Peter Baxter is president and co-founder of Slamdance and a filmmaker.

Career

Slamdance Film Festival

In 1995 Baxter co-founded

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which als ...

as an independent alternative to

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

. Since its inception, Baxter has been responsible for developing Slamdance into a showcase for the discovery of new talent. Filmmakers who first gained notice at the festival include

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&n ...

, Oren Peli, Marc Forester, Jared Hess,

Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series '' Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations ...

Bong Joon-ho Bong Joon-ho (, ; Hanja: 奉俊昊; born September 14, 1969) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. The recipient of four Academy Awards, his filmography is characterised by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black ...

, Behn Zeitlin, Anthony and Joe Russo, Andrew Huang, Seth Gordon, Matt Johnson and

Lynn Shelton Lynn Shelton (August 27, 1965 – May 16, 2020) was an American filmmaker, known for writing, directing, and producing such films as '' Humpday'' and '' Your Sister's Sister''. She was associated with the mumblecore genre. Early life Shelton was ...

. When the festival began it received 48 submissions. Slamdance now receives around 10,000 submissions every year. Baxter created Slamdance's mantra "by filmmakers, for filmmakers" based on the fact the organization is fully programmed by filmmakers. After helping launch the festival, Baxter then started a screenplay competition for new writers. He then guided Slamdance into a year-round support system for emerging artists with national theatrical exhibition of independent film and a film distribution venture called Slamdance Presents. Speaking about the organization Baxter has said "Slamdance is an ongoing experiment that has proven year after year really that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, the independent and grass-roots film communities can really do it themselves." In January, 2019 Baxter summed up Slamance's 25th anniversary by saying "Slamdance has created a community of emerging and established filmmakers over the past 25 years. The goal is for experienced filmmakers to nurture and help new filmmakers build sustainable careers." In January, 2022 Baxter was responsible for launching the Slamdance Channel, an anti-algorithm, artist-led streaming platform aimed at making independent films more accessible."

Film work

Baxter's film work includes ''Wild in the Streets'', a documentary feature about an ancient football game; '' I Want To Be an American'', an experimental feature film based on the surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse; and ''DIY'', a documentary about the do-it-yourself filmmaking movement. In 2017, Baxter directed the documentary film '' Spirit Game'', about lacrosse and the

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

, that was theatrically released to positive reviews. In 2020, Baxter executive produced '' You Never Had It: An Evening With Bukowski'', a documentary Slamdance and Kino Lorber theatrically released to critical acclaim scoring one hundred percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2021 Baxter co-produced '' Q: Into The Storm'', a six part documentary series for HBO directed by Slamdance alumni Cullen Hoback. In 2022, Baxter executive produced
Day Shift
' starring Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg and written by Tyler Tice for Netflix. At 957 million minutes watched, Day Shift topped the Nielson streaming chart during the week of August 15–21, 2022.

Personal life

Baxter was born in England and grew up in Gloucestershire. He is a graduate of St. Catherine's College,

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Baxter lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

References

External
links