The 2017 Sundance Film Festival kicked off the year with films and conversations on topics of race, gender, sex, religion, politics, science and more -- basically all the things you’re not supposed to bring up at the dinner table.

Conversations around these topics can be understandably divisive, but do they have to be? Is there a way for artists and audiences to explore these topics empathetically in way that will encourage dialogue and understanding and not more division?

- Bethany Wearden