Category: News

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.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the six projects selected for the New Frontier Story Lab that will take place from October 21-26 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Inspired by New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival and built on the Sundance Institute Lab model, the Lab is supporting projects that use technology to deepen story and engage audiences.
The projects, a mix of fiction, non-fiction and hybrid, are: Gregory Bayne and Cory McAbee’s The Great American Funeral, a collaborative film and music project; Yung Jake and Vince McKelvie’s Kickstarder, which uses audience participation to guide the narrative progression of the project; Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar’s Reinvention Stories, which combines radio, documentary cinema and online interactive storytelling; Eli Horowitz and Russell Quinn’s The Silent History, a serialized novel written and designed specifically for the iPhone and iPad; Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons’ Touch, a first-person interactive documentary designed for tablet devices; and Roger Ross Williams and Woo Jung Cho’s Traveling While Black, which combines collaborative storytelling, digital cultural mapping and a role-playing interactive game.

New York, NY — The Sundance Institute Theatre Program today announced that it will return to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) for its Fall Lab, which provides creative support and direction for innovative musical theatre and ensemble-generated projects. Also announced today were the three projects that have been selected to participate.
Under the supervision of Philip Himberg, Artistic Director of the Theatre Program, and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the two-week Lab (November 25 – December 9) marks the Theatre Program’s second collaboration with MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States.

Participating Artists Include Mike Mills, Parker Posey, Shirin Neshat, Susan Sarandon, Amy Sedaris, Morgan Spurlock, Mike White, Lauren Greenfield, Stacy Peralta and John Waters
Specialty Items include ‘Todd Oldham for the Sundance Film Festival’ Recycled Bags and Wallets and ‘Sundance Film Festival A to Z’ Art Book
All Items Available December 17 at www.sundance.org/store

Todd Oldham for the Sundance Film Festival
 
Designs by Todd Oldham
 
Art by John Waters

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute today announced a collaboration with artist and designer Todd Oldham to produce a custom line of limited-edition products exclusively for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, including several pieces designed by artists and Sundance Institute alumni.

“Cinema is magic because it transforms people and moves us forward,” said the writer/director of ‘Grbavica’, Jasmila Zbanic.Coming from Bosnia, Zbanic brought magic with her on FILM FORWARD’s trip to Puerto Rico in the form of her subtle and deep film about the often unspoken, psychological effects of war through the story of a mother and daughter. 
She talks about her experience screening ‘Grbavica’ and engaging with audiences in San Juan and beyond in this exclusive video:

Her appreciation of the “deep and meaningful way” she was able to connect with people through this film in Puerto Rico is reflected back by the audiences who participated.

Alysa Nahmias is the co-director of ‘Unfinished Spaces,’ a documentary about the visionary design of Cuba’s National Art Schools in the wake of Fidel Castro’s Revolution. She joined FILM FORWARD in Puerto Rico this week to screen the film for local audiences and participate in post-screening discussions.“A work of art is the sum of its destructions.

Shawntai Genell Brown is a freelance blogger, playwright, storyteller and poet living in Detroit, Michigan. She is sharing her experience of Film Forward: Michigan on her blog: Shawntai’s Spiral Notebook.
Preparing to meet Latisha It started sweet.