Fund Announces Support for Eleven Documentaries
The Sundance Documentary Fund recently announced its first round of funding for 2004. Grants were awarded to eleven projects, each of which focuses on current human rights issues, freedom of expression, social justice or civil liberties. A committee of human rights experts and film professionals selected the feature-length documentaries from 350 films submitted from around the world.

Projects that have previously received development grants from the Fund and are currently in production or post-production are eligible for supplemental funding. The three projects announced as recipients of supplemental grants were Simone Bitton’s The Wall (Israel/France); Khalo Matabane’s Story of a Beautiful Country (South Africa); and Jonathan Stack’s War Without End (US).

Work in Progress grants are awarded to films currently in production or post-production. Seven projects received this type of funding, including Anne Aghion’s In Rwanda (US/France), which documents the reconciliation process taking place in Rwanda by following the release of a prisoner and his reintegration into his hillside community; Shantha Bloemen and JoMarie Fecci’s Western Sahara, Africa’s Last Colony (US), which follows a group of loosely connected Sahrawis nomads who manage to forge a strong sense of nationhood through the tragedy of exile. Also receiving Work in Progress grants were Julie Mallozzi’s Monkey Dance (US), the story of three Cambodian-American teens in urban Massachusetts and trying to relate to their parents’ nightmarish memories of the Khmer Rouge; Patrice O’Neill’s The Fire Next Time (US), a cautionary tale about the role of media in spreading intolerance, the threat of politically-motivated violence, and the high stakes conflict between economic growth and the natural environment; Jed Riffe’s Waiting to Inhale: Marijuana, Medicine and the Law (US), which chronicles efforts to legalize the medical use of cannabis by focusing on the experiences of patients, activists, law enforcement officials, and politicians. Susan Stern’s The Self Made Man (US), an exploration of the philosophical and psychological issues behind the assisted suicide debate; and Pamela Yates’ Passage Through Fear (US), a film about Peru’s war against terrorism and the disturbing lessons we may learn from it.

Development grants are awarded to projects in the early stages of research or in the pre-production stage. The most recent round of funding included a development grant to international filmmaker Fibi Kraus for Marry Me Out (Italy). The film traces a Yemeni woman’s efforts to find freedom and safety for women who have been both banished by their families and detained in a Sana’a prison without trial.

The Fund accepts requests for funding throughout the year.