
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
North America Stories
11/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/06/2026
Kiloview, a leading innovator in AV-over-IP video solutions, will return to InfoComm 2026 (Booth# N8327) with broadcast-grade AV-over-IP solutions designed for ...
11/06/2026
Berklee's Tonya Butler Named Music Business Educator of the Year The Music Business Association honored Butler at its annual Bizzy Awards.
June 10, 2026
...
11/06/2026
Ann Mincieli to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee NYC Graduate Commencement The five-time Grammy-winning engineer and producer, known for her longstanding...
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
Today, Google DeepMind released DiffusionGemma - an experimental open model built for exceptionally fast text generation. NVIDIA has optimized DiffusionGemma to...
10/06/2026
A car pulls up to the curb. The app says, Your ride is here. No one's in the driver's seat. For people who live in one of the dozens of cities now hos...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC
Product
10 June 2026
GlobalSouth KoreaJapan
Link copied to c...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions
Business
10 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
N...
10/06/2026
Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
09/06/2026
FOX Sports and ReachTV, an airport media network, have announced an agreement to...
09/06/2026
Cosm Atlanta, a 70,000-square-foot, three-level immersive entertainment venue located within Centennial Yards adjacent to State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Sta...
09/06/2026
NESN captured five awards at the 2026 Boston/New England Emmy Awards, including four program honors and one individual award.
These awards reflect the passion...
09/06/2026
Ateme has announced that its support for Apple Immersive Video workflows was referenced by Apple during its 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC26).
Atem...
09/06/2026
Bitmovin has announced that Axel Springer SE has deployed Player Web X, Bitmovin's web video player, to power audio readouts of news articles and an audio-o...
09/06/2026
Grass Valley and Lawo have announced a technology collaboration to validate orch...
09/06/2026
LiveU has announced a deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) t...
09/06/2026
Globecast has announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform, powered by ...
09/06/2026
NBC Sports will present live coverage of Overtime's OT7 football league Championship Weekend from Sullivan Field at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angel...
09/06/2026
We're in three different locations, three different production teams. Coveri...
09/06/2026
The intro video for Men's Basketball won Outstanding In-Venue Video in the C...