Diane Quon speaks with an advisor at Sundance Institute’s 2019 Creative Producing Lab. (Photo by Jen Fairchild)
By Lucy Spicer
When producer Diane Quon joins me for a conversation over Zoom, she’s in the middle of putting together presentations for the 2025 Sundance Institute Documentary Producers Lab, taking place July 21–26 at Ucross Foundation in Clearmont, Wyoming. This will be her second time attending this lab as a creative advisor, but that doesn’t mean she’s approaching the process without any nerves.
“I always feel like an impostor as an advisor! I see folks who are so much more talented than me!” laughs Quon. “I am always so impressed with everyone at the labs.” At this point it feels relevant to remind Quon that she’s an Oscar nominee. “I did get nominated, so I must have something,” she concedes. “When I was telling my friend I was working on the presentations and I’m so nervous — ‘You’re still nervous, Diane??’ It’s something that never goes away with me.”
Quon first came to the Producers Lab as a creative advisor in 2023, but her relationship with Sundance Institute was already well underway by then: She was a fellow at the 2019 Creative Producing Documentary Lab with her film Finding Yingying, she was an advisor at the Institute’s 2020 Catalyst Forum, and several documentaries she’s worked on have been supported by various Institute artist programs — including Minding the Gap, which received a documentary film grant from the Institute before going on to premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking. Produced alongside director Bing Liu, Minding the Gap was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards. Even this past Festival, Quon was a presence as an executive producer on Tadashi Nakamura’s Third Act.
Quon’s self-professed impostor syndrome — something unfathomable to anyone who has seen the producer’s work — may come from the fact that producing is her second career. Quon worked as a marketing executive at NBC and Paramount Pictures for years before chasing her dream of producing her own films. Sundance Institute’s 2019 Creative Producing Documentary Lab was one of the first labs Quon participated in as an emerging producer.
“I always kid about this, because ‘emerging’ — that was 2019, right?” Quon chuckles about her relatively recent entrée into the world of producing. “And yet [Sundance Institute] still didn’t look at the nature of those kinds of things. It’s not like this elitist group where it has to be young, just up-and-coming,” she continues. “It’s folks who have great stories, who get passion for telling stories — that’s what Sundance cares about.”
“Care” is a word that stands out in Quon’s description of her time as both a fellow and an advisor at the Sundance Institute labs, and it’s a priority that sets the labs apart from other programs elsewhere. “Basically from the time I was a fellow to the last time I was an advisor, I felt like it was safe, you know?” Quon explains. “The same feeling of just so much care for the fellows, so much research that the Sundance team staff did ahead of the lab to make sure everyone’s comfortable, everyone had the information they needed. Just really thoughtful in terms of even working with us on presentation to make sure it’s as effective as possible.”
The care that Quon describes is necessary given the lab’s condensed itinerary. “We really spend the whole day — for four days — together, and every presentation or every break that we have where we’re doing something else is well thought out so that we don’t get burned out, because it is such a long day,” explains Quon. It’s a delicate balance, but that combination of care and immersion is part of what has made the Institute’s lab so beneficial for independent emerging producers since its inception — and what encourages fellows to return as creative advisors.
“I’ve been in other labs, but it’s not like 24/7,” notes Quon. “It’s such a small group, so you really become very close. And I think what makes it unique is when we leave, it’s not over. We continued to support each other, both the advisors with each other but also the advisors with the fellows.” That support is rooted in the trust built between the fellows and advisors during the Producers Lab as they discuss pitching, marketing, distribution, budgeting, ethics, and more. The trust between fellows and advisors is a goal that spans all Sundance Institute labs, and at the core of it is the creative permission to fail.
“Don’t be afraid to ask any question that is on your mind or any challenge on your mind at the moment, because so many of us are probably going through the same thing or looking for answers to the same question,” says Quon. “Because it’s so intimidating, sometimes you’re afraid, like, ‘Is this a silly question?’” she continues. “I would encourage the follow-up. Just go for it.” Quon also says this advice applies to those hesitant to apply for artist programs in the first place. “I think it’s the same about encouraging people to submit, you know? It’s again, impostor syndrome, thinking, ‘Is my film good enough? Is my story good enough?’ It is if it’s something you care about and you’re passionate about. Go for it.”
The rewards of attending the Producers Lab — as both a fellow and an advisor — are many, even if they are difficult to put into words. “There’s nothing like being with other producers,” says Quon of her experience among other emerging producers at the lab. “And also being with my fellow cohort of advisors — there’s nothing like being with a producer. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like when you say anything about your experience, everyone can relate really quickly, and it’s so rewarding to just have those conversations to help lift each other up and to be together.”
Like the Producers Lab’s focus on care, community-building is an essential building block of all Sundance Institute artist programs. “I always encourage people to submit to Sundance programs,” says Quon. “Because it’s not just for that program itself; you just become part of the community. You never get out of it,” she continues. “It just keeps growing. And yeah, I’m so lucky, like with my very first film, we got the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, so they’ve been part of my career since the very beginning.”
