The Latest
Inside the TV Writers’ Room: A Dispatch From Sundance Institute’s Inaugural Episodic Story Lab
Crystal Liu is currently a staff writer for ‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ and was one of 10 fellows selected to participate in the inaugural Sundance Institute Episodic Story Lab last October.Imagine that all your life, you’ve been singing in the privacy of your own shower, just for the joy of it. Just ‘cause you felt the need to express yourself.
What I Wish I Knew About Distribution: Producer Ron Najor of ‘Short Term 12’ & ‘I Am Not A Hipster’
Ron Najor produced “I Am Not A Hipster” with a group of friends in his hometown of San Diego. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, and Ron and his team worked with #ArtistServices to fund and distribute its independent release – which is when we first were impressed by his rockstar producing passion. Ron then went on to his second collaboration with writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton and produced the SXSW Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winning film “Short Term 12” in 2013.
Sundance Institute Board of Trustees Elects Pat Mitchell as New Chair
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees today announced that Pat Mitchell has been elected as new Board Chair effective immediately. Mitchell succeeds Walter L. Weisman who has served on the Sundance Institute Board of Trustees since 1988 and has been designated by the Board as Chair Emeritus.
Six Projects Selected for 10th Anniversary Rawi Screenwriters Lab in Jordan
Los Angeles, CA —Sundance Institute and The Royal Film Commission – Jordan announced the six projects selected for the 10th anniversary of the Rawi Screenwriters Lab, which took place October 28 to November 1 in Amman, Jordan. Created as a cornerstone of the Institute’s deep commitment to artists in the Middle East, the Lab has supported over seventy artists from more than a dozen countries.
The two first features produced from the inaugural 2005 Lab premiered at the Sundance Film Festival: Pomegranates and Myrrh, written and directed by Najwa Najjar (Palestine) and Amreeka, written and directed by Cherien Dabis (Palestine/Jordan/US).
November Now Playing: Happy Valley Deconstructs the Penn State Scandal
Before we turn our collective attention to a new season of independent film, a handful of releases from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival round out the year. Director Mona Fastvold’s unsettling drama The Sleepwalker, recently picked up by IFC, meditates on several fractured relationships forced to run their course in a secluded Massachusetts mansion, while Amir Bar-Lev’s Happy Valley provokes a far more disturbing variety of distress in its scathing deconstruction of the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State.
Below, check out all of the Sundance-supported films hitting theaters and coming to DVD and Blu-Ray.
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Discovering and supporting independent artists is what Sundance Institute is all about. We believe that providing an inclusive space for artists to create and thrive encourages diverse stories and greater understanding. In 2013, the John S.
Success Stories: How “Life Itself” Engaged a Community of Supporters
This blog originally appeared as part of VHX’s Success Stories series. Based on his bestselling memoir of the same name, Life Itself explores the legacy of film critic Roger Ebert’s life. Directed by Steve James, the film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and simultaneously screened online exclusively for the film’s Indiegogo supporters.
Haunted Collection: 5 Spooky Sundance Films for Halloween
There seems to be a faction of horror flick aficionados who loathe anything less than gratuitous violence in their films. A caveat for those fans: while this list may not be for you, our prior years’ Haunted Collections do pander to your macabre desires—check them out here and here. For Halloween this year, we’ve culled our selections strictly from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, which featured a dynamic group of what we’ll call “horror-adjacent” films across various program categories—Competition, Spotlight, and of course the Midnight Section.
Introducing 13 New Frontier Story Lab Advisors and Their Innovative Work
Over the last six days the New Frontier Story Lab at the Sundance Resort has facilitated new conversations between an inspiring group of creative professionals about how to innovate the art and form of story.One of the biggest takeaways was the value of spending deep reflective time on story with artists coming from incredibly diverse disciplines. Many of the conversations focused on ways to evoke empathy in these new forms, how to give the audience presence or a feeling of being embodied, and how to co-create experiences within a community.
Sundance Institute and Knight Foundation to Host Artist Services Workshop in Miami on October 25
Miami, FL — Sundance Institute and Knight Foundation announced today the first Artist Services workshop in Miami will take place this Saturday, October 25 at O Cinema Wynwood. Miami-area filmmakers are invited to attend the free day-long workshop and join industry experts in a critical conversation around creative financing, digital distribution, guerilla marketing and independent theatrical distribution.
Featured speakers include: Dennis Scholl (Knight Foundation), Straith Schreder (BitTorrent Inc), Jeremy Schwartz (SquareSpace), Emily Eddey (Light Iron), Toby Halbrooks (Producer, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints), Jessica Jalsevac (Gumroad), James M.
New Artist Development Programs With $1 Million in Knight Foundation Support
Los Angeles — Sundance Institute today announced that $1 million in new funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will bring artist development day labs to eight cities across the U.
Sundance Institute Announces Projects and Artists for Two Fall Theatre Labs
New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the projects and artists that will participate in its two Fall artist development programs: the inaugural Playwrights Studio at Flying Point in Water Mill, NY (October 19-26), as well as the two-week Theatre Lab (November 30 – December 14) for musical theatre, ensemble-generated projects and solo work at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the initiatives are among the Theatre Program’s five annual Labs and Residencies for theatre artists and part of the 24 artist residency labs across many creative disciplines Sundance Institute offers annually.
New this fall, the Playwrights Studio at Flying Point offers Theatre Program alumni an uninterrupted period of time and the space to work on their projects in a studio setting.
Festival Q&A: Kristen Stewart Stars as a Gitmo Soldier in the Taut Drama ‘Camp X-Ray’
First-time filmmaker Peter Sattler got the inspiration for Camp X-Ray, a gritty drama about soldiers watching over suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, after he watched documentary footage of a guard and a detainee discussing the books on a library cart.“It was the most surreal, absurd interchange I’ve ever seen in my life,” Sattler told the audience at the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere last January. “I saw this vision of a two-hander, one room-type of movie where these two characters just talk.
Q&A: Andrew Ahn on ‘Spa Night,’ a Korean American Coming-of-Age (and Coming-Out) Story
After bringing his short Dol (First Birthday) to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Andrew Ahn returns with Spa Night, in which he sheds light on the recondite world of the Korean-American gay community. Ahn’s protagonist, a closeted Korean American teen, takes a job at a Korean spa, where he discovers a simultaneously terrifying and titillating world of underground sex. From there, he’s forced to starkly confront what it means to be gay and Korean American.
Creative Teams and Projects Selected for New Frontier Story Lab Oct 2014
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the six projects selected for the New Frontier Story Lab, October 22-27 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Inspired by New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival and built on the renowned Sundance Institute Lab model, the Lab specifically supports artists innovating the art and form of storytelling at the convergence of film, visual art, media, live performance, music and technology.
The selected creative teams and projects are: Karim Ben Khelifa and Chloé Jarry (The Enemy), Dandypunk and Darin Basile (Heart Corps), Tracy Fullerton and Lucas Peterson (Walden, A Game), Braden King and Matthew Moore (Weather), Hasan Minhaj and Greg Walloch (Sakoon/Paint The Town) and Navid and Vassiliki Khonsari (1979 Revolution).