The Latest
Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program Announces Collaboration with Art House Convergence
Toronto — A new collaboration between Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program and Art House Convergence (AHC), a North American coalition of community-based, mission-driven movie theaters, was announced last night by Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program Director N. Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache) at the Toronto International Film Festival. The collaboration will bring six Indigenous short films from Sundance Institute Fellows to select AHC theaters in North America during November’s annual celebration of National Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month.
What to Watch in September 2019
Round out your summer movie watching with the latest Sundance Film Festival selections to hit theaters and streaming platforms this month.
With Ms. Purple, director Justin Chon has written another powerful love letter to Los Angeles (after 2017’s Gook)—this time taking place in a Koreatown karaoke room, where hostess Kasie caters to rich businessmen while struggling to provide for her bedridden father on her own, until she begrudgingly seeks help from her estranged brother.
“Be Brave and Experiment”: Lab Fellows Share 5 Ways to Hone Your Composing Skills
From graceful piano notes to frenzied violins—what would a film be without a powerful score? Music is a vital part of both fiction and documentary filmmaking, and that’s why Sundance Institute’s Film Music Program empowers aspiring film composers through an annual Music and Sound Design Lab.
This year’s lab took place for two weeks in July at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California. Each composer was assigned either a fiction or documentary film project and then collaborated one-on-one with their project’s director to score a selection of scenes, with guidance from experienced advisors in both the film music and directing fields.
5 Editing Tips from the Documentary Edit and Story Lab
Getting dropped into a completely new project during post-production and being asked to reimagine structures and refocus on the director’s vision—all in one week—is a tall order. But the contributing editors who attended the Documentary Edit and Story Lab this summer are established documentary filmmakers with years of experience shaping stories, and each of them was carefully matched with a project that they could connect with on a deeper level.
Steph Ching—a DOC NYC “40 under 40” filmmaker based in Brooklyn whose past work includes After Spring and the Emmy-nominated Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon—was paired with Singing in the Wilderness.
Sundance Institute Announces Fellows for Sundance Institute | Luma Foundation Directors Retreat in Arles
Creative Exchange, Unstructured Work Time for International Stage & Film Directors
Los Angeles, CA — Six directors have convened in Arles, France for the sixth annual Sundance Institute | Luma Foundation Directors Retreat in Arles, France, from August 1-12, 2019. Founded in 2013 as a creative collaboration between Sundance Institute’s Theatre Program and Luma Foundation, the Retreat is an opportunity for directors to meet, share best and emerging practices, and work self-directed on their upcoming projects.
“At this Retreat, we ask only for a spirit of inquiry from our participants,” said Christopher Hibma, Director of the Institute’s Theatre Program.
What to Watch in August 2019
If you’re keeping up with all the new releases from the Sundance Film Festival, you’ve got your work cut out for you in August. With 17 films coming to theaters and streaming platforms (including a host of award winners), you could watch one every other day for the entire month, and then some. Better get started!
In the mood for a theater trip? Then check out Brittany Runs a Marathon, which won the Festival’s U.
Nine Independent Projects Unite Art and Science
Sundance Institute and Science Sandbox Celebrate
Innovative Nonfiction Storytelling With Expanded Tailored, Multifaceted Support
Park City, UT — Sundance Institute, in collaboration with Science Sandbox, an initiative of Simons Foundation, announced the expansion of the Science Sandbox Nonfiction Initiative, alongside the initial nine science-focused independent projects selected for support this year. The initiative, first introduced in 2018, aims to elevate the voices of independent artists working at the intersection of science and nonfiction storytelling, as well as to encourage critical thinking, promote educated discourse and highlight the overlap of science and art.
Following the initiative’s successful inaugural year, nine projects have been thus far selected for support in 2019, a cohort co-curated by the Institute and Science Sandbox.
“I Was Afraid I Wouldn’t Be Accepted”: Peshawn Bread on Bringing Her Dominatrix Film to the Native Filmmakers Lab
Peshawn Bread is a Comanche filmmaker and a 2019 Native Filmmakers Lab fellow. Her short film project, The Daily Life of Mistress Red, is about a Native dominatrix for hire who whips apologies out of her white male clients.
