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Sterling Van Wagenen
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Sterling Van Wagenen
Sterling Gray Van Wagenen (born July 2, 1947) is an American film and stage producer, writer, director, and convicted sex offender. He is a co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and, in association with his former cousin-in-law Robert Redford, he was the founding executive director of the Sundance Institute.
In 2019, Van Wagenen was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to six years to life in prison.
He has directed four feature films as well as several documentaries and television episodes, and has produced over fourteen feature films, documentaries, and television series, including the Academy Award winning The Trip to Bountiful, co-produced with Horton Foote and starring Geraldine Page and John Heard. He collaborated again with Foote on Convicts, starring Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones.
In 1986, he and Foote were nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as producers of The Trip to Bountiful, and in 1987 they won a Wise Owl Award for the film. In 1992, he won a Crystal Heart Award as director of Alan and Naomi. Van Wagenen's cousin Lola was married to Redford from 1958 to 1985. After 1993, Sterling Van Wagenen had no official connection with the Sundance Film Festival or Sundance Institute.
From 1999 to 2004, he served as Director of the School of Film and Digital Media at the University of Central Florida. He was later Producer-in-Residence and faculty member at the University of Utah.
Van Wagenen was the director of three films that were used in rotation from 2013 though January 2019 during the Endowment Ceremony in temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He is married to Marilee Jeppson, and they had six children and 20 grandchildren. Their first child, Sarah Ella Van Wagenen, born August 17, 1973, died on March 1, 2014, from cancer.
On January 4, 2019, The Truth & Transparency Foundation, a nonprofit group formerly known as "MormonLeaks", posted audio in which Sterling Van Wagenen holds a conversation with a man identified by the alias "David." In the recording, Van Wagenen confesses to molesting the 13-year-old "David" in 1993 during a sleepover. At the time, Van Wagenen confessed the incident to his Stake President and a detective. According to a police report, no charges were filed in the case because the victim's parents declined to pursue them. Van Wagenen was disfellowshipped for 2 years by the LDS Church.
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Sterling Van Wagenen
Sterling Gray Van Wagenen (born July 2, 1947) is an American film and stage producer, writer, director, and convicted sex offender. He is a co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and, in association with his former cousin-in-law Robert Redford, he was the founding executive director of the Sundance Institute.
In 2019, Van Wagenen was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to six years to life in prison.
He has directed four feature films as well as several documentaries and television episodes, and has produced over fourteen feature films, documentaries, and television series, including the Academy Award winning The Trip to Bountiful, co-produced with Horton Foote and starring Geraldine Page and John Heard. He collaborated again with Foote on Convicts, starring Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones.
In 1986, he and Foote were nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as producers of The Trip to Bountiful, and in 1987 they won a Wise Owl Award for the film. In 1992, he won a Crystal Heart Award as director of Alan and Naomi. Van Wagenen's cousin Lola was married to Redford from 1958 to 1985. After 1993, Sterling Van Wagenen had no official connection with the Sundance Film Festival or Sundance Institute.
From 1999 to 2004, he served as Director of the School of Film and Digital Media at the University of Central Florida. He was later Producer-in-Residence and faculty member at the University of Utah.
Van Wagenen was the director of three films that were used in rotation from 2013 though January 2019 during the Endowment Ceremony in temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He is married to Marilee Jeppson, and they had six children and 20 grandchildren. Their first child, Sarah Ella Van Wagenen, born August 17, 1973, died on March 1, 2014, from cancer.
On January 4, 2019, The Truth & Transparency Foundation, a nonprofit group formerly known as "MormonLeaks", posted audio in which Sterling Van Wagenen holds a conversation with a man identified by the alias "David." In the recording, Van Wagenen confesses to molesting the 13-year-old "David" in 1993 during a sleepover. At the time, Van Wagenen confessed the incident to his Stake President and a detective. According to a police report, no charges were filed in the case because the victim's parents declined to pursue them. Van Wagenen was disfellowshipped for 2 years by the LDS Church.