Robert Redford avoids politics at film festival

Actor and film-maker Robert Redford opened the Sundance Independent Film Festival on Thursday by steering clear of politics and instead criticising the news industry.
“The news media world has shrunk into more of a sound bite world. Everything’s so clipped and short, it gives you no time to digest, no time to contemplate. It’s already moving on to the next event,” Redford said at Sundance’s opening news conference.
Documentaries, on the other hand, were filling the gap Redford said, highlighting their growing role at the industry’s biggest indie film festival.
“I felt like documentaries are having a more important role than ever because it becomes long-form journalism. It has a chance to really tell the story so the public can really digest it and see how they feel.”
The 80-year-old Oscar-winning film-maker faced numerous questions about Republican US President-elect Donald Trump, who took office yesterday.
Much of Hollywood opposed Trump in the 2016 elections and instead raised millions of dollars for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Redford did reflect on one of his most notable roles, as Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward in the 1976 Watergate thriller All the...