Sundance Institute, Cinereach name doc grantees

June 5, 2012 by Kelly Anderson

Sundance Institute

Documentaries on Ghana’s presidential election, an American soldier on trial, and the arms industry have been selected as grant recipients for the Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute program.

A total of 15 projects received a combined US$200,000 in grants as part of the Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute, which aims to support narrative and documentary feature films that have themes of global cultural exchange and social impact.

Recipients also receive creative support at a Sundance Institute Lab, the Sundance Institute Creative Producing Summit or the Sundance Film Festival.

The three documentary development grants went to Jarreth Merz for The Commissioner, a doc about a man aiming to change the electoral landscape in Africa; Dan Krauss’ The Kill Team, about an American soldier who attempted to thwart alleged U.S. war crimes and is now standing trail for murder; and Johan Grimonprez’s The Shadow World, which looks at the business of the arms industry.

“Our collaboration with Cinereach allows us to highlight projects representing emerging and innovative voices and to support them at a critical moment,” said Keri Putnam, executive director of Sundance Institute, who added that the three projects “demonstrate truly distinctive and personal storytelling as well as the potential to impact audiences in meaningful ways.”

“These grantees cover vast narrative, sensory and geographical territory and will no doubt spark dialogue,” said Philipp Engelhorn, founder and executive director of Cinereach.

This is the third year of the initiative, which in the past has supported Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s On the Ice, Lauren Greenfield’s The Queen of Versailles, Josh Fox’s Gasland and Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.

Tags: Cinereach, Cinereach Project, Dan Krauss, Jarreth Merz, Johan Grimonprez, Sundance Institute, The Commissioner, The Kill Team, The Shadow World