The Sundance Institute is once again linking up-and-coming director and editor teams with established filmmakers, having selected 22 fellows to immerse themselves in the Documentary Edit and Story Labs, in support of nine documentary projects.
The selected teams will descend upon Utah on June 21-29 and July 5-13 to learn from documentary filmmakers and Sundance Institute staff to work on story, dramatic structure and character development.
“The Documentary Edit and Story Labs are unique in the world in their rigor, candor and community-building focus,” said Cara Mertes, the outgoing director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund.
“Films and filmmakers benefit in extraordinary ways from the experience and dedication of some of the most renowned Editing and Directing Advisers in peer-to-peer engagement with staff and other participants over the course of the Lab.”
Participants selected for the June session are:
A Blind Eye (U.S.)
Director: Kirsten Johnson
Editor: Amanda Laws
Elephant in the Room (U.S.)
Co-directors and Editor: Ed Pincus, Lucia Small
Producer: Mary Kerr
The Last Hijack (U.S., Netherlands)
Co-directors: Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting
Editor: Edgar Burcksen
Street Fighting Man (U.S.)
Director: Andrew James
Editor: Jason Tippet
Totonel (Romania)
Director: Alexander Nanau
Editor: Mirceau Olteanu
Creative advisers include editors Mary Lampson (Harlan County USA), Mary Manhardt (American Promise), Jonathan Oppenheim (The Oath) and Richard Hankin (God Loves Uganda), and directors Carol Dysinger (One Bullet Afghanistan) and Ross McElwee (Photographic Memory).
The four projects taking part in the July Documentary Edit and Story Lab are:
An African Spring (U.S.)
Director: Elizabeth ‘Chai’ Vasarhelyi
Editor: Jay Freund
The Homestretch (U.S.)
Co-Directors: Anne de Mare, Kirsten Kelly
Editor: Leslie Simmer
Rich Hill (U.S.)
Co-directors: Tracy Draz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo
Editor: Jim Hession
Strong Island (U.S.)
Director: Yance Ford
Editor: Shannon Kennedy
The Creative Advisors for this session are editors Victor Livingston (Crumb), Kate Amend (Birth Story), Jean Tsien (Drivers Wanted) and Tom Haneke (American Teen), and directors Carol Dysinger (One Bullet Afghanistan) and Robb Moss (Secrecy).