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Afghan Rapper Sonita Performs “Brides for Sale” at the Skoll World Forum
“I had friends who had bruises on their faces because [they were] fighting to escape child marriage.”
That’s how writer, rapper, and activist Sonita Alizadeh initiated a candid conversation with Tabitha Jackson (Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program) at the 2016 Skoll World Forum Closing Ceremony. Sonita, whose story is the subject of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary of the same name, preceded the conversation with a performance of her song “Brides for Sale.
Calling All Creators to Apply for the YouTube New Voices Lab
Sundance Institute is seeking applicants for the YouTube New Voices Lab set to take place November 10-12, 2016, at YouTube Space Los Angeles. The Lab is designed to support a group of 10 creators, developing scripted short-form episodic content for digital platforms (up to 25 minutes in length per episode). Click here to apply.
Skoll World Forum: Where Filmmaking Meets Changemaking
On a morning walk from our hotel to the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, you can take a scenic path along the river where a number of rowing teams cut through the water as they train. The primary sport for the pedestrian is to avoid being hit by coaches peddling bikes on the same narrow dirt path, observing and occasionally shouting out words of instruction to their crew in the water. It’s a particularly apt illustration of collaboration and teamwork – the idea of encouraging someone to be just a little bit better, a little bit stronger.
Liberating My Inner Blerd (Black Nerd) at the New Frontier VR Lab
Walking into Youtube Space LA was a return to kindergarten. Brightly colored buildings in the “Silicon Beach” office park welcomed us as we checked in using tablets. “Shouldn’t Google already know where I am, I just used Maps to get here,” I joke to the check-in table, a cover for the intimidation I felt as a filmmaker entering FREAKING GOOGLE, the heart of the tech world.
Sundance Q&A: The Party, The Afterparty, and the Hangover Coalesce in ‘Belgica’
At this year’s Sundance
Film Festival, Belgian director Felix van Groeningen revealed the personal
connection behind the brotherly descent into sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll that
is Belgica. “It’s inspired
by a real bar, which my father started in 1989 and was sold to two brothers in
2000,” he said during the post-screening Q&A. Yet it’s the story of these
brothers, rather than of Van Groeningen’s father, that motivates the film.
Sundance NEXT Fest Lights Up Downtown LA August 12–14
(L-R) Greta Gerwig and Miranda July, Credit: Frazer Harrison; Sundance NEXT FEST Marquee, Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez; Toro y Moi and Neon Indian, Credit: Frazer Harrison.
LOS ANGELES — The Sundance Film Festival sheds its bulky sweaters and mountain parkas to reveal Sundance NEXT FEST, August 12-14 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles.
Master Class Takeaways: A Short Film Is Not a Trailer for a Feature
An unseasonably windy morning blows in Charlotte as an eclectic group of filmmakers enter the Bechtler Modern Art Museum. With a registration list cut off at 375, the Wells Fargo Auditorium inside the Bechtler fills up, and there are folks who have come hoping to fill a vacant seat. Filmmakers are networking prior to the start of the program, greeting each other with hugs and handshakes.
Acting Company and Creative Advisors Announced for 2016 Theatre Lab in MENA
New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the acting company, dramaturgs and creative advisors participating in its pilot Theatre Lab in the MENA region, including Sandra Oh, Hoon Lee, Deanna Dunagan, Hala Omran and Raeda Taha. The Lab, held in Morocco next month, is part of the Institute’s international cultural exchange programs for independent artists and will kick off a new, multi-year commitment to support artists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). For the Lab, the Institute will provide promising, fresh voices from the U.
How a Small Distribution Company Gave a Tiny Holiday Movie a Successful Release
Christmas, Again is now available on Netflix. In its short life, the film has had an amazing run. As a small film distribution company (Factory 25), it’s really important to focus on making partnerships on all levels to help get films out into the world.
Screenwriter Eliza Lee on the Hong Kong New Wave, Representation in Hollywood, and Busting Through Writer’s Block
The Asian American Fellowship recently selected Eliza Lee as its third-annual fellow. With support from the A3 Foundation, the fellowship aims to further the presence of Asian American voices in independent film by supporting a writer or writer/director on the development of their feature screenplay.
Lee, whose most recent credit includes the screenplay for A Beautiful Lie about crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, recently attended the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive and spoke with us about her creative origins, inspiration culled from the Hong Kong New Wave, and how she hopes to balance the scales when it comes to women on screen.
Slithering Screens: 10 Years of New Frontier at Sundance Institute
Slithering Screens is a special selection of original cinematic works that premiered in the Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier program over the past decade, presented in five distinct programs over five consecutive nights at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In addition to live experiences at MoMA, a selection of virtual reality works will be made available on the Sundance VR app for Google Cardboard from April 25 to May 5. Limited artist-edition Cardboard VR goggles designed by Yung Jake will be given away to Slithering Screens attendees each night.
Catching Up with Jeff Orlowski, the Filmmaker Who Made Art Out of Climate Change
It’s been a few years since filmmaker Jeff Orlowski premiered his viscerally jarring climate change documentary Chasing Ice, which tracks photographer James Balog’s ambitious efforts to gather visual evidence of the earth’s melting glaciers. Balog, originally a skeptic of climate change, deploys customized cameras across the Arctic to provide the first-ever depiction and most palpable example of mankind’s indelible carbon footprint.
Earlier this year, Orlowski was awarded with the first-ever Sundance Institute | Discovery Impact Fellowship for his work in elevating awareness around environmental protection.
What to Watch in April: ‘H.’ Exploits Our Subconscious Fears
Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia’s H. marks one of the most enigmatic Sundance selections in recent years and is set to make its theatrical release in April. Detailing a series of inexplicable events following a meteor strike in upstate New York, H.
Dark Family Secrets Lurk in ‘Take Me to the River’
With Take Me to the River, director Matt Sobel delivers not only an atypical take on the coming-of-age story, but one of the most original movies to have premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Sobel’s button-pushing mindfuck about adolescent sexuality and family secrets is a tenacious and taut drama that veers between comedy, drama, and thriller – sometimes within the same scene. It’s not an easily accessible film, but as described by programmer David Courier at the 2015 Sundance premiere, it’s the kind that defines what the NEXT section of the Festival is about.
Sundance Film Forward Travels to Omaha April 12 – 14
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute announced today the free Sundance Film Forward film screenings and discussions it will bring to Omaha April 12-14. Local artists, students, and film lovers are invited to attend free public events at Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater and Joslyn Art Museum. Private screenings for area students are planned for a range for venues.