Category: News

The United States has only five percent of the world’s population; but five decades into the war on drugs, it has 25 percent of the world’s prisoners—many of them convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. Despite huge numbers of drug-related incarcerations, illegal substances are cheaper, purer, and more widely available than ever. This begs the question: Why does the United States imprison so many of its citizens to so little effect?In his documentary The House I Live In, Eugene Jarecki examines the political and economical motivations behind the war on drugs.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty plays at Sundance London beginning Apri 26. Click here for ticket information.
“I didn’t know I was making a feature until I was doing it,” says Terence Nance of his innovative third film, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, screening in the New Frontier program.

What do Stephen Colbert, Jeopardy!, and four ground-breaking Sundance-supported documentaries have in common? Very little. Until today, that is, when they each received a Peabody Award for “outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television, and cable.” For the past 72 years, the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Communications has honored broadcast journalists and documentary filmmakers with an award celebrating the year’s most enterprising, edifying, enlightening (and, in Colbert’s case, uprorariously entertaining) electronic storytelling.

LONDON — Sundance Institute and The O2 announced today the programme of events and performances that will take place in the unique Cinema Café and Music Café spaces at the first-ever Sundance London film and music festival, 26-29 April at The O2.Both the Cinema Café and Music Café are elements of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA, the premier independent film festival in the United States – and will take place in festival hub the Sundance London Inc Club, located on the ground floor of The O2. Events at the Cinema Café were programmed by Sundance Institute, and performances at the Music Café were produced by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Beijing, China — FILM FORWARD: Advancing Cultural Dialogue, an initiative of Sundance Institute and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, took place in China March 14-22, 2012. In collaboration with the U.S.

Kunming, China, it turns out, is mostly cement and just as polluted as other Chinese cities, but it didn’t matter because we were staying in what is left of the original city, facing a large lake full of lotus and water lily that is surrounded by vividly planted flower beds and many flowering trees. It is eternally spring in Kunming because although the city is in southern China close to the Laotian border, it sits on the shoulders of the Tibetan plateau, so the weather is balmy, mild, and vaguely sunny (through the smog) year round. Best of all is an island in the middle of the lake, connected by walkways to the shore, where all the “senior citizens” from the surrounding province spend the day, every day, dancing, playing a wild variety of single-stringed instruments and flutes, and listening to music.

Where to start, where to start?  I have been trying to put down some thoughts about my incredible experiences screening Somewhere Between with Film Forward in India…and I finally realized why I have been struggling so much – there is a certain sense of overwhelm I still can’t shake from being in India.  I’ve been home for almost a week, and yet it is still difficult to describe.   Conveying the experience of India – and mind you, I was only in Mumbai and Delhi for several days each – is as complex as the country itself.

New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced the eight projects selected from nearly 900 submissions to participate in the 2012 Theatre Lab, July 9-29 at the Sundance Mountain Resort. Under the supervision of Philip Himberg, Producing Artistic Director, and Associate Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece of the Theatre Program’s year-round work and is designed to support emerging and established artists and to create a place where their original work can be effectively mentored and challenged.
“The eight projects we’ve selected for 2012 are diverse in every sense,” said Himberg.

Sundance Institute has announced the alumni and artists who will lend their support as members of the 2012 Sundance London Host Committee by promoting and participating in various panels and events. Artists represent the core of Sundance Institute’s mission and the Host Committee allows the voices of our alumni and supporters to have an important stake in this new venture.
“Sundance London is an exciting event for us, and we’re thrilled to have the support of our many friends and Sundance Alumni in the U.

Tracy Rector participated at the 2011 Native Filmmakers Lab in Mescalero, New Mexico, and the 2011 Creative Producing Summit at Sundance Resort. Below she discusses her experience working on her Lab project, Clearwater, and attending the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Sometimes you just know when you’re in the right place at the right time.

There is no shortage of creative hyphenates of the musician-composer variety who would argue that measure of a great soundtrack or score is one that blends so seamlessly into the fabric of the filmmaking, audiences only subconsciously register a film’s musical subtext. But for legendary musician and film composer, T Bone Burnett — whose work spans the indelible twang-y folk melodies infusing O Brother Where Art Thou to his Oscar-winning work on Crazy Heart to his elegiac compositions pulsing through Finding North — the right combination of film and music can be highly combustible. “There is an alchemy that occurs when music and film are fused,” says Burnett, who recently lent his talents to a little under-the-radar project known as The Hunger Games.

Summer Wu was an audience member who watched Somewhere Between at Beijing Foreign Studies University. She graciously shared her observations of the emotional connection with Chinese audiences to this story.
“Audience members were constantly wiping tears in the dark during the screening of Somewhere Between at Beijing Foreign Studies University’s Annual Documentary Forum on March 16, 2012.