When I arrived at the 2019 Native Filmmakers Lab, I was nervous to tell my peers that my story was about a Native dominatrix for hire.
‘I Knew People Wanted to See It’: The ‘In Reality’ Team on Why and How They Self-Distributed
In part one of this interview, In Reality writer/director/star Ann Lupo and producer Holly Meehl shared how they got their anti-romantic comedy feature off the ground. In this second and final part, we explore how they navigated self-distribution.
Were you building an audience along the way? How did you keep people engaged?
AL: During post-production I took on a side project editing a short for Casey Neistat called “Filmmaking is a Sport,” and it completely changed my perspective on YouTube.
Independent Producers, Industry Advisors to Convene at 2019 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Labs & Summit
Los Angeles — Sundance Institute today announced Fellows and Advisors for the five-day 2019 Creative Producing Labs, as well as the three-day Creative Producing Summit which immediately follows; both take place at Utah’s Sundance Mountain Resort. The Labs begins July 29, and the Summit August 2. These are the flagship convenings for the Institute’s Creative Producing Program, which champions and develops current and rising generations of producers across fiction and nonfiction film.
Chasing “The Thing”: Sundance Institute Fellows Describe Their Directors Lab Experience in 3 Words
What’s it like going through Sundance Institute’s signature summer labs? We caught up with a few of the 2019 Directors Lab fellows to get their quick takes on what it was like to fine-tune their projects with support from world-renowned creative advisors and fellow directors in the Utah mountains.
Joey Ally
Joey Ally works with actress Whitney Palmer on set. © 2019 Sundance Institute | Photo by Dan Campbell
Joey Ally stars in her musical, surrealist project The Hater as Dorothy, who gets fired for her liberal extremist views and retreats to her conservative Texas hometown, where she ends up going undercover as a Republican to run against her childhood bully for state congress.
From Short Film to Unexpected Feature: How ‘In Reality’ Came to Life
Liz Manashil is a filmmaker and former manager of Sundance Institute’s Creative Distribution Initiative.
A few months ago, before I had a baby, I encountered the anti-romantic comedy feature film In Reality, which I immediately fell for. As I told the filmmakers later, it was the movie I needed when I was in my early 20s.
Sundance Institute Announces 2019 Theatre Lab Acting Company, Dramaturgs and Advisors
Jesse Alick, Rachel Hauck, Lisa Kron, Amauta Marston-Firmino & Others Join Creative Team
Acting Company to Include Cherise Boothe, Elise Kibler, Tony Plana, Ari’el Stachel & Others
New York — Sundance Institute’s 2019 Theatre Lab convenes Monday, July 8; the Institute announced
this year’s participating acting company and creative advisors today. The Lab, which runs through July 28 at Utah’s
Sundance Resort, will be led by the program’s Director,
Christopher Hibma in collaboration with
Manager
Ana Verde; the
eight projects were selected by Hibma and former Theatre Program Artistic Director
Philip Himberg,
with support of a
six-member Advisory Committee. At the 2019 Lab, Hibma will collaborate with director and Theatre Lab alumna
Lisa
Peterson
, who will serve as Guest Artistic Director and Jumana Al-Yasiri will join in her
capacity as Manager for the
Program’s Middle East / North Africa year-round initiatives.
What to Watch in July
After the record-breaking sales of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Festival films are steadily rolling out for the summer. This month, escape the heat—in theaters or on the couch—and catch four brand-new Festival releases.If you’re looking for a multi-award-winner, look no further than Pippa Bianco’s Share; it came out of the Festival with both a U.
From Art to Impact: How Stories Can Create Meaningful Change
Storytellers came together at the 2019 Skoll World Forum to discuss how their work can have a tangible impact on the greater culture.
Artists hope that their work causes meaningful change in individuals and societies—but can art truly catalyze positive social change, or is it simply a reflection of the culture? This question was posed to artists and attendees at a town hall event sponsored in part by Sundance Institute at this year’s Skoll World Forum, which brings together social entrepreneurs and thought leaders to work towards solving global challenges.
The town hall was put on in partnership with For Freedoms, an organization that aims to use art to drive creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action.