Dust-up at Sundance

The most talked-about action scene at last week’s Sundance festival happened off-screen.

Variety

film reviewer John Anderson was having breakfast after a screening of environmental documentary

Dirt! The Movie

when Jeff Dowd, representing the film’s producers, passionately argued that Anderson should reconsider his view of a movie he had told Dowd was “poor, too simplistic, too redundant”.

When Dowd persisted, Anderson, who has known Dowd for 25 years, punched him. “I didn’t want to hurt him,” Anderson said. “This was nothing close to a fistfight.” Dowd did not press assault charges.