The Latest
Courageous Stories: The Rocket Director Kim Mordaunt in Bosnia & Herzegovina
The Banja Luka Youth House screening was a special one for me. Firstly, a young woman, Natasa Maric, talked about the “loss” and “broken promise” from the dam corporation that relocate Ahlo and his family. Natasa and her teacher Alma told me that the older people of communities near Banja Luka had also been displaced by dams – also the victims of broken promises.
Filmmaking as Therapy: 4 Questions with Native Lab Fellow Carmen Tsabetsaye
Last week the Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Program kicked of its annual fellowship with an intensive four-day workshop on the homelands of the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico. In our second encounter with this year’s fellows, we chatted with filmmaker Carmen Tsabetsaye (Zuni/Zia Pueblo) about the therapeutic possibilities in filmmaking, how tragedy has informed her project Puebloan in Praha, and the international misconceptions about native cultures in America. Can you offer a brief description of your project and your personal connection to—or why you’re compelled to tell—this story?My project is Puebloan in Praha, and it is the story or a young pueblo girl who moves to Prague after the death of her brother.
Now Playing: Obvious Child and Ping Pong Summer Round Out a Droll June
“Remember from before when we did sex to each other?” asks Jenny Slate’s character in Obvious Child, a rom-com redux that follows one crude comedian’s ungainly reaction to being “dumped up with.” After making waves in the NEXT section at this year’s Festival, Obvious Child makes its formal theatrical debut this month alongside another NEXT standout and charismatic ’80s throwback Ping Pong Summer. William Eubank’s The Signal offers a change of pace in the form of a striking sci-fi drama that delivers the tension of a classic hostage thriller, and there’s even more to discover in this month’s Now Playing blog.
Announcing the 2014 Sloan Commissioning Grantee, and a Call For Science-Themed Submissions
Each year, as part of our long-running partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sundance Institute searches for promising and compelling scripts that have science and/or technology themes woven into their stories. As a result, each year I get to read some of the most unique stories illuminating all different aspects of science – both historical and contemporary – that are mind boggling, inspiring, and down right fascinating.
Crowdfunding and Its Hybrids are Worth It
Camille Scioli Chambers is an independent producer, production coordinator and all around creative resources maven from Austin, Texas, who probably sat too close to the TV as a child. She has “multiple projects in various stages of development” but her favorites are as co-producer with Peter Atherton of The Iron Orchard, to be directed by Ty Roberts and working with the team of The Big Spoon, to be directed by Carlyn Hudson. She is active on the Development Committee of the Austin Film Society and is a past board member of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance and Women in Film, Dallas.
In a Land of Contradiction, 20 Feet From Stardom Shares an Inspiring Message
A week ago, after 17 hours of travel, we landed as the sun was setting over Sarajevo, where vast mountains were silhouetted against a yellow sky. Not knowing what to expect, I would quickly realize that Bosnia & Herzegovina is a land of contradiction: beautiful Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman architecture riddled with bullet holes, sweeping green landscapes littered with hidden landmines, stunning cathedrals around the corner from impressive mosques, optimistic youth in disagreement with war-weathered adults. I was excited that Film Forward had given me the chance to screen 20 Feet From Stardom in such a unique and complicated place, but I was entirely unsure what the response to a film about backup singers would be.
Filmmaker Ruthie Doyle: 5 Things Pushing the Art and Form of Storytelling Forward
As I reflect on my tenure with Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab, I’ve been considering some ways innovation is advancing the art of storytelling into the future (the future is now, after all). The role of “new” technology in the process may surprise you; new technologies are exciting tools building on the rich foundation of storytelling and experimentation. Here are 5 things I can definitively say are pushing the hand of progress.
Q&A: Native Filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana on His Project ‘Karaoke King’
Last week, the Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Program kicked off its annual fellowship with a four-day workshop on the homelands of the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico. On the heels of his rigorous week at the Native Lab, Native Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana opened up about his creative impulses and how he’s arrived at his current project, Karaoke Kings, a singular story oriented around the homeless community in Honolulu’s Chinatown. Can you offer a brief description of your project and your personal connection to—or why you’re compelled to tell—this story?During the past 10 years that I’ve worked in Chinatown I’ve seen the homeless population grow immensely.
The Language of Film: Producer Cornelia Principe screens The World Before Her in China
The chance to screen and discuss The World Before Her with an audience in China was truly a unique and thrilling experience. Not to mention getting to visit a country so much on the world stage, yet still such an enigmatic place.
After having now gone and come back, China remains somewhat of a mystery to me — with such contradictory pulls as tradition and modernity, communism and capitalism seemingly to function side by side.
The Golden Age of Creative Distribution Is Upon Us
This weekend I attended the sixth Sundance #ArtistServices workshop in Austin, Texas, presented by the Austin Film Society. As a filmmaker who just spent this past year screening my feature documentary Before You Know It at festivals worldwide (SXSW world premiere in 2013) while also trying to navigate the ever-changing distribution landscape (my last film Trinidad was distributed in 2009) there was one panel in particular I was most anxious to attend: “Licensing and Distribution in the Modern Age” with John Sloss. Full disclosure, my film is a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program alum, and I’ve been working very closely under the guidance of #ArtistServices.
5 Takeaways from the Sundance Institute | Women in Film Financing Intensive
Money may not be the root of all evil, but it’s certainly a root cause of one: holding back women filmmakers. Financing was the most frequently cited barrier for female directors and producers of independent films, according to a 2012 study commissioned by Sundance Institute and Women in Film (WIF) Los Angeles.
That was only the beginning, though, as the two organizations geared up to find practical solutions to the problems the study revealed.
Unexpected Translations: Director Patrick Creadon Discusses If You Build It in China and Taiwan
Though I’ve never been to one, I imagine a “dream lab” would be a pretty cool place to visit.I was recently asked to take part in Film Forward in Taiwan and China. Film Forward is a program of Sundance Institute and The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and three federal agencies.
#ArtistServices Austin Workshop Tackles Crowdfunding Secrets, DCP 101, Piracy, and More
Eric M. Levy is a writer and director living in Los Angeles. He co-directed the indie feature, Congratulations, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival in 2012.
Sundance Institute to Host 4-day Summer Festival in Downtown Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, CA — Sundance Institute will present the Sundance NEXT FEST summer festival August 7-10 in Los Angeles, headquartered at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel and offering feature and short film screenings, some paired with live music performances and all celebrating the renegade spirit of independent artists. The event is an extension of the popular NEXT <=> section at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, which showcases stylistically adventurous and bold films, and builds on the Institute’s NEXT WEEKEND event, hosted in 2013. The Sundance Film Festival programming staff will select films and music acts for NEXT FEST.
Shared Identity: Students in BiH Find Parallels in 20 Feet From Stardom
Walking into the cold, dark, empty school building in Busovaca, a small village about an hour outside of Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, with a ‘no guns allowed’ sign on the front door, I was not sure what to expect. I have attended few international screenings of 20 Feet From Stardom and even fewer screenings exclusively for young people, so I didn’t know what the response might be or if the students would even relate to the film.
This school is where I began my Film Forward trip to Bosnia & Herzegovina .