Spencer Alcorn

The Sundance Film Festival’s reputation may have been made on screen, but in recent years, as the Fest evolved into a hub of cultural conversation, there’s been a groundswell of live events, affectionately referred to as the Offscreen section.

The best thing about Offscreen is its variety. Do you enjoy intimate fireside chats? Provocative conversations between some of the most prominent cultural icons of the moment? Engaging panels that convene unexpected combinations of well-known experts? Whatever piques your interest, there’s an Offscreen event for it.

Still not convinced? As a snapshot, just take a look at the lineup we have going on today:

• Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ai Weiwei, Julie Taymor, Kerry Washington, and Carrie Mae Weems talk artwork as a catalytic cultural and sociopolitical force at Power of Story: Just Art.
• Engage with Maria Ressa, protagonist of Festival doc A Thousand Cuts, and New Yorker columnist Masha Gessen (Welcome to Chechnya), journalists who have both taken on autocratic heads of state, as they talk about what it takes for journalists to go up against powerful regimes—and what is at stake if they don’t—at Truth to Power.
• Enjoy a fireside chat between friends and collaborators Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent (The Nowhere Inn) at Cinema Café.
• Ponder The Feeling of Exile with filmmakers Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation), Oleg Sentsov (Gamer), and surgeon-turned-comedian Bassem Youssef—all of whom have found themselves exiled from their home countries, censored, or imprisoned for their work. How have their experiences informed their art, and how has their art informed their experiences?
• Celebrate the intersection of, well, music and film at the Celebration of Music in Film, Presented by Southwest Airlines, with performances by Rufus Wainwright, Sharon Van Etten (featured in a supporting role in the Sundance Film Festival title Never Rarely Sometimes Always), and Cuban composer Jorge Aragón Brito (an alumni of the Film Music Program).