SUNDANCE INSTITUTE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROGRAM ANNOUNCES FALL 2008 GRANTS
Trans-national Productions Define the Grantee Pool
November 26, 2008Los Angeles, CA–Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program announced today the 20 filmprojects awarded financial and creative support from the Sundance DocumentaryFund. In a doubling of the numbers of projects submitted, nearly 800 filmmakersworking in more than 70 countries submitted projects. The awardees include sixfirst-time feature documentary filmmakers, complemented by national andinternational award winners. The Sundance Documentary Film Program supportsU.S. and international documentary filmmakers exploring the critical issues ofour times in documentaries with cinematic potential.
"The films funded in thisround tell stories of perseverance and dignity in the face of our world'sgreatest contemporary challenges," said Cara Mertes, Director of theSundance Documentary Film Program. "From journalists and lawyers who takeon international war criminals, to a small American town confronting its ownhomophobia, nonfiction storytellers are leading us down new paths as we searchfor common ground." Artists in this round are working in the UnitedStates, Tibet, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestinian Territories,Ukraine, Nigeria, Iran, Romania, Chile, Senegal Guantanamo Bay Cuba, Indiaand Tanzania.
The Sundance InstituteDocumentary Fund is a core activity of Sundance Institute’s Documentary FilmProgram, which provides year-round creative support to nonfiction filmmakersthrough creative Labs, work-in-progress screenings, Program staff andadvisor consultations and artist-to-artist community. Proposals areaccepted prior to deadlines twice a year, and submissions are judged on theirapproach to storytelling, artistic treatment and innovation, subject relevanceand potential for social engagement. The Sundance Institute Documentary Programconsiders projects in the Development and Production/Post-Production phases.The film selection is juried by creative film professionals and human rightsexperts. Next deadlines are February 9 and July 7, 2009.
DEVELOPMENT
Elinyisia Mosha
TANZANIA PROJECT(Tanzania/U.S.)
This film explores the impact of foreign direct investment in the filmmakers native Tanzania.
Priya Giri Desai and Ann S. Kim
MATCH +: A STORY ABOUT LOVE IN THE TIME OF HIV (U.S./India)
Y.R. Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Researchand Education (YRG CARE) clinic in Chennai, India, Dr. Solomonand her staff launch a matrimonial matchmaking service for their positivepatients.
Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner
SEEKING REFUGE (U.S.)
At the Bellevue Hospital Center N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture,three patients from around the world come together in a journey of healing.
Marianna Kaat
THE PIT (Estonia/Ukraine)
Once prosperous during the Soviet era, the small town of Snezhnoje inEast Ukraine now lives in poverty. The town’s desperate residents decide tostart mining on their own.
Macky Alston
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE (U.S.)
An openly gay bishop from New Hampshire travels to London, where theAnglican Communion will decide to either retain or split gay leadership fromtheir ranks.
Patricio Guzman
NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ(Chile/France)
In the desert of North Chile, astronomers study the ancient universeabove, while women search below for signs of their family members disappearedunder Pinochet’s dictatorship of 1973.
Mahmoud Al Massad
THIS IS MY PICTURE WHEN I WAS DEAD (Jordan)
This is a film that artfully imagines the future of afour-year old boy who almost died in the assassination of his PLO lieutenantfather 25 years ago.
PRODUCTION/POST-PRODUCTION
Lynn True and Nelson Walker, with Tsering Perlo
A NOMAD'S LIFE (U.S./Tibet)
In the mountains of Tibet, Locho and Yama struggle to maintain theirfamily and way of life, and to reconcile their nomadic traditions amidst rapidmodernization.
Andrew Berends
DELTA BOYS (U.S./Nigeria)
In the oil rich Niger Delta, Chima is a 21-year-old who is swept intothe world of armed militants after a prison break. His story is part of acomplex tale of oil, power, poverty and corruption.
