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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nFor over four decades, Sundance Institute\u2019s signature labs have provided burgeoning filmmakers a nurturing, immersive environment to develop their projects and refine their artistic voice under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2024 Native Lab, taking place in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 29\u2013May 4, is designed for participants of Native and Indigenous backgrounds and focuses on centering Indigeneity in their storytelling. Fellows will build community and refine their feature film and episodic scripts through one-on-one feedback sections and roundtable discussions with advisors. Four fellows were selected: three who are U.S.-based, and another from Canada. Also attending will be two artists in residence, Fox Maxy<\/strong> (Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and Pay\u00f3mkawish) and Shea Vassar<\/strong> (Cherokee), experiencing the lab while in script development. This year\u2019s Native Lab creative advisors are Patrick Brice<\/strong>, Tai Leclaire<\/strong> (Mohawk and Mi\u2019kmaq), Kishori Rajan<\/strong>, and Jon Raymond<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur Indigenous Program team looks forward to returning to Santa Fe to spend a week supporting some of the best and brightest Indigenous artists working today,\u201d said Adam Piron, Director of Indigenous Program.<\/strong> \u201cThis group is diverse in the work they are bringing to develop and in how their Indigeneity shapes it \u2014 their differences are their strengths. We can\u2019t wait to see what those combined strengths help them add to each other\u2019s projects as they collaborate with each other and with our creative advisors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2024 Directors Lab will take place May 7\u201322 in person at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, which is hosting a Sundance Institute program for the very first time with support from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). During the Directors Lab, filmmakers will rehearse, shoot, and edit selected scenes from their work-in-progress original screenplays in a workshop environment with support from experienced creative advisors. Directors focus on core elements of filmmaking, including directing actors, workshopping their scripts, and defining their visual language. Led by Artistic Director Gyula Gazdag<\/strong>, the Directors Lab advisor cohort includes Miguel Arteta<\/strong>, Joan Darling<\/strong>, Rick Famuyiwa<\/strong>, Stephen Goldblatt<\/strong>, Keith Gordon, Reinaldo Marcus Green<\/strong>, Andrew Haigh<\/strong>, Randa Haines<\/strong>, Ed Harris<\/strong>, Si\u00e2n Heder<\/strong>, Andr\u00e9 Holland, Karyn Kusama<\/strong>, Pam Martin<\/strong>, Estes Tarver<\/strong>, and Dylan Tichenor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2024 Screenwriters Lab will be held online from June 4\u20137, where fellows will refine their scripts through individual story sessions with screenwriter advisors and group sessions on the art and craft of screenwriting. Led by Artistic Director Howard Rodman<\/strong>, the Screenwriters Lab advisor cohort includes John August<\/strong>, Scott Z. Burns<\/strong>, Reggie Rock Bythewood<\/strong>, Scott Frank, Susannah Grant<\/strong>, Tamara Jenkins<\/strong>, Meg LeFauve<\/strong>, Jenny Lumet<\/strong>, Josh Marston<\/strong>, Kemp Powers<\/strong>, Robin Swicord<\/strong>, and Joan Tewkesbury<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor over four decades since their conception, the labs remain critical to the vitality of the independent filmmaking community. It has never been more important to invest in the growth of independent storytellers. While our Directors and Screenwriters Labs take place over several weeks, our commitment to these emerging artists and their creative and career journey to making their films is far more enduring and meaningful,\u201d said Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Artist Programs.<\/strong> \u201cWe are connected with the fellows year-round, building a robust and supportive community where they can grow as storytellers, hone their craft, and see their vision come to life. We look forward to welcoming this cohort of fellows to the labs and appreciate the time and generous efforts of the staff, advisors, actors, crew, and more who support this essential work of Sundance Institute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Directors and Screenwriters Labs are overseen by Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of the Institute\u2019s Artist Programs, and Ilyse McKimmie, Deputy Director of the Feature Film Program. The Native Lab is overseen by Adam Piron, Director of the Institute\u2019s Indigenous Program, and Ianeta Le\u2019i, the program\u2019s Senior Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous Sundance Institute lab fellows include award-winning filmmakers Andrew Ahn, Paul Thomas Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, the Daniels, Rick Famuyiwa, Sydney Freeland, David Gordon Green, Sterlin Harjo, Marielle Heller, Sky Hopinka, Miranda July, Nikyatu Jusu, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Boots Riley, A.V. Rockwell, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, Shaandiin Tome, Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, Charlotte Wells, and Chlo\u00e9 