Category: News

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.

The O2, London, 15th March 2011 – Robert Redford, the non-profit  Sundance Institute and AEG Europe today announced Sundance London, a four-day multi-disciplinary arts festival that will include film screenings, live music performances, discussions, panels and other public cultural programming to be held 26th – 29th April, 2012 at the world’s most popular music and entertainment venue, The O2. AEG Europe, owner and operator of The O2, Robert Redford, and his non-profit Sundance Institute will join together to present films from American filmmakers as well as current  American music. Sundance Institute, which annually presents the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.

Eskişehir 
We are on the train again now after a couple of days in Eskişehir. We were hosted by the University Anadolu and specifically the Communication Deptartment. To summarize the headline reactions in a sentence: Impressed… Energy… Excellence… Imagination… Exciting… Solidarity… Intelligence… Diligence… Great Questions!
To explain a little further… I have been to many universities now but rarely have I been so impressed by the atmosphere and energy of the students as I was in Eskişehir.

Yolanda Cruz was a 2010 Sundance Institute Native Program Fellow and participated in the 2010 Native Lab and Creative Producing Summit. She recently participated in the 2011 January Screenwriters Lab with her project “La Raya” about 11-year-old Papio, who has his eyes set on emigrating to the U.S.