Category: Program Spotlight

Sundance Institute is delighted to introduce our six new Women at Sundance Fellows, a diverse group of filmmakers working as producers and directors in the documentary and narrative fields. Though they are at various stages in their careers, all are actively attempting to fulfill their potential and create sustainable careers in a highly competitive environment.
The Fellowship Program matches women filmmakers from Sundance Institute’s acclaimed programs with industry leaders and decision makers for a yearlong, individualized fellowship program.

It seems so long ago that I was applying for the Time Warner Native Producing Fellowship, yet it’s been less than a year. I wasn’t sure what it meant to be a Fellow, but I knew I wanted to be a part of the growing community of Native American filmmakers. So, I applied with my first feature project as a producer called The Land.

The upcoming season at the Sundance Institute Theatre Program is unprecedented and excites us as never before. For over three decades we have hosted our centerpiece Theatre Lab against the majesty of Mount Timpanogos, at the Sundance Resort in Utah. As I write, my staff and I are deep in conversation about how we will bring to life an entirely new iteration of this developmental workshop: our 2016 Theatre Lab will be a marriage of our U.

The word “spark” is defined as “a small fiery particle thrown off from a fire, alight in ashes, or produced by striking together two hard surfaces such as stone or metal.” It’s also a common term used to describe the earliest stage of a writer’s creative process. The big idea—urgent and unrelenting—that seduces the artist and compels her to tell a specific story.

After all the 2015 Skoll World Forum panels, plenary sessions and networking events were over, Sundance Institute’s Stories of Change entourage, Skoll Foundation Director of Global Partnerships Sandy Herz, and her husband Peter Herz sat at a tapas restaurant to take stock of the amazing week. Our heads were still spinning with the many faces we encountered among this phenomenal group of social entrepreneurs, collectively working to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Our hearts were still tenderized by the heroic stories told by the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu (civil rights activist), Bassem Youssef (Egyptian satirist), and Safeena Husain (founder, Educate Girls).

Sundance Institute’s Full Circle Fellowship, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, aims to elevate young Native filmmakers to more competitive ranks in what is often considered a homogeneous and privileged realm of content creation.

Lauded as a tremendous success by filmmakers, advisors, and supporters alike, the third annual Female Filmmakers Initiative Financing Intensive hosted by Sundance Institute and Women In Film Los Angeles helped demystify the independent film financing process while encouraging confidence and collaboration amongst over 125 filmmakers and dozens of industry advisors and panelists. Below, filmmaker attendees share their insightful reflections on the all-day convening.So rarely do you actually get practical, specific and actionable advice that this was startling.

Some filmmakers are reactive and volatile – especially the independent ones. The “reactive and volatile” I’m talking about aren’t the high maintenance ones prone to unnecessary drama. I’m referring to ones who are like atoms that readily react with other atoms when the conditions are right – when they’re stimulated to form molecules and compounds.

The Skoll World Forum happens in Oxford every April; it is a gathering of over 1,000 social entrepreneurs who are leading organizations that are changing the world, at tremendous scale. From global health to child trafficking, literacy to poverty, climate change to global corruption — the commitment, vision and passion of this community is breathtaking. Every year I meet someone who just picked up her Nobel Prize, or just had lunch with the Dalai Lama, or just helped lead the movement that created 1,000 new health centers in India and is now headed to Africa to do the very same thing.

On April 18, the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship hosted a half-day of panel discussions with a gathering of documentary film editors, directors, and producers to discuss the art of editing. The goal of the day and future events is to shine a light on the role of the editor in the filmmaking process, build community, and celebrate an underexplored and often misunderstood collaboration between director and editor. The day began with a keynote from Jonathan Oppenheim (Paris is Burning, The Oath), included here.

This weekend, Miami welcomes the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive, supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Amazingly, I find myself back in Cairo tonight for the second time in 12 months. My Theatre Program colleagues (Philip Himberg & Roberta Levitow) and I have been in the region for nine days already as we wrap up our 1.5 year R&D phase of our MENA initiative (stay tuned for some exciting program announcements).