Petr Lom
LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT (U.S./Iran)
Across Iran, villagers share their hopes and fears through letters toPresident Ahmadinejad and his Presidential Letter Writing Center.
Mona Nicoara
OUR SCHOOL (Romania)
Roma children struggle to break the barriers of segregation in a smallTransylvanian school. Rejected by teachers, they find strength in thefriendship of Romanian classmates.
Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer
OUT IN THE SILENCE (U.S.)
The filmmaker's same-sex wedding announcement in the local newspaperignites a firestorm of controversy in his rural Pennsylvania hometown.
Eric Daniel Metzgar
REPORTER (U.S./Congo)
New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof journeys into thecrisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, inviting a consideration of thefuture of journalism.
Danae Elon
THE EVIL TONGUE
In the Orthodox Jewish family, those affected by sexual molestation maybe unable to disclose the information to secular authorities.
Pamela Yates
THE RECKONING (U.S.)
The film chronicles the history and launch of the International CriminalCourt in the Hague, the world’s first institution created to prosecute individualsfor war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
DISCRETIONARY
Edet Belzber
Watchers of the Sky
Drawing from Samantha Power’s book "A Problem from Hell" four exceptional visionaries traverse time and continents to explore theworld's response to genocide.
Oren Jacoby
INJUSTICE (U.S.)
This film uncovers the backroom maneuvering during the waning days ofthe Bush Administration which led to the unprecedented and illegal firing ofU.S. Attorneys David Iglesias, John McKay and three of their colleagues.
Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman
SEMBENE: REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST (U.S./Senegal)
The story of independent filmmaker Senegal's Ousmane Sembene, providingan alternate history of contemporary Africa and a window into world cinema.
Thomas Wallner
THE GUANTANAMO TRAP
Murat Kurnaz, born in Germany of Turkish heritage, was detained,tortured at the U.S. military base in Kandar, Afghanistan and in the U.S.military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and held for five years. This is hisstory.
Thomas Allen Harris
THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE
Using an experimental approach, Harris shows how black communities usephotography and imagery to construct political, aesthetic, and culturalrepresentations of themselves in the world.
Sundance Institute’s Documentary Program is made possible by generoussupport from The Ford Foundation, The Charles Engelhard Foundation The GillFoundation, S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation, the Woodruff CharitableMemorial Trust and the Skoll Foundation. Sundance Institute also gratefullyacknowledges the generous assistance provided by the following organizations:Alesis Corporation, Apple Computer, Avid Technology, Inc., Hewlett-PackardCompany, HP Marketing, JBL Professional, LaCie Limited, Mackie, Mark of theUnicorn, Sony Business and Professional Products, Sony Media, Sony SXRD andSoundcraft.
The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program is a core Program of the Sundance Institute,dedicated to supporting U.S. and international feature documentary films thatfocus on current human rights issues, social justice, civil liberties, andother contemporary issues. Since 1996, the Fund hassupported over 450 artists in 52 countries, providing acontinuum of support throughout the life of a project. Films supported by theFund have received widespread distribution to their intended audiences viabroadcast and theatrical release, and many have garnered a number of awards andexceptional industry recognition. Films have included My Country, My Country; Iraq in Fragments; Why We Fight; Born IntoBrothels; The Inner Tour; The Betrayal (Nerakhoon); Traces of the Trade andTrouble the Water. In addition to the Fund, The Sundance InstituteDocumentary Film Program provides year-round support to nurture nonfictionfilmmakers worldwide through three Creative Labs, at the Sundance Film Festivaland the Sundance Independent Producers Conference, and through collaborativeinternational initiatives.
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, SundanceInstitute is a not-for-profit organization that fosters the development oforiginal storytelling in film and theatre, and presents the annual SundanceFilm Festival. Internationally recognized for its artistic development programsfor filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights and theatre artists,Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Angels in America, SpringAwakening, Boys Don't Cry,Why We Fight and manyothers.
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