Sundance Institute Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue Travels to Taipei, Taichung and Taitung, Taiwan May - 6

Sundance Institute Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue Travels to Taipei, Taichung and Taitung, Taiwan May 1 - 6 Sundance Institute, the American Institute in Taiwan, and CNEX Foundation Collaborate To Host Free Film Screenings and Guided Discussions

Filmmakers Patrick Creadon (If You Build It) and Nisha Pahuja (The World Before Her) Travel with the Program

Posted Apr 3, 2014

Park City, UT Sundance Institute and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities announced today that Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue will host free screenings of eight films with moderated discussions, panels and artist roundtables in Taipei, Taichung and Taitung, Taiwan. For a full schedule of events, venues and partners in Taiwan visit sundance.org/filmforward.

Film Forward, a partnership of Sundance Institute and four U.S. federal cultural agencies, is a touring program that offers film screenings, workshops and discussions designed to foster dialogue and cross-cultural understanding. It uses the power of cinema to promote broader cultural understanding, inspire curiosity and enhance awareness of shared stories and values across generations, religion, ethnicity and borders.

Common themes explored in the films traveling with the program include acceptance, overcoming adversity and the transformative power of art. In each location, Film Forward seeks audiences that have limited access to independent film, students and the local filmmaking community. The program in Taiwan will focus on the impact of modernization and tradition, the power of alternative education and community awareness, and the role and challenges facing girls and women in society.

These films explore universal themes that we hope will inspire audiences to look at their community and our world in a new way, said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute. Film Forward uses the powerful medium of film and storytelling to bring people of different cultures, viewpoints, and backgrounds together in a shared dialogue.

Film Forward empowers filmmakers and audiences to talk about a range of ideas, perspectives and issues that affect all of us - whether we are in Mississippi or Taiwan, said Rachel Goslins, Executive Director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Just as President's Committee honorary Chair Michelle Obama made it a priority to reach out and engage young people on her recent trip to China, Film Forward is excited to engage youth wherever the program goes, particularly in rural Taiwan.

The World Before Her examines the contradictory messages young girls are receiving in India about what the future holds for them, said filmmaker Nisha Pahuja. Audiences around the world not just women can relate the struggle of what defines beauty and how to adapt to a modern world while not losing site of longstanding traditions. I look forward to the shared discussion around this film and hope audiences find similarities that will help make their world more nuanced.

The 2014 season of Film Forward will reach over 10,000 people through international (Mexico, Taiwan, China, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Indonesia) and domestic locations (California, Michigan, Mississippi and Pennsylvania).Sundance Institute staff members traveling with the program are: Film Forward Director Meredith Lavitt and Film Forward Manager Jacqueline Carlson.

FILM FORWARD Year Four Films:

Circles (Directed by: Srdan Golubovic )

Five people are affected by a tragic heroic act. Twenty years later, all of them will have to confront the past through their own crises. Will they overcome the guilt, frustration, and the urge for revenge? Will they do the right thing, at all costs?

International Narrative

Dancing in Jaffa (Directed by: Hilla Medalia)

Renowned ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulaine, takes his belief that dance can overcome political and cultural differences and applies it to 11 year old Jewish and Palestinian Israelis. What occurs is magical and transformative.

International Documentary

Fruitvale Station (Directed by: Ryan Coogler)

The true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.

US Narrative

If You Build It (Directed by: Patrick Creadon)

If You Build It spends a year in the life of one of America's most innovative classrooms. Designer/activists Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller, together with their high school students, unleash the power of humanitarian design to help their struggling community in rural North Carolina.

US Documentary

The Rocket (Directed by: Kim Mordaunt)

A boy who is believed to bring bad luck leads his family and a couple of ragged misfits through Laos to find a new home. After a calamity filled journey through a land scarred by war, the boy sets off to prove he's not cursed and builds a giant rocket to enter the most lucrative but dangerous competition of the year: the Rocket Festival.

International Narrative

The World Before Her (Directed by: Nisha Pahuja)

Moving between two extremes the intimate verit drama of the Miss India pageant's rigorous beauty bootcamp and the intense regime of a militant Hindu fundamentalist camp for young girls The World Before Her delivers a provocative portrait of India and its current cultural conflicts during a key transitional era in the countrys modern history.

International Documentary

Twenty Feet From Stardom (Directed by: Morgan Neville)

Millions know their voices, but no one knows their names. Twenty Feet From Stardom shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century.

US Documentary

Valentine Road (Directed by: Marta Cunningham)

On February 12, 2008, eighth-grade student Brandon McInerney sh

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