One of the most thrilling aspects of my work at the Feature Film Program is discovering and working with first- and second-time narrative feature filmmakers. As part of our ongoing efforts to expand the different ways in which we support emerging artists, we are excited to announce the four newest members of our family, Feature Film Program development Fellows MK Asante, Aurora Guerrero, Nate Parker, and Stacie Passon, each of whom is the recipient of a $5,000 development grant as well as two designated screenwriter mentors. They will also be part of our year-round project support continuum that provides customized tactical and creative support from script to the screen.

Hovering above Jackson on what feels like a submarine with wings. Didn’t sleep a wink on my last night here. Instead, I drifted in and out of a Netflix-induced fog.

When I was first told that I would be making the trip down South with Film Forward to screen Valentine Road, I felt a range of emotions ranging from excitement to anxiety. Being a Californian, I only knew the horror stories of the history of the South and the conservative views that Fox News spits out. But since making Valentine Road, I know  now that these hate crimes can happen anywhere at anytime.

The O2, London, 27 February 2014 — Sundance Institute and The O2 today announced that the 2014 edition of the Sundance London film and music festival will feature screenings of three iconic films discovered by the Sundance Film Festival in its 30-year history. Sundance London will take place from 25-27 April at The O2. Ticket packages and access to a short filmmaking workshop are now on sale at sundance-london.

“It was a war in the Square. It was not a revolution,” says one of the young revolutionary subjects in Jehane Noujaim’s disruptive documentary The Square. Set almost exclusively in the volatile epicenter of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, the film viscerally acquaints audiences with Egyptian dissenters’ struggle for democracy.

What is the business model? Who are the stakeholders? Who is the audience? Where is the infrastructure? What are the revenue thresholds? Who are the players?
The Sundance Institute New Frontier program supports artists and projects experimenting with story designs that are between two and ten years ahead of their audience and industry, so we get these questions all the time. In most cases the answers are not immediately clear, because they are being discovered through experimentation, failure, refinement, audience/customer development, etc. These unanswered questions arise in most innovation related spaces, because the marketplace is not yet understood or defined.

I’m about half way through my first trip with Film Forward in Jackson, Mississippi. I have always wanted to come here. The South has held a particular fascination in my mind because of its history.

The O2, London, 24 February 2014 — Sundance Institute and The O2 today announced the first music act for the 2014 edition of the Sundance London film and music festival: Archive will perform live and DJ at The O2’s newest venue, Brooklyn Bowl, on the opening night of Sundance London. The band will also present the world premiere of their film, Axiom, as well as participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Sundance London will take place from 25-27 April at The O2.

On April 8, three documentary filmmakers and I traveled to Oxford, England to serve as media advisors for the Sundance Institute Stories of Change initiative at the Skoll World Forum. The SWF, which is the biggest and most important gathering of social entrepreneurs in the world, was celebrating its tenth anniversary, and the entire weeklong convening was magical. Think breakfast with Kofi Anan.

It’s impossible to discuss Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight without invoking its two predecessors, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. The Before series represents a departure from Linklater’s other highly regarded work (Slacker, Dazed and Confused, A Scanner Darkly) and displays the director’s tenacity and flair for character development. Additionally, it’s arguably the most ambitious love story portrayed in cinema in decades, chronicling Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse’s (Ethan Hawke) nearly 20-year on-and-off relationship.

Richard Rowley’s Dirty Wars would be a fascinating work of fiction. Something like,  “A cunning, well-intentioned protagonist lifts the curtain on a government’s unchecked and morally ambiguous behavior in the War on Terror.” Problem is, Dirty Wars is the reality, and one where whistleblower and journalist Jeremy Scahill exposes the covert operations of JSOC, an elite and secretive American fighting force that carries out global missions against “terror.

During the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Institute’s Native American & Indigenous Program kicked off its 20th Anniversary year with a special reading event featuring seven distinguished Indigenous Alumni from the NativeLab, the Feature Film Program’s Labs, and the Sundance Film Festival. The Alumni gave individual readings of material that inspired them to pursue filmmaking and a life in the arts. In sharing his work, one NativeLab alumni was surprised at how his reading conjured up an emotional reaction.

“You throw yourself away to be an artist,” says Ushio Shinohara in Cutie and the Boxer, the forceful documentary that follows the famous Japanese artist and his wife Noriko Shinohara over their 40-year relationship. The verity of that statement is reinforced throughout Zachary Heinzerling’s directorial debut, as Ushio risks abandonment, financial hardship, and other pitfalls in order to dedicate his life to his art—he specializes in an unconventional action painting technique called “boxing painting.”Cutie observes the line between personal and professional relationships while presenting a charming—if not occasionally heartbreaking—portrait of complex lovers on an intricate life journey.

Amongst Sundance Institute staff we often say there is no such thing as a typical “Sundance” movie. Sundance is about discovery, defying expectations, and diversity of voices. Surveying the range of documentaries screening at this year’s Sundance Film Festival made this maxim feel like an undeniable truth.