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Tabitha Jackson – award-winning commissioning editor, director, producer and writer – who believes passionately in the arts as a public good, is the Director of the Sundance Film Festival. With more than 25 years of experience in the field of arts and nonfiction film, she has previously served as the Director of the Documentary Film Program at the Sundance Institute, as well as head of Arts and Performance at Channel 4 Television in London before joining the Sundance team.
In 2013, Jackson was appointed Director of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute with a mission to champion the power of artful nonfiction cinema in the culture and to support a more expansive set of makers and forms. In supporting such work, she and her team encouraged the diverse exchange of ideas by artists as a critical pathway to developing an open society. Also while in the role, she launched and led a new pillar of work at the Institute - Impact, Engagement and Advocacy – with the goal of reasserting the role of the independent artist as a dynamic progressive cultural force.
Prior to joining the Sundance Institute, Jackson worked at Channel 4 to support independent and alternative voices and find fresh and innovative ways of storytelling. She executive produced a number of projects for the UK’s Film 4 including Bart Layton’s The Imposter, Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film, Clio Barnard’s The Arbor, Sophie Fiennes’ The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, and Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollards’ 20,000 Days on Earth. Jackson was drawn to these filmmakers, along with many others, because of their use of innovative cinematic storytelling to challenge accepted orthodoxies, and, as a result, revealing a little more of the human condition.
