Category: News

Patricio Guzmán is a Chilean documentary film director internationally renowned for films such as The Battle of Chile and Salvador Allende. Guzmán’s relationship with Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program goes back to 1998, when he was awarded support for his documentary film The Pinochet Case, a story investigating Augusto Pinochet for crimes against humanity. One decade later, in 2008, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program was delighted to be able to support this exceptional international artist again, as the first North American support with a grant award for his new feature documentary Nostalgia for the Light.

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute invites filmmakers to participate in ShortsLab: Chicago, a day-long filmmaking workshop to be held at Columbia College Chicago on May 7. ShortsLab: Chicago will feature filmmakers and experts from the Sundance Institute community and Chicago’s respected film critics and industry professionals. Panelists include representatives from Sundance Film Festival, as well as SAG, Topspin Media, Kickstarter, Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Shorts International, Movieola, Chicago Short Film Brigade, Chicago International Film Festival, and Chicago Underground Film Festival.

Ramona Emerson was a 2010 Sundance Institute Native Program Fellow and participated in the 2010 Native Lab with her film Opal. Below, she discusses her 2011 Festival experience and the arduous task of finalizing her screenplay.“So… what is your film about?” It’s a question that dogged me from day two of the Festival on.

Sitting in a circle this morning at the first rehearsal of the musical Like Water for Chocolate, I could not help but be moved by the stories being shared.  Each member of the creative team and cast members spoke lovingly of their own families, their connection with the cultural foods which helped define their growing up.  The diversity of backgrounds was terribly moving.

NEW YORK, NY – Sundance Institute announced today the acting company participating in its 2011 Theatre Lab held at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada from March 27-April 17. The Theatre Lab provides an atmosphere focused on artistic development and collaboration to develop and refine new theatre work with the support of full casts. Building upon the Sundance Institute’s history of cultivating international exchange and dialogue, the 2011Theatre Lab projects and participants  illustrate and explore the world’s most innovative storytelling.

Film Forward has three target audiences: underserved communities, student and youth groups, and artists. By partnering with other Sundance Institute programs Film Forward is able to enrich its program with workshops designed for artists. The artists component is important, as they are our storytellers, and their greater understanding and experiences will inform and inspire future audiences through the creation and dissemination of their work.

A few weeks after Film Forward left Tunisia back in December, the “Jasmine Revolution” began. While visiting Tunisia, our team had extended conversations with several students during the Film Forward weekend of screenings. The series drew a number of bright, highly engaged college graduates, and in our one-on-one conversations we heard a yearning for openness and opportunity.

The second film to be completed through the Sundance Institute and Skoll Foundation partnership Stories of Change, The Team, will premiere in the U.K. this March.

LOS ANGELES, CA — – In celebration and support of diversity and innovation in independent filmmaking, the Sundance Institute and Honda have formed The Honda Power of Dreams Lab Fellowship to recognize an outstanding filmmaker participating in the Institute’s renowned Feature Film Program Directors Lab. Selected by Institute staff and Honda executives, The Honda Power of Dreams Lab Fellow will receive a stipend from Honda in addition to the Lab experience and year-round guidance and mentorship provided by the non-profit Institute.
Under the leadership of Michelle Satter, Director of the Sundance Feature Film Program, and the artistic direction of Gyula Gazdag, the Sundance Institute Directors Lab provides an opportunity for directors to rehearse, shoot, and edit selected scenes from their screenplays in a workshop environment free from the commercial pressures of mainstream filmmaking and under the guidance of world-renowned Creative Advisors.

Sundance Institute’s Documentary Program has been working with filmmakers Maren Grainger-Monsen and Nicole Newnham for over a year. We’ve heard the stories and witnessed this group in action in the short film based on the feature documentary The Revolutionary Optimists, a film we produced in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that premiered at TEDx in September 2010. I recently travelled to Calcutta to meet with some of the subjects of the film.

I had no idea what to expect from my first experience at the Sundance Film Festival, aside from seeing some great films and reconnecting with the Sundance family I had grown so close to during the Native Lab eight months prior. I have since learned that the unexpected should be expected in Park City. Unpredictable weather, borderline terrifying celebrity encounters, and a nasty case of sinusitis brought on by the high altitude are just a few experiences I wasn’t quite prepared for.

Glenn Baker, the director of Easy Like Water, describes below the extreme conditions during the production of his film, which is part of Stories of Change, an initiative in partnership with the Skoll Foundation that explores the potential of combining the art of nonfiction storytelling with the impact of social entrepreneurship.Producer/Cameraman Steve Sapienza and I returned to Bangladesh for a month in July and August 2010 to film in the riverside communities served by the floating schools during monsoon season. We explored the many ways climate change is already hitting Bangladesh.