Over $ Million to Nonfiction Storytellers: Sundance Institute Announces Documentary Fund Grantees and Art of Nonfiction Fellows, Projects

People's Republic of Desire

Credit: Jinyang Cheng

Mudflow

Credit: Michael Crook

United Skates

Credit: Chris Vanderwall

Los Angeles, CA - Sundance Institute has awarded over $1 million to documentary projects and artists at the forefront of global nonfiction storytelling, whose subjects and forms reflect the inclusive range of the Institute's mission.

Subject matter ranges from police violence, natural disasters and income inequality to family legacy, trans rights and education in the developing world. Works originate in 10 countries on six continents, and teams include Academy Award winners and nominees (Frederick Wiseman, Cynthia Wade, Rebecca Cammisa, David France, Matthew Heineman), a Guggenheim Fellow (Julia Bacha) and a MacArthur Fellow (James Longley) alongside first-time filmmakers and creators (including Tim Hawkins, Dyana Winkler, Yu Gu, Mike Milano,Sandra Salas, Hope Litoff, Damon Davis and Sabaah Jordan).

The Institute's Art of Nonfiction Initiative expands its reach with a second cohort of Fellows and a first group of projects. The initiative provides targeted creative and financial support for filmmakers or projects exploring inventive artistic practice in documentary story, craft and form.

From our Stories of Change partnership through to our Art of Nonfiction Initiative, the storytellers we support with our documentary fund concern themselves with compelling narratives about the contemporary world, said Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, and also with artful and evocative ways of depicting the human experience. Whether examining complex governmental and political systems or illuminating the intimate textures of everyday life, these projects and their artists elevate the ways in which stories can be told.

The works have been funded at various stages, including Development, Production, Post-Production and Impact (designed to develop a project's audience engagement campaigns) through the first half of 2016; grantees also include New Frontier projects, which support innovators on new story platforms. New this year, the Bertha Foundation Fellowship supports projects that expose injustice and illuminate issues at the intersection of storytelling, law and activism.

The Institute has a long history and firm commitment to championing documentaries. Recent films supported by the Institute include Cameraperson, Hooligan Sparrow, Newtown, Audrie and Daisy, The Cinema Travellers and Weiner. More information is available at sundance.org/documentary.

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program is made possible by founding support from Open Society Foundations. Generous additional support is provided by Skoll Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Ford Foundation; The Charles Engelhard Foundation; Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; Arcus Foundation; The Rockefeller Foundation; Bertha Foundation; The Kendeda Fund; Discovery Channel; Genuine Article Pictures; Time Warner Foundation; Cinereach; CNN Films; National Geographic; Patty Quillin; Compton Foundation; SundanceNow Doc Club; Joan and Lewis Platt Foundation; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Code Blue Foundation; Joy Family Foundation; PBS; and WNET New York Public Media.

DEVELOPMENT

Cleveland (United States)

Directors: Michael Milano and Orlando Bagwell

Producer: Amanda Pike

Cleveland is a feature documentary about the citys defining role on the American cultural and political landscape during the Obama presidency. Amidst an economic resurgence, this rust-belt town hopes to regain some of its historic stature, but a brutal string of police killings brings federal oversight and unearths decades of injustice. Cleveland goes behind the front lines in the battle over policing, and examines the use of deadly force from the perspectives of both perpetrators and victims.

Sundance Institute | John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Get Up Stand Up(United States)

Director: Rameen Aminzadeh

Producer: Fisher Stevens

After back to back non indictments of the officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, a group of young, diverse, criminal justice advocates, organizers and formerly incarcerated artists ban together and set out on an epic journey to break a Fixed System. Fueled by their personal experiences with the so called Justice System and traumatic life changing events, Justice League NYC members dedicate every waking moment of their lives to demanding justice, uplifting the voices of those whose dreams have been stolen and applying pressure to bring about reform.

Ma Liangs Time Machine (China)

Director: Yang Sun

Producer: S. Leo Chiang

When Chinese artist Ma Liang realizes that his father Ma Ke, an accomplished Peking Opera director, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, he invites his father to collaborate on his most ambitious project to date-a haunting, magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets called Papa's Time Machine. Through the creation of this play, Ma Liang and Ma Ke confront the challenges of aging and repercussions from the Cultural Revolution. They struggle to close the gap in their relationship before time runs out and memories are lost forever.

Oceti Sakowen (working title) (Seven Council Fires) (United States)

Director: Cody Lucich

Producer: Ben Alex Dupris and Heather Rae

In the shadow of the largest political occupation in Native American history, thousands of earth guardians descend on the international stage of Standing Rock, North Dakota to cut off the head of the black snake they call the Dakota Access Pipeline.

XY Chelsea (United States, United Kingdom)

Director: Tim Hawkins

Producer: Julia Nottingham

Soldier, trans woman and prisoner, Chelsea Manning has launched an appeal against the U.S. M

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