The Latest

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Meet the 12 New Members of the Sundance Institute Alumni Advisory Board
We’re introducing the 12 new members of our Sundance Institute Alumni Advisory Board, a group of Institute-supported artists who volunteer their time and voices to share their experiences and to help tell the Sundance Institute story. The group represents the range of artists we support each year, including directors, screenwriters, actors, theatre artists and musicians. These artists have been a vital part of the independent film and theatre community and Sundance Institute family for years, and now take on an even bigger role with the Alumni Advisory Board.

Film Forward Travels to Pennsylvania, April 2014
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 Harrisburg, Lancaster, Centre County and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For a full schedule of events in Pennsylvania visit sundance.org/filmforward.

Sundance Institute Expands Support to Writers and Creators of Series for TV and Online Platforms
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced a significant expansion of its renowned labs for independent artists to include dedicated support for writers and creators of series for television and online platforms. The first Sundance Institute Episodic Story Lab will be held in Fall 2014 at the Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah.
Building on the Institute’s 30-year legacy of developing new work from storytellers with distinctive and risk-taking stories, this new initiative addresses the need for more opportunities for learning and mentorship of singular and diverse voices in scripted TV and online series.

Sundance Institute and TED Now Accepting Proposals For Sundance Institute | TED Prize Filmmaker Awar
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute and TED today announced an open call for proposals for the second collaboration between the two organizations, which will jointly award $125,000 for a short documentary film project about the work of the 2014 TED Prize winner – Charmain Gooch, Co-founder and director of Global Witness. The Institute’s Documentary Film Program will accept proposals March 18 through May 1, 2014 at www.sundance.

Sundance London: Archive Frontman Darius Keeler Talks Axiom
“It feels like we made the music after the movie, it really does,” says Archive founding band member Darius Keeler, referencing the film Axiom and the band’s eponymous album. After all, isn’t that the modus operandi for nearly every film ever made? Perhaps not, or at least not in the case of Archive’s ninth album and first film, which spawned an inverted creative process that involved treating an album as a screenplay and the moving image as a soundtrack.
Working with director Jesus Hernandez and the Spanish film collective NYSU, Axiom (the album) underwent an unprecedented alchemy of sorts, eventually producing a film that links “the actual lyrics with the picture.