Redford Bringing Silver Screen to the Cell Phone Screen

Nov. 8, 2006 — -- Robert Redford plans on bringing indie films to the very small screen -- specifically cell phones all over the world.

In a new experiment starting in February 2007, the Sundance Institute will release five short films it has commissioned to any and every cell phone that can play them.

"The goal is, if this all works out after we launch this, more people in the world will see these films than any form of cinema," Redford said, when launching the Global Short Films Project today in New York.

Sundance recently turned 25, and "to me that [cell phone] was the new venue of where we were going to next," he said.

Sundance has evolved from resort and retreat for aspiring filmmakers in 1981, to film labs for experimental works, to a film festival, television channel, and soon-to-be cinemas.

Redford has been successful as an actor, and as a producer of more heady and art-house feature films that have been best viewed in large, quiet theaters.

However, he realizes that even today's time-starved consumer could watch these clips.

"People on subways, people on buses, people traveling, people waiting, or people taking a break and they just have a 15-minute break and they want to amuse themselves or catch up with something," he said.

The GSM, or Global Systems for Mobile Communications standard, is more popular in the rest of the world than in the United States.

The short films will be distributed through GSMA, or Global System Mobile Association, a global trade association representing more than 700 different providers that include more than 2.6 billion phones.

Some of the providers may begin bundling the films as offerings for their users. The GSMA also plans to make the movies available to users on CDMA networks such as Verizon in the United States.

These five movies, by filmmakers including those behind hits such as "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Better Luck Tomorrow," will be free, and transferable via Bluetooth, infrared, or flash memory from phone to phone.