Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound Announce New Collaboration to Support Independent Filmmakers and Film Composers

Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound Announce New Collaboration to Support Independent Filmmakers and Film Composers Fellows for 2013 Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound Announced

Posted Jun 3, 2013

Los Angeles, CA Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound today announced that the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound will take place at Skywalker Ranch in 2013 and 2014 and also announced the artists that will participate in the 2013 Labs. This is the first time the two organizations will collaborate to support independent filmmakers and film composers and marks a significant expansion of the Institutes existing Composers Labs to include sound design.

The Institute has hosted its Composers Labs at Sundance Resort for fiction feature films since 1999 and documentaries since 2005, allowing composers and independent filmmakers to collaboratively explore the process of writing music for film. Fellows also participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals acting as Creative Advisors.

Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, Hosting the Composers Labs at Skywalker Ranch allows an expansion of the program to include sound design, giving further insight into the powerful ways that sound and music can impact independent films. We are deeply grateful to the Skywalker team for working with us to provide our Fellows with the tremendous benefit of accessing this legendary facility

Josh Lowden, General Manager of Skywalker Sound, said, Were very excited to formalize this relationship. Sundance Institute is virtually synonymous with independent film, and Keri and her team have done an amazing job to honor the Institutes legacy. Twenty-five years ago Skywalker was founded by a filmmaker for filmmakers, and we have never forgotten our roots. We continue to believe in independent filmmaking, and are thrilled to deepen our relationship with the Institute by hosting these Labs at Skywalker.

The Composers Lab for fiction feature films is a joint initiative of the Institutes Film Music Program and Feature Film Program, and the Composers Lab for documentaries is hosted by the Film Music Program and Documentary Film Program and Fund.

Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program, said, Skywalker Sound is a leader in the field of post-production and sound design, and their world-class facilities offer the ideal environment for our Composers Labs. Lab fellows will have access to Skywalkers sound designers and mixers for ongoing collaboration, as well as the state-of-the-art facility during their stay.

Artists and projects selected for the 2013 Sundance Music And Sound Design Lab Documentary (June 3-10) are:

FILMMAKERS

Director: Kirsten Johnson

A Blind Eye (U.S.) The voice of an American camerawoman explores the nature of cinematography and what she has failed to see while filming in Afghanistan through her encounters with two Afghan teenagers. Najeeb, a one-eyed boy, struggles to hide what really haunts him, while a bold teenage girl must decide how much she will risk to be visible. A U.S. Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.

Director: Judith Ehrlich

Open (U.S.) The fight for free speech in the 21st century is being fought in cyberspace, and its most dramatic story may be unfolding in Iceland. Open follows trailblazing Internet revolutionary Birgitta J nsd ttir and three generations of digital hacktivists as their stories converge in the tiny island nation now poised to become the worlds first haven for freedom of information and transparency online and off.

Director: Thomas Allen Harris

Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (U.S.) A 90-minute documentary film with an innovative companion transmedia project that explores the ways black communities have used the medium of photography to construct political, aesthetic and cultural representations of themselves and their world. This will be the first film to vividly bring to life the individual photographers, photographic collectives, and anonymous and celebrated subjects, whose work has transformed the lives of African Americans through the magic and power of the camera lens.

Director: Mark Grieco

Marmato (Canada/Colombia) A peaceful gold-mining town in rural Colombia confronts destruction by a Canadian multinational mining company.

COMPOSERS

Kathryn Bostic

Kathryn Bostic is a prolific composer, pianist and singer-songwriter. She is a recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, BMI Conducting Fellowship and the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop. She has written for both off-Broadway and Broadway productions. Currently her score can be heard in the Mark Taper production of August Wilsons Joe Turners Come and Gone.

Omar Fadel

Los Angeles-based composer Omar Fadel has carved out a niche fusing an eclectic palette of musical instruments and styles. He has scored numerous features films, documentaries and television shows, including Walt Disney Studios first ever Arabic language feature film, The United.

Miles Jay

Miles Jay is a composer, contrabassist, and multi-instrumentalist with many traditional and cross over artists around the world. Supporting himself as a musician around the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa for much of the last decade, Miles has re-imagined the contrabass, adapting a wide range of melodic ornamentation to his own technique, as well as having invented and hand-built a new type of contrabass utilizing rawhide for a soundboard. Miles has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi, TED, and the United Nations.

LINK:	http://www.sundance.org/press-center/release/sundance-institute-and-sk...
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