Frederick Wiseman‘s City Hall and Ha Le Diem’s Children of the Mist are among the 22 feature-length documentary projects that comprise the latest grantees of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Fund.
The unrestricted grants for development, production, post-production and audience engagement of unscripted projects total US$520,000, and grant recipients hail from 19 countries across five continents.
Among the filmmaking recipients receiving post-production grants is Wiseman’s City Hall, which documents the efforts by the Boston city government to provide myriad services to a diverse population.
Ha Le Diem’s Children of the Mist (pictured), meanwhile, is among the three projects to receive a production grant. The film, which earlier this month received funding as part of the 2020 Hot Docs Forum, documents a teenage girl in the mountains of North Vietnam as she walks “a thin line” between childhood and adulthood.
“At Sundance Institute, we know that these unprecedented times demand creative and nimble support,” said Kristin Feeley, Sundance Institute’s documentary film program interim director, and Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, the Institute’s documentary film fund director, in a joint statement. “We’re fortunate to have a collaborative and strong network of partners that allow us to ensure material support for these filmmakers as they develop bold new work, we can ensure that the field of nonfiction storytelling continues to evolve even against larger headwinds.”
The grantees are listed below. Information for each project is provided by the Sundance Institute:
DEVELOPMENT
Alis (Colombia)
Dir. Nicolas van Hemelryck, Clare Weiskopf
Prod. Nicolas van Hemelryck, Clare Weiskopf
A Hawk as Big as a Horse (Russia, France)
Dir. Sasha Kulak
Prod. Louis Beaudemont
How to Build a Library (Kenya)
Dir. Maia Lekow, Christopher King
Prod. Maia Lekow, Christopher King
Q (Lebanon)
Dir. Jude Chehab
Prod. Jude Chehab
Reas (Argentina)
Dir. Lola Arias
Prod. Gema Juárez Allen
Regarding Memory and Neglect (Brazil)
Dir. Ricardo Martensen
Prod. Ricardo Martensen, Felipe Tomazelli, Dado Carlin
Todo lo sólido (Cuba, Mexico, U.S.)
Dir. Luis Gutiérrez Arias
Prod. Zaina Bseiso, Alejandro Alonso Estrella, Joie Estrella Horwitz
Untitled Nicky Nodjoumi Project (U.S.)
Dir. Sara Nodjoumi, Till Schauder
Prod. Sara Nodjoumi, Till Schauder
Yawar Shunku: Bleeding Heart (Ecuador)
Dir. Antonio Romero Zurita
Prod. Sam Vinal
PRODUCTION
Children of the Mist (Vietnam)
Dir. Ha Le Diem
Prod. Swann Dubus, Tran Phuong Thao
Girl Talk (U.S)
Dir. Lucia Small
Prod. Lucia Small, Dia Sokol Savage
Whitewash (working title) (France)
Dir. Ahmet Necdet Cupur
Prod. Delphine Morel, Anke Petersen, Nadir Operli
POST-PRODUCTION
City Hall (U.S.)
Dir. Frederick Wiseman
Prod. Karen Konicek
Eight Stories About Hearing Loss (Argentina, Uruguay)
Dir. Charo Mato
Prod. Charo Mato, Eugenia Olascuaga, Valentina Baracco
The Monster and the Storm (U.S.)
Dir. Edwin Martinez
Prod. Jamie Gonçalves
Murders That Matter (U.S.)
Dir. Marco Williams
Prod. Marco Williams
Our Little Palestine (Syria, Lebanon, France, Qatar)
Dir. Abdallah Al Khatib
Prod. Mohammad Ali Atassi, Jean-Laurent Csinidis
IMPACT & ENGAGEMENT
Survivors (Sierra Leone)
Dir. Arthur Pratt, Banker White, Anna Fitch, Barmmy Boy Mansaray
Prod. Sara Dosa, Samantha Grant, Arthur Pratt, Banker White, Anna Fitch, Barmmy Boy Mansaray
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE | A&E BRAVE STORYTELLERS AWARD RECIPIENTS
Chocobar (Argentina, U.S.)
Dir. Lucrecia Martel
Prod. Benjamin Domenech, Joslyn Barnes, Santiago Gallelli, Matias Roveda
Untitled #NunsToo Project (Italy, India, U.S.)
Dir. Lorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo
Prod. Lorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo
Untitled Free Speech Project (U.S.)
Dir. Julia Bacha
Prod. Suhad Babaa & Daniel J. Chalfen
Untitled Vinay Shukla Documentary Project (India)
Dir: Vinay Shukla
Prod: Memesys Culture Lab