June 23, 2004

With the 23rd session of our June Screenwriters Lab and our first-ever Documentary Edit/Storytelling Lab both in session now, I am struck by how right it feels that the narrative and documentary filmmaking processes are informing each other. Sundance has always been about the free exchange of ideas, and about breaking down barriers between art forms and cultures.

Today I saw documentary filmmakers – both fellows and advisors – from Israel, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the U.S. working on films that each tell a very different and important story about the world we live in. In the Screenwriters Lab I watched Moroccan, American, Lebanese, and Thai narrative filmmakers shape their scripts to tell unique stories that, in their own ways, also offer news of the world.

Earlier in the month, one of our Filmmakers Lab participants put it well when he said that when working in LA or New York, it can seem as if the world is all about movies. But in the setting and community of Sundance, we’re reminded that it’s actually the other way around. We’re reminded that in the best of circumstances, films are about the world.

Robert Redford Founder and President

Robert Redford and Lab Fellow Sterlin Harjo discuss Harjo’s project Four Sheets to the Wind at the summer Labs.

The Sound on the Screen
Designed to enhance the role of music in independent film and to support emerging film composers, the Sundance Institute Film Music Program embarks upon its seventh Composers Lab this month. The two-week Lab brings six composers together with 13 documentary and narrative filmmakers to provide musicians with first-hand experience composing for films, to enhance the musical understanding of independent filmmakers, and to foster collaboration between composers and directors. Full article.

Click here to download a track that Composers Lab Fellow Peter Fitzpatrick submitted with his application to the program.

Reel Stories Makes Documentarians Out of High School Students
A house haunted since the late 1800s by a man whose home improvement projects went unfinished; the free speech issues which arise when a group of queer and straight youth speak out against tobacco use; and complexities of male body image are just three of the subjects chosen by the budding documentary filmmakers who make up this summer’s class of Reel Stories participants. Now in its fifth year, Reel Stories is a cooperative project between Sundance Institute and Spy Hop Productions that teaches Utah high school students the art and craft of documentary filmmaking. Full article

Read a story from the Salt Lake Tribune about Reel Stories

Sam Green, writer/director of the Academy Award-nominated The Weather Underground worked with students of the Reel Stories program, a cooperative project of the Institute and Spy Hop Productions.

First Person: From the Filmmakers Lab
On June 24, the 23rd session of the Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs came to a close. During the four-week program, fifteen emerging filmmakers worked with a team of 40 creative advisors to address the challenges specific to their projects and to develop their own skills as writers and directors.

Here, three participants – Fellows Dito Montiel and Zoe Hopkins, and advisor Keith Gordon – offer their own, very distinct takes on the Lab. With intensity and a palpable sense of wonder, Dito shares his revelation that he’s “gotta go deep, real deep.” Zoe takes us through her “worst day at the Lab” with all of its alternating frustrations and discoveries, and Keith gently explains the all-important paradox that filmmakers must learn to embrace. Full article.

	Fellow Kazuo Ohno rehearses with Philip Seymour Hoffman on the set of his project, Mr. Crumpacker and the Man from the Letter
	Fellows Kieran and Michele Mulroney on location at the Lab shooting their first feature film project, Paper Man

Call for Entries: 2005 Sundance Film Festival
Submissions are now being accepted for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, scheduled to run January 20-30, 2005 in Park City, Utah. This year, Festival programmers are actively focused on securing world premieres from U.S. and international filmmakers. The 2005 Festival will present roughly 120 feature-length films in seven distinct categories.

16 narrative films and 12 documentaries will compete in the newly created World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions. To be eligible for the new international competition, films must be U.S. premieres though world premieres will be granted special consideration. To be eligible for the long-standing American Dramatic and Documentary Competitions films, must be prepared to have their world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

International and American films not selected for their respective Competitions are eligible for the Festival’s other categories, including Premiere, Park City at Midnight, and Frontier. American films are also eligible for the American Spectrum section. The Festival presents a separate competition for short films which are selected to screen before feature-length films at the Festival.

Click here to learn more about submitting a film to the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

For more information, click here, or call Cindy Pullman at 801.328.3456.

Summer is upon us and the Patron Council office has already been at work preparing for another great year of Salons, screenings and lots of Festival activities. We are pleased to announce that after three successful years, the Sundance Institute Patron Council has been renamed the Sundance Institute Patron Circle to better reflect the feeling of community members experience as part of the group .

The Patron Circle is a philanthropic membership group that supports Institute programs and artists. As a thank you to our members, the Institute offers year-round and Festival benefits including opportunities to meet Sundance film and theatre artists one-on-one and preview their current projects. The name is not the only thing we are changing. After much feedback from our members, we have restructured the program and are introducing new benefits to strengthen members’ link to the artists and their work. Among these is the introduction of a new level, Premier Benefactor, which offers Festivalgoers a new roster of exclusive benefits.

We invite you to learn more about the Patron Circle by visiting our website or by emailing us at patroncircle@sundance.org

For more information on the Patron Circle, and the new Premier Benefactor level, click here or E-mail patroncircle@sundance.org.

Sundance Outdoor Film Festival Continues
The free, weekly outdoor screening series continues this month in Salt Lake City, Park City, and at Sundance Village. All films begin at dusk (between 8:30 – 9:00 p.m.) and are free and open to the public. Tickets or reservations are not required. The complete Sundance Outdoor Film Festival schedule follows. Click on underlined titles for full descriptions of each film.

Salt Lake City Venue: Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St.
Park City Venue: City Park on Park Avenue

The Sundance Theatre/Johnny Mercer Foundation: The Power of American Popular Song
This third annual collaboration between the Sundance Theatre Program and the Johnny Mercer Foundation offers a weekend of classes, panel discussions and special performances. Held August 4-7 at the Sundance Village, the intensive course focuses on the interpretation and personalization of the great American songbook. Master classes will be taught by Grammy Award®-winning singer and songwriter Melissa Manchester, Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Jimmy Webb, Broadway composer Charles Strouse, singer/pianist Billy Stritch, musical director Don Rebic, Tony award winning actor, Michael Rupert as well as legendary song stylist Margaret Whiting and director/writer Jack Wrangler. A group of thirty professional theatre and film actors, writers, and directors are selected to participate in the program.

Evening performances will be staged on August 5, 6, and 7 at Sundance Village. All performances are open to the public and those scheduled for August 5 and 6 are free. For additional information about the program and tickets for the evening performances, please contact Debby Stover at the Sundance Theatre Program at deborah_stover@sundance.org.

For additional information on the Johnny Mercer Foundation and its upcoming events click here or call 212-835-2299.