,” “The Quiet Runner”), Paul Mezey (“Maria Full of Grace”), Maud Nadler (formerly of HBO Films), John Penotti (GreeneStreet Films), Mary Jane Skalski (producer, “Dare,” “The Visitor”) and  Marina Zenovich (director, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired”)

The discussion is a continuation of a conversation that was presented earlier this week on indieWIRE in two parts.

PART 3

It's a matter of producers educating distributors, observed Lisa Cortes, a producer of "Precious," who spoke about her previous experience in the music business, working with Russell Simmons and Def Jam.

PART 4

And in the conclusion of the four part series, the group of producers aim to bring a bit of hope to the conversation.

"There's always going to be an audience," they agree, but the way that a producer finds that audience will evolve. How can producers develop a relationship with that audience and better connect with it?

This is their challenge.