Sundance Institute Selects 13 Projects for 2013 June Directors and Screenwriters Labs Posted May 9, 2013Los Angeles, CA Sundance Institute today announced the 13 projects selected for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from May 27 through June 27. Under the leadership of Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Institute's Feature Film Program, and the artistic direction of Gyula Gazdag, the Fellows selected for this years program include emerging filmmakers and projects from the United States, Europe, Mexico, Peru and Somalia.
At the Directors Lab, Fellows work with an accomplished group of Creative Advisors, professional actors and production crews to shoot and edit key scenes from their screenplays. Through this intense, hands-on process, the Fellows workshop their scripts, collaborate with actors and find a visual storytelling language for their films. Directors Lab Fellows join five additional projects for the week-long Screenwriters Lab, where they participate in individualized story sessions under the guidance of established screenwriters.
Projects supported through the Directors and Screenwriters Labs receive continued, customized, year-round support from the Feature Film Program, which can include the following resources: ongoing creative and strategic advice, significant production and postproduction resources, the Screenplay Reading Series, the Work in Progress Screening Initiative and direct financial support through project-specific grants and artist fellowships.
Since its founding in 1981, the Feature Film Program has supported an extensive list of award-winning and ground-breaking independent films. This year alone, four Feature Film Program-supported films have been selected for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival including Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox (Critics Week), Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station (Un Certain Regard), Amat Escalante's Heli (Competition) and David Lowery's Aint Them Bodies Saints (Critics Week).
Removed from the pressures of production and with the guidance of an accomplished group of Creative Advisors, the 2013 Lab Fellows will be immersed in an intense, hands-on process to hone their filmmaking skills, said Keri Putnam, Executive Director, Sundance Institute. The June Lab is the centerpiece of a year-round system of creative and strategic support which begins with script development and continues all the way through to engaging audiences.
Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Feature Film Program, said, We are very excited to support such a rich selection of projects that reflect the diversity of stories , artistic vision and innovation in narrative form that embraces the next generation of independent filmmakers. The support we provide through the Directors and Screenwriters Labs will allow each artist to develop the tools and confidence to more fully realize the promise of their first and second features.
Creative Advisors for the Directors and Screenwriters Labs include Sundance Institute President and Founder Robert Redford, Gyula Gazdag (Artistic Director), Michael Almereyda, John August, Walter Bernstein, Kathryn Bigelow, Scott Burns, Steve Chbosky, Joan Darling, Caleb Deschanel, Suzy Elmiger, Deena Goldstone, Keith Gordon, Randa Haines, Ed Harris, Michael Hoffman, Azazel Jacobs, Pablo Larrain, Josh Marston, Doug McGrath, Andrew Mondshein, Walter Mosley, Jose Rivera, Walter Salles, Jennifer Salt, Susan Shilliday, Peter Sollett, Wesley Strick, Chris Terrio, Joan Tewkesbury, Stanley Tucci, Audrey Wells, Alfre Woodard, Doug Wright, and Mauricio Zacharias.
The projects and participants selected for the 2013 June Directors Lab (May 27 June 20) are:
Pamela Romanowsky (writer/director) / The Adderall Diaries (U.S.A.): Writer Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his work. Adrift in the precarious grey area of memory, Stephen has to navigate the unstable terrain of truth and identity, led by two sources of inspiration: a new romance, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir by Stephen Elliott.
Pamela Romanowsky is a New York-based writer and director. Her short films Live Girls and Gravity have played at festivals nationwide, including Slamdance, Woodstock, and the Maryland Film Festival. In 2011, Romanowsky won the National Board of Review's Student Grant Award and NYU's prestigious Wasserman/King Award for excellence in filmmaking. In 2012, she wrote and directed a piece for Tar (James Franco, Mila Kunis, Jessica Chastain, Zach Braff), a multi-director narrative film based on the life and poetry of CK Williams, which premiered at the Rome International Film Festival and is awaiting a U.S. theatrical release. She studied documentary filmmaking with Barbara Kopple, and narrative filmmaking at New York University's MFA film program.
Jan Kwiecinski (writer/director) / The Incident (U.S.A.): When a young man decides to cover up an accidental murder, his whole life comes into focus in ways he never expected.
Jan Kwiecinski graduated from the filmmaking departments of the London Film School and the Wajdas Master School of Directing. He also holds an MA degree in Theatre Studies from the Theatre Academy in Warsaw. His award-winning short film, The Incident, screened internationally at many festivals including the Shanghai International Film Festival and the T-Mobile New Horizons Film Festival. Recently, Kwiecinski directed the segment entitled Fawns of the omnibus feature The Fourth Dimension, co-directed by Alexey Fedorchenko and Harmony Korine. The film premiered in the Narrative Competition at the 2012 San Francisco Film Festival.
Eva Weber (co-writer/director) and Vendela V
