The Latest
Listen: Sebastian Silva, Cherien Dabis, and Kat Candler Offer Tips to Shorts Filmmakers
Last month, Sundance Institute hosted a pair of ShortsLabs in Philadelphia and Miami that offered day-long workshops for shorts filmmakers. Focusing on narrative short-form storytelling, each event featured panels, discussions, and screenings with a wide-ranging mix of filmmakers and industry professionals. Below you can listen to a podcast of highlights from each event that includes tips, advice, and anecdotes from a variety of filmmakers.
Dylan Mohan Grey Recalls His “Eureka Moment” at Mumbai Mantra Screenwriters Lab
Every year, in collaboration with our hard-working partners and amazing hosts Mumbai Mantra (Mahindra), we conduct a Screenwriters Lab in India that supports eight emerging independent voices in Indian cinema. The following post comes from screenwriting fellow Dylan Mohan Gray.
I thought that writing a few paragraphs about my experiences at the Sundance Institute | Mumbai Mantra Screenwriting Lab would be a piece of cake.
Listen to This: A Spotify Playlist Featuring Songs by Sundance Institute Lab Advisors
On April 12 in Los Angeles, the Sundance Institute Film Music Program will host the third annual Composers Lab: LA featuring a series of informative conversations and interactive networking opportunities with renowned composers and industry professionals. The Lab offers film composers insight into the process of creating music for film. In anticipation of the event, we’ve curated a Spotify playlist showcasing some of the iconic work of our advisors.
Sundance Institute Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue Travels to Taipei, Taichung and Taitung
Park City, UT — Sundance Institute and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities announced today that Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue will host free screenings of eight films with moderated discussions, panels and artist roundtables in Taipei, Taichung and Taitung, Taiwan. For a full schedule of events, venues and partners in Taiwan visit sundance.org/filmforward.
“We Are a Tribe”: Naomi Foner on the Mumbai Mantra Screenwriters Lab
Every year, in collaboration with our hard-working partners and amazing hosts Mumbai Mantra (Mahindra), we conduct a Screenwriters Lab in India that supports eight emerging independent voices in Indian cinema. March 2014 was our third installment, and as luck would have it, this year’s lab commenced on the ancient Hindu Holi festival, which signifies the start of spring and the triumph of good over evil. The following post comes from Oscar-nominated screenwriter and veteran Sundance Institute lab advisor Naomi Foner.
Sundance Institute’s Artist Services Program Renews and Expands
Los Angeles, CA —Sundance Institute renewed agreements with six non-profit organizations as collaborators with the Institute’s Artist Services program – which provides filmmakers with exclusive opportunities for digital distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work. The Austin Film Society has been added as a new collaborator, and together with Britdoc, The Bertha Foundation, San Francisco Film Society, IFP, Film Independent and Cinereach will consult with the Institute to continue to shape the Artist Services program and its offerings to filmmakers.
“We’re very proud of the Artist Services program we’ve built in the last three years, and to be collaborating with these top film organizations to provide access to distribution for great independent films, evolve strategies to meet the demands of a shifting distribution landscape and ensure the long-term sustainability of the field,” stated Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute.
No Fooling Around: 5 Docs That Prove the Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
To say it in 2014 is to almost belabor the point, but here it goes: Long gone are the days of documentary film as didactic, linear storytelling. No, that’s not to say that those docs on VHS stuffed into your high school curriculum weren’t properly edifying or even at times engaging, but the documentary format today is a place that refuses to comply with categorization. On April Fools’ Day, rather than trying to dupe or deceive, we’ll let these five documentaries make the case that the well-worn maxim “the truth is stranger than fiction” is, well…true.
April Now Playing: Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Tom Hardy in Locke
A pair of films that screened in the Spotlight section at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival make their wide releases in the U.S. this month.
Seven Years of Stories of Change
What happens when the trajectories of two apparently disparate fields cross paths? What emerges from that intersection point where some of the most creative minds of our time collide like atoms brought together by two thought leaders who, like scientists in a lab, have a hunch that something powerful will happen when you combine proactive elements?
That’s what happened when Robert Redford met with Jeff Skoll. Together they imagined a collaboration that would become Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary Film. The idea was to combine the power of storytelling and the growing social entrepreneurship movement to reframe, examine, and amplify an innovative approach to solving the central issues of our time.
Sundance London adds International Premiere of The One I Love to Feature Film Programme
The O2, 28 March 2014 — Sundance Institute and The O2 announced today that The One I Love from director Charlie McDowell has been added to the programme of feature films for the third Sundance London film and music festival, 25-27 April at The O2. Tickets to Sundance London screenings and events are now available online.
A World Without Borders: Director Srdan Golubovic Reflects on the Power of Art
During the last few weeks I have been thinking about what impressed, touched, and moved me the most during our four days Film Forward in San Diego and Tijuana.
Definitely, I was most impressed and emotionally touched by the highly educated, smart and curious young people in Lazaro Cardenas High School in Tijuana. We talked about who they consider heroes, how they experience humanity and courage, and what the values are that they admire.
Sundance London Filmmakers Picks: David Cross Once Spray Painted “The Who” On His Front Door
Turns out, Sundance London filmmakers’ palates rival our own programmers when it comes to cinema—heterogeneous but precise. Some standouts? Probably David Cross’ admission to his days as a fanboy of The Who, and thus his antsy excitement surrounding the Sundance London screening of Lambert & Stamp.
With individual tickets for Sundance London on sale Friday, March 28, we polled a handful of this year’s filmmakers about which films they are most looking forward to seeing at next month’s Festival.
On World Theatre Day, Why Live Theatre Still Matters
In 2010, playwright Anne Washburn was the recipient of a Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship. In Ms. Washburn’s most recent work, Mr.
Sundance London 2014 Programme Announced
The O2, 24 March 2014 — Sundance Institute and AEG Europe announced today the programme of feature films, short films and panel discussions for the third Sundance London film and music festival, 25-27 April at The O2. Ticket packages are now available online, and individual tickets will be on sale from 9:00 a.
Yael Melamade on Making (Dis)Honesty—The Truth About Lies
Yael Melamede is the director of (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies and a co-founder of SALTY Features, an independent production company based in NYC whose goal is to create media that is entertaining and enhances the world.I rode a NYC Citibike to a screening yesterday of Greg Barker’s We Are The Giant, a documentary that I had been looking forward to. When I got to the docking station to get rid of my bike, a guy was walking around, unable to take out a bike because his key wasn’t working.