Category: Program Spotlight

Over eight years, New Frontier has cultivated a community of inventive minds, creative technologists, and talented storytellers from a variety of backgrounds. Just like the innovators at the dawn of the film age, New Frontier artists are creating language, forms, and methodologies that will become the standard for the future storyteller. To deepen this process, Sundance Institute recently launched the New Frontier Artist Residency program, designed to place New Frontier storytellers in resource rich environments to innovate the art and form of story.

Last week, the 68th annual Tony Awards marked the unofficial coda to theater awards season with a triumphant evening for Robert Freedman and Steven Lutvak’s musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder. But often the zenith of a project’s creative life tends to eclipse its own fascinating journey, like Gentleman’s voyage since participating at the 2006 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab. That raucous black comedy, along with a handful of other award winners below, each at some stage participated in the Theatre Program’s three-week play development retreat designed to support the creation of new work by playwrights, directors, composers and librettists.

Earlier this year, Sundance Institute announced the formation of the Episodic Story Lab dedicated to supporting writers and creators of series for television and online platforms, and just yesterday, we revealed the 10 writers selected for the inaugural Lab taking place at the Sundance Resort from September 27 through October 2. Every applicant for the program was required to submit a spec pilot and series overview as the basis of their creative work at the Lab. The selected writers are Desiree Akhavan (Switch Hitter); Peter Biegen (Small Change); Nate Crocker (Scar Tissue); Katori Hall (The Dial); Barry Jenkins (Radical); Nick Keetch (Borderline); Lisa Kron (The Schaeffers); Crystal Liu (The White Sheep); Heather Marion (Bury Me); and Matt Young (Still).

As I reflect on my tenure with Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab, I’ve been considering some ways innovation is advancing the art of storytelling into the future (the future is now, after all). The role of “new” technology in the process may surprise you; new technologies are exciting tools building on the rich foundation of storytelling and experimentation. Here are 5 things I can definitively say are pushing the hand of progress.

Experiencing the work of New Frontier artists often makes me feel like a kid at a magic show, watching modern day wizards transfigure story and the moving image into exciting new forms. They are innovating on the dimensions of imagery, sound architecture, action corridors, installation designs, and user interfaces that bring forth resonant and meaningful experiences. Why do we need to innovate on the shape of story and the moving image, when fundamentals like the three act structure or projecting images on a rectangular screen have served us well for so long? Traditional mediums will always be powerful and will continue to give audiences something that cannot be replicated in any other form.

Tonight is my last night in Cairo. I’ve been here for almost one week attending the Downtown Cairo Arts Festival. This is my first visit to Egypt, and I must admit that prior to my coming here, I was a bit apprehensive about my safety, given the western media’s portrayal of the Revolution and subsequent attacks.

In 2010, playwright Anne Washburn was the recipient of a Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship. In Ms. Washburn’s most recent work, Mr.

Adelina Anthony is an award winning two-spirited Xicana lesbian writer, actor, director, and producer. Her short film Forgiving Heart screened last year at Outfest and is now being developed into a feature-length screenplay. Anthony attended last week’s Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive | Los Angeles and shares her five takeaways below.

The Festival’s New Frontier space has not only moved above ground—this year it’s happening all over town. Sprung from the cavernous basement of a Main Street shopping mall to take over three entire buildings on the grounds of the historic Miners Hospital on Park Avenue, New Frontier has steadily grown from a tech-heavy sideline to become one of the defining features of the Festival. As this year’s roster of films, exhibits, installations, and performances demonstrates, the paths of traditional and alternative visual media are rapidly converging.