Harvard and Sundance Share the Same Brain

8 things the elite institutions have in common

Jan 16, 2024

Everyone wants to get in. And it’s easy to see why.

It’s the biggest name and the most prestigious place to be. Whether you’re rich and famous or you yearn to be, it’s where you want to go. If you get in, it will be a part of your bio forever.

What am I referring to?

Here’s another hint: Its first black female leader recently stepped down in the wake of a free speech-related controversy.

Of course, I’m talking about Harvard. And the Harvard of Movies, the Sundance Film Festival, which starts this week.

Back in 2015 and 2016, my wife and I had a hard time convincing film industry gatekeepers that our new feature documentary, Can We Take a Joke?, was really relevant. Our film explored a new concept called “outrage culture,” and industry execs assured us that such kookiness would confine itself to a handful of college campuses.

On the one hand, our journey had a happy ending because the film got picked up by a name distributor (Samuel Goldwyn Films) and enjoyed wide distribution. On the other hand, it’s hard to avoid framing it as a sad ending because the film’s warning—that this new wave of intolerance would indeed pollute our culture—turned out to be true.

Now we’re on the cusp of releasing another feature documentary that addresses campus speech (more details very soon!). But we’ll be releasing The Coddling of the American Mind into a very different word. In years past, I might have considered submitting our film to Sundance, but not this year.

Might as well save my submission fee because there is no way the Sundance of today would welcome a film that challenges so many of its dogmas, dogmas that were either borrowed from or strengthened by university heavyweights like Harvard.

First, let me say that I like many things about Harvard (and not just its motto) and Sundance. I love indie films, and yes, these days Sundance is about as indie as Disney. Can you really call a film indie if it’s executive produced by eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll or directed by Steven Soderbergh?

But you can still find some indie fare if you look hard enough.

And Sundance has spawned plenty of excellent work over the years including one of my wife’s favorites Sex, Lies, and Videotape (that’s back when a Soderbergh film really qualified as indie).

I love indie music, and Sundance can be a great spot for that too. Sundance was where I stumbled upon my beloved Handsome Furs.

Sundance also generates odd encounters.

It’s where I met the delightful B-movie icon Lloyd Kauffman, who, given his filmography (Toxic Avenger!) and complete lack of pretension, is about as un-Sundance as it gets.

For reference, Kaufman’s vibe is the exact opposite of this Sundance director:

But enough with the diversions, let’s get to some parallels!

A mind-body transfer movie that switched a Harvard staffer with a Sundance staffer wouldn’t be funny at all. That’s because each would be mostly familiar with the other’s world.

They’d feel right at home at dinner parties and conferences. By and large, they’d like the same things and hate the same things—even the jargon and dietary restrictions would be mostly the same.

This may end up as a topic that only interests me, but the more I think about it, the more fascinated I am by the commonalities between academia and entertainment, between Harvard and Sundance.

Here’s some of what I mean …

1. They both have conservative roots.

Harvard started as a divinity school and Sundance used to give out Frank Capra awards, the first of which went to Jimmy Stewart.

If he were around today, Stewart would have no chance of winning an award at Sundance. He’d be lucky to get his parking validated.

2. Each has a Pritzker on its board.

Thanks to inheriting Hyatt money, Pritzker family members can be found on all kinds of “richest people in the world” lists. They often funnel their fortunes to progressive causes and politics. (J.B. Pritzker is the governor of Illinois and was thought to be a possible last-minute Biden replacement in this year’s presidential race).

3. They’re both big on legacy admissions.

An executive producer for a Luther Vandross documentary premiering at Sundance has enjoyed 11(!) Park City premieres.

4. When it comes to free expression, they speak out of both sides of their mouths.

Harvard’s split personality was on display for all the world to see during Claudine Gay’s recent congressional testimony. Read Sundance’s Community Agreement, and you’ll see some similar waffling.

It commits to “the open exchange of ideas and perspectives,” but also includes familiar tells, like prohibiting hate speech and “lifting up anti-racist practices,” that suggest Sundance will police speech that doesn’t conform to its ideological commitments.

Neither Harvard nor Sundance needed microaggression theory to be proven effective before seizing on it as a way to view the world and judge speech.

In fact, both Harvard and Sundance employ versions of the Bias Response Teams that leave campus environments more chilled than Utah in January. Did some audience member make you feel unsafe during a Q&A, better report him!

5. They’re both devoted to a narrow definition of diversity.

A commitment to certain types of diversity (such as race and sex) is embedded into nearly everything they do (Sundance even tags films as “BIPOC,” “Women-centered,” “LGBTQ+,” and so on.)

But if you want to make everyone really uncomfortable at a panel discussion, ask participants what they’re doing to foster viewpoint diversity.

6. Both are intellectual monocultures.

You must not always affirm the monoculture, but you must not challenge it. That seems to be one unwritten rule abided by both Harvard and Sundance.

According to my highly-flawed methodology (based on online synopses), 14 of the 20 feature films premiering at Sundance this year affirm the monoculture view on issues ranging from policing to the 2016 election.

Here’s a sample:

Will & Harper: “When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.”
Winner: “Reality is an unconventional whistleblower who ends up being prosecuted for exposing Russia’s hacking of the 2016 election.”
Power: “Driven to maintain social order, policing in the United States has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now, American policing embodies one word: power.”
The American Society of Magical Negroes: “A young man, Aren, is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making white people’s lives easier.”
Freaky Tales: “The supernatural storm brewing above Oakland empowers its ensemble of underdog warriors with a spirit of righteous retribution as they take on bullies, corruption, racism, misogyny, the Man, and the Lakers.”
Sue Bird: In The Clutch: “In her 21-year professional career, WNBA basketball legend Sue Bird has won five Olympic gold medals and become the most successful point guard to ever play the game. Alongside her fiancée, U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Sue confronts her next challenge: retiring from the only life she’s ever known.”

Sundance is merely following the Ivies’ lead.

After decades of maintaining fairly decent levels of viewpoint diversity, academia has plunged into uniformity. Dissent is often least common at the most elite institutions. Whether it’s beliefs or donations, you probably won’t be surprised by Harvard’s politics.

And at 51 of the top-liberal arts colleges, the faculty ratio of Democrats to Republicans stands at:

8 to 1 in political science
17 to 1 in philosophy, history, and psychology
48 to 1 in English
70 to 1 in religion

7. Politics trumps identity.

Support for those from underrepresented groups often fizzles when people step out of line politically.

In the case of Meg Smaker, she didn’t even step out of line. Sundance moved the line.

Smaker was a first-time female director who made an excellent film, but none of that mattered when a Sundance mutiny sunk her film Jihad Rehab (now renamed The Unredacted). Overnight Smaker went from Sundance darling to Sundance heretic.

That story arc will sound familiar to Roland Fryer. He was born into poverty, but nothing could stop the black economist wunderkind until Harvard’s monoculture enveloped him.

8. They both manufacture a pretend world where racial minorities agree with progressives.

On issues ranging from policing to free speech, microaggressions, and racial preferences, you probably won’t find out what typical black, brown and Asian people think by watching Sundance movies or attending Harvard lectures.

Consider racial preferences.

Harvard might like you to believe that minorities favor them, but that’s not true. You’ll never guess where Harvard profs come down on the issue.

Ted Balaker is a filmmaker, and former network newser and think tanker. His recent work includes Little Pink House starring Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn, Can We Take a Joke? featuring Gilbert Gottfried and Penn Jillette, and a soon-to-be-released feature documentary based on the bestselling book, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.