Film and TV actors are a common sight at Sundance. Active members of Congress, not so much.
But there was John Conyers, the longtime Michigan congressman and new chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, in Park City Monday for a panel discussion on how America should address its painful legacy of slavery. The panel was held to coincide with Monday's premiere screening of "Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North," Katrina Browne's documentary about the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history.
The second-longest-tenured member of the House, Conyers introduced a bill back in 1989 to study whether the U.S. government should make reparations to the descendants of slaves. Thanks to Conyers' newfound clout on the Judiciary Committee, the first hearings on the issue were finally held last month, he said.
"It [slavery] doesn't just bother the descendants of one family. It bothers the nation. It bothers the world," said the veteran Democrat, perhaps the only Sundance attendee in Park City Monday to wear a coat and tie. Conyers then went on to praise Sundance in general and "Traces of the Trade" in particular.
"It got me thinking," he said. "Why don't we have a Capitol Hill film festival for my colleagues who could benefit from this?"
-- Brandon Griggs