The post-Summer torpor at the box office is well underway, a seasonal trend that has hit studios and filmmakers with increased force in recent years. But our Sundance alumni remain undeterred in their efforts, continuing to invest their talents in several noteworthy projects for the upcoming year—some seemingly more prolific than others, but all warranting attention. Check out what director Spike Lee, actor David Oyelowo, and other alumni have planned for the next year in this edition of Sundance Alumni Updates.

The 2012 New Frontier Story Lab takes place at the Sundance Resort in Utah, where six creative teams and projects undergo an intensive residential retreat focused on creative support, which includes individualized story sessions, conversations about key artistic, design and technology issues, and case study presentations. Below is a recap of creative advisor Lance Weiler’s presentation of his latest work, “Wish For the Future.”“I like to disrupt.

New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced that it has established a first-of-its-kind Tennessee Williams Award to honor emerging playwrights who have participated in its Theatre Program Labs. Permission was given by The University of the South, the beneficiary of the Williams’ estate.
The first Tennessee Williams Award will be presented at a benefit for the Institute’s Theatre Program, April 8, 2013 in New York.

The O2, London, 22 October 2012 — Robert Redford, Sundance Institute and AEG Europe announced today that following the success of the first-ever Sundance London film and music festival in April 2012, the event will return to the world famous London venue, The O2, for a further two years, in 2013 and 2014. Passes and ticket packages for the 2013 event will go on general sale on 9 November online.

A reflection on my experience with the film Grbavica during the Film Forward visit to Puerto Rico:Fortunately I was assigned to go see the screening of Grbavica by one of my professors. This movie was in a foreign language and a foreign country I am not familiar with. However I was able to empathize and understand all the universal aspects of the film.

Michael Cain is a documentary filmmaker and the director of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner TV Junkie. Cain is seeking funding through Kickstarter to acquire music licensing for his new documentary, The Starck Project.“Scientists have proven music evokes memory.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the four documentary film projects and composers that have been paired together for the tenth Composers + Documentary Lab, October 26 through November 1 at Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah. The Lab is a joint initiative of the Institute’s Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP) and Film Music Program.
Built upon the Sundance Institute Lab model launched in 1981 by Robert Redford, Fellows participate in an unique residential retreat focused on the role of music and sound design in documentary film.

It may be a while before a clear victor emerges in the enduring battle between the advent of video-on-demand and the timeless tradition of moviegoing, but the former’s convenience is only becoming more difficult to trump. A pair of Sundance-supported films make their digital premieres today through the Sundance Institute Artist Services initiative, which provides Institute artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing, and financing solutions for their work. First up is Andrew Berends’ taut documentary Delta Boys, recipient of a 2008 Sundance Institute Documentary Film Grant.

iTunes │ Amazon Instant Video │ Microsoft Xbox Sony Entertainment Network │ SundanceNOW │ VUDU │ YouTube
Los Angeles, CA — Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same and Delta Boys make their digital premieres today through the Sundance Institute Artist Services access to distribution program, which provides Institute artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work.
Look for the films today and in the coming weeks on iTunes (U.S.

On Friday, October 21 I had the honor to share some thoughts about narration for documentary and feature films with filmmakers Allysa Nahmias (Unfinished Spaces) and Jasmila Zbanic (Grbavica) in a full room at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. This dialogue also included Ilyse McKimmie, Labs Director for the Feature Film Program at the Sundance Institute, and was part of an extraordinary calendar of events and film screenings presented by FILM FORWARD and organized by the Sociedad de Cine de Puerto Rico. 
One of the main challenges for filmmakers in Puerto Rico and many other countries is to develop appealing and economically viable stories for wide, complex and diverse audiences.

Documentary filmmaker and Sundance alumna Rory Kennedy’s new film Ethel—titled after the director’s mother and the delightful subject of the film—wasn’t a project she was preordained to helm. In fact, it was a film that Kennedy was regularly prodded to make, and one that she steadfastly resisted.“I kept saying ‘No, no, no,’ and Sheila Nevins kept saying ‘Yes, yes, yes,’” says Kennedy, referring to the president of HBO Documentary Films and an early advocate for the making of Ethel.

When Alysa Nahmias, co-director of Unfinished Spaces traveled with FILM FORWARD to Puerto Rico, she was in for a surprise. Audiences in Puerto Rico experienced the film in a deep way, resonating similarly to how the film was received in Cuba. Puerto Ricans laughed during the film in all the same places and with equal belly force as Cuban audiences.

As soon as you get over the “back to school” frenzy, it’s October and the costume and candy craze commences. It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve been in school, but you run into all of this by merely going to the store. In our latest edition of Short Order, we offer a pair of short films from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival that manage to capture all the pertinence of the seasons.

Los Angeles, CA (October 4, 2012) — The Autry National Center and Sundance Institute announce the second Sundance Institute at the Autry Presents Native Films program, a partnership that enables free public screenings of films created by emerging filmmakers from around the world, organized in cooperation with the University of California, Los Angeles, American Indian Studies Center. The screenings will take place on November 3 during the Autry’s American Indian Arts Marketplace weekend, which attracts over 180 American Indian contemporary artists to Los Angeles.
“The Autry is pleased to collaborate once again with Sundance Institute and UCLA’s American Indian Studies Center to bring Native films to Los Angeles, home to the largest urban Native American population in the country,” said Shelby Tisdale, the Autry’s Vice President of Curatorial and Exhibitions and former director of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Chickasaw Cultural Center is located in Sulphur, Oklahoma, one and a half hours from Oklahoma City and two and a half hours from Dallas, Texas. Sulphur has a population of about 5,000, so local Oklahomans were understandably surprised and elated that it was selected as one of four domestic  destinations for FILM FORWARD 2012.
Media and Journalism students from the University of Oklahoma  made the drive down from Norman to meet some well-known alumni including Bird Runningwater, Director of the Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Program, and Sterlin Harjo, writer/director of Barking Water.