The Sundance Institute announced that 25 feature-length documentary films that will receive $550,000 in grants from its Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP). Grantees were selected from 696 submissions from 104 countries.
Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund said, "As we enter a new cycle for political leadership in the US and abroad, documentary filmmakers continue to seek out stories that elucidate the conditions of our lives. Their reach is global, and their stories connect and inspire a new generation of independent documentary filmmakers and audiences."
Among the grantees with affiliations with IDA programs include 2011 and 2012 Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund grantees Rise and Fall of ACORN (Dirs.: Reuben Atlas, Sam Pollard); After Tiller (Dirs.: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson) and The New Black (Dir.: Yoruba Richen); and Fiscal Sponsorship Program project Rich Hill (Dirs.: Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo).
Here is the complete list of Sundance Institute DFP grantees:
Development
Boomtown (Dir.: Beth Murphy, US): A modern day Grapes of Wrath story is playing out across America as families pack their bags and head to North Dakota in search of the American Dream.
Bukom Fighter (Dir.: Makafui Zimrani; Ghana): A nine-year-old boy from a shanty town in Ghana tries to create hope for himself using the only resource at his disposal; the power of his fists.
Chameleon (Dir.: Ryan Mullins; Canada / Ghana): Africa's most famed investigative reporter, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, takes us deep undercover for his own brand of brazen journalism.
Perry vs. Schwarzenegger (Dirs.: Ryan White, Ben Cotner; US): In 2013, the US Supreme Court will hear a case that challenges California's ban on same-sex marriage. Perry v. Schwarzenegger, filed by two couples with an unlikely legal team, has now reached the nation's highest court and is poised to be the first ruling on the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry.
Rise and Fall of ACORN (Dirs.: Reuben Atlas, Sam Pollard; US): In 2009 a national community-organizing group was destroyed. The complex story of ACORN involves a journalist posing as a pimp, embezzlement, and voter fraud.
Production/Post-Production
99%—The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (Dirs.: Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Lucian Read, Nina Krstic; US): The Occupy movement erupted in September 2011, propelling economic inequality into the spotlight. In an unprecedented collaboration, filmmakers across America tell its story, digging into big picture issues as organizers, analysts, participants and critics reveal how it happened and why.
After Tiller (Dir.: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson; US): Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country provide late-term abortions. With unprecedented access, After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the center of the storm.
At Berkeley (Dir.: Frederick Wiseman; US): A world-renowned public university strives to maintain its academic excellence, public role, and the economic, racial and social diversity of the student body in the face of severe budget cuts by the California Legislature.
A Blind Eye (Director: Kirsten Johnson; US/Afghanistan): A one-eyed boy struggles to hide what really haunts him. A bold teenage girl defies convention, out running her nightmares of the Taliban, but still too afraid to show her face in a film. A US Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.
Dirty Wars (Dir.: Richard Rowley; US): Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill chases down the truth behind America's covert wars.
The Faun Experiment (Dir.: Tamar Rogoff, Daisy Wright; US): He expected to be in a wheelchair by age 40 with cerebral palsy. Instead, Gregg Mozgala embarks on a dance project with choreographer Tamar Rogoff. As art overturns science his life is forever changed.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Dirs.: Amy Benson, Scott Squire, Co-Dir.: Ramyata Limbu; US /Nepal): Shanta is an Untouchable Nepali girl with a rare opportunity to break her family's cycle of poverty, through education. But, a year from graduation, Shanta falls victim to globalization's new epidemic: suicide.
The Kill Team (Dir.: Dan Krauss; US): An American soldier attempts to expose US war crimes even more heinous than Abu Ghraib and then is himself charged with premeditated murder.
Mr. President (Dir.: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi; US/Senegal): President Abdoulaye Wade challenged Senegal's constitutional term limits and ran for re-election. The election and pro-democracy movement is seen from both sides, ultimately documenting a chapter of African Spring.
The New Black (Dir.: Yoruba Richen; US): The New Black uncovers the complicated and often combative histories of the African-American and LGBT civil-rights movements.
Powerless (Dirs.: Fahad Mustafa, Deepti Kakkar; India): In a city with 15-hour power outages, a nimble young electrician provides robin-hood style services to the poor. Meanwhile, the first female chief of the electricity supply company is on a mission to dismantle the illegal connections, for good.
Provenance (Dir.: Amie Siegel; US): Artist and filmmaker Amie Siegel traces the journey of Le Corbusier and P. Jeanneret designs in reverse—the economic circuit and life of objects, revealed across three continents. Without interviews, actors or voiceover, these coveted items are the protagonists of this story.
Regarding Susan Sontag (Dir.: Nancy Kates; US): The late writer, activist and public intellectual Susan Sontag was a study in contrasts; a courageous public figure who remained a closeted lesbian. The film examines her contributions to culture and her views, as a thinker and activist, on war, terrorism, torture and other contemporary issues.
Rich Hill (Dirs.: Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo; US): Rich Hill is the coming-of-age story of kids in a dying American town who find strength in unlikely places
Running in the City (Dir.: Fan Jian; China): More than 240 million migrant workers who labor inside China aren't acknowledged as urban residents due to China's household registration policy. This is a story of one family's rebellion.
The Shadow World (Dir.: Johan Grimonprez; US/Belgium): This feature documentary explores the international arms industry: a business in which wins and losses are counted in human lives.
The Square (Dir.: Jehane Noujaim; Egypt/US): What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation?
Solarize This (Dir.: Shalini Kantayya; US): In a city where oil spills, ecological red-alerts, and poverty are commonplace, Solarize This asks the hard questions of how a clean-energy economy may actually be built, through the stories of three unemployed American workers seeking to retool at a solar power jobs training program in Richmond, California.
Uranium Drive-In (Dir.: Suzan Beraza; US): A proposed uranium mill gives an economically devastated mining community in Colorado hope of jobs for the first time in decades. When environmentalists step in to stop the uranium, pro-mill advocates are enraged. Is uranium worth it?
Audience Engagement
Dear Mandela (Dir.: Dara Kell, Christopher Nizza; South Africa /US): When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three 'young lions' of South Africa's new generation rise from the shacks and build a strong social movement to challenge their government in the highest court in the land, putting the promises of democracy to the test.
The Audience Engagement Award for Dear Mandela will support strategic exchanges between international human rights defenders, diplomats and law students poised to take action on the issues of evictions and housing rights, and a screening tour featuring a youth leadership initiative for shantytown dwellers in affected countries including Haiti, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, India and Brazil.