Residency Honoring the Legacy of Social Justice Leader Michael Latt Selects Eight Fellows for Virtual Program Sundance Collab is pleased to announce the first group of fellows selected for our new Cultural Impact Residency. Created in honor of social justice advocate Michael Latt's legacy, the six-month online residency program (through August 2025) will uplift early-career underrepresented storytellers with a focus on creative, social, and cultural impact and galvanize them with opportunities, hope, creative support, and inspiration. Sundance Collab is Sundance Institute's year-round digital space for global artists to learn, create, build community, and champion independent filmmaking.
Eight fellows were selected across three tracks: writing-directing in fiction, nonfiction, and episodic. Each fellow will receive dedicated meetings with Sundance Institute advisors to receive feedback on their projects; bimonthly cohort meetings to check in and share work; a meeting with Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director, Artist Programs at Sundance Institute; and a meeting with applicable Sundance Institute Artist Program staff. Each participant will also receive a Sundance Collab Library Pass to access the extensive Sundance Collab Video Library, which includes Master Classes and recordings of previous Collab events, and two On Demand courses of their choosing.
Advisors for the 2025 Sundance Institute Cultural Impact Residency include: Rita Baghdadi (Sirens), Patricia Cardoso (Real Women Have Curves), David France (How to Survive a Plague), Claudia Lloso (The Milk of Sorrow), Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard), LaToya Morgan (Duster), Rodrigo Reyes (Sans n And Me), Jessica Sharzer (A Simple Favor), and Justin Simien (Dear White People).
Michael Latt was a passionate social justice leader whose purpose-driven work impacted countless communities. As an award-winning entertainment marketer by training, he harnessed the power of art, creativity, and storytelling to create numerous nationwide impact initiatives, most recently as founder and CEO of Lead with Love. In his life, Michael made it his mission and purpose to transform society into one of love, equity, compassion, and true justice. In his public work, he fought tirelessly for change through art, narrative, and policy.
The 2025 Sundance Institute Cultural Impact Residency participants are:
Documentary Filmmaking Fellows:
Caron Creighton is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. Much of her work is focused on displacement within the African diaspora, as informed by her identity. She has been a 2023/24 SFFilm FilmHouse resident, a 2024 Big Sky Pitch participant, and a 2024 BAVC MediaMaker fellow.
Wood Street
Chosen brothers John and LaMont grapple with addiction, displacement, and city bureaucracy as they try to save their long-term community from eviction.
Fueled by unrelenting curiosity, Jennifer Huang is rethinking conventional practices of ethics, consent, and protecting vulnerable protagonists. She's worked on productions for PBS, Anonymous Content, and Lucasfilm, and she co-founded Hyphen magazine. The Long Rescue is her first feature-length film.
The Long Rescue
Filipina teen sex trafficking survivors dream of safety, family, and romance in a secret shelter - but, once home, they confront the poverty, pimps, and predators of their pasts. Over nine years, their coming-of-age journeys are a lens into the struggles and strengths of survivors everywhere.
Kristal Sotomayor is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and curator. Their films Expanding Sanctuary (BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Award, OTV/New Day Films) and Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens have screened across the globe. They've been supported by BlackStar, Outfest, If/Then, and NeXt Doc.
Untitled PARS Project
Untitled PARS Project unravels the technological infrastructure behind immigrant surveillance, revealing how advanced data-sharing systems fuel deportations and investigating the Philadelphia police's Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS) and other government databases.
Writing-Directing Fellows:
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Alejandra L pez's short The Blue Cape screened at 10 Oscar-qualifying festivals. She was staffed on Sony Crackle's Startup. L pez became the first Latina to direct for Marvel Entertainment. She's been selected in programs at Warner Bros. Discovery, Starz, and more.
Salmon Run
A desperate Puerto Rican mother joins a salmon factory in remote Alaska, but when her best friend disappears under mysterious circumstances, she discovers something far more nefarious happening in the workplace that threatens her life and the lives of others.
A. D. Smith is a writer, director, and composer from Memphis, Tennessee. He loves to create worlds grounded in reality, with accents of the fantastical, all told from a Black perspective. His work has been supported by Indie Memphis, Austin Film Festival, and Sundance Institute.
r.e.g.g.i.n
Bearing the appearance of a young Black man, a domesticated android experiences life in the segregated south of the '50s. Will the people of this time welcome his phenomenal abilities, or will the color of his outer shell skew their perception?
Wendi Tang is a Chinese writer-director and a graduate of NYU Tisch. Her films have screened at 50+ festivals worldwide. Fishtank, a proof-of-concept short supported by Tribeca and Chanel, won awards at SXSW Sydney and HollyShorts Film Festival. She's currently developing her first feature film.
Fishtank
A young woman vomits living goldfish whenever she's triggered. She must unravel a monstrous truth behind her bizarre condition while teetering between nightmare and reality.
Writing Fellows:
From Massachusetts, Caitlin McCarthy is of documented M tis descent. Her stories tackle political and so