Zhao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, Sundance Collab, Sundance Institute\u2019s digital space for artists to learn from experts and build a global filmmaking community, features \u201cInsider Sessions\u201d with Institute staff and Labs alumni on hand to answer questions about our artist programs and provide details around discovering and applying to the many programs and funds the Institute offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2024 Sundance Institute Native Lab fellows are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with Hum<\/em><\/strong> (Philippines, U.S.A.): Haunted by the six-year absence of her missing husband, Esther, a single mother who works as a tour guide for mountaineers, embarks on her own treacherous journey of searching for him in the jungle where he had retreated to live with the beasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan<\/strong> is a filmmaker from the Philippines. Eblahan\u2019s works explore themes of trauma, spirituality, and nature, told through the cosmic lens of post-colonial spaces and Indigenous identities. His film The Headhunter\u2019s Daughter<\/em> was awarded the Short Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryland Walker Knight<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with The Lip of the World<\/em><\/strong> (U.S.A.): When Cassandra discovers a young Indigenous woman washed ashore with no memory, the pair journey into the violent underworld of the Northern California psychedelic culture to uncover her true identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryland Walker Knight<\/strong> is a Cherokee writer and a filmmaker, and once upon a time he was called a film critic. An avid basketball and audiobook enthusiast, Knight lives and works in Oakland and Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charine Pilar Gonzales<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with NDN Time<\/em><\/strong> (U.S.A.): A Tewa college student must master her new dimension-bending abilities to expose the nuclear secrets threatening her Pueblo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charine Pilar Gonzales<\/strong> wrote and directed the short films River Bank<\/em> (P\u014d-Kehgeh) and Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez<\/em>. She co-produced the 2024 Sundance Film Festival short doc Winding Path<\/em>. A Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico, she aims to intertwine memories, dreams, and truths through story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lindsay McIntyre<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with The Words We Can\u2019t Speak<\/em><\/strong> (Canada): A terrible Arctic accident leaves an Inuk interpreter unwelcome in her community. She is forced to weather impossible conditions and hateful prejudices, yet still care for her daughter, when she embarks on a dangerous 1,000-mile journey by dog sled with an inexperienced RCMP constable who fancies her for his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lindsay McIntyre<\/strong> (Inuit\/settler) is a filmmaker whose works explores themes of portraiture, place, and personal histories. After 40+ experimental\/documentary films and many festival awards, her recent leap into narrative with NIGIQTUQ \u14c2\u148b\u1585\u1450\u1585<\/em> (2023) garnered her Best Short at imagineNATIVE and a chance at the Oscars. She teaches film at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2024 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs fellows are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Keisha Rae Witherspoon<\/strong> (Co-Writer, Director) and Jason Fitzroy Jeffers<\/strong> (Co-Writer) with Arc<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): Ev is an outcast Miami hustler who believes his mother was abducted by aliens when he was a boy. When a mysterious woman descends on his community sermonizing about extraterrestrial salvation, he finds new purpose, which is soon threatened by a disgraced former government agent and a looming hurricane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keisha Rae Witherspoon<\/strong> is a Miami-born filmmaker whose short film T<\/em> won the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlinale. Keisha was named one of Filmmaker<\/em> magazine\u2019s \u201c25 New Faces of Independent Film\u201d in 2020 and is a 2022 USA Fellow. She is co-founder of Third Horizon Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jason Fitzroy Jeffers<\/strong> is a Barbadian filmmaker who has produced award-winning shorts such as Papa Machete<\/em> and T<\/em>, winner of the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlinale. He is co-founder and former festival director of Third Horizon Film Festival, a 2023 USA Fellow, and a 2024 Creative Capital awardee. [Screenwriters Lab only]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jane Casey Modderno<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with Here for the Weekend<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): A rom-com about three trans girls questing for love in Palm Springs. It centers Cherry, a type-A hotel worker with dreams of launching a lingerie brand, and her seduction of a guest with the power to change her life\u2026 but only by ditching her friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jane Casey Modderno<\/strong> wrote for Facebook\u2019s The Birch<\/em> and Peacock\u2019s The Girl in the Woods<\/em>. As director, her shorts have screened at festivals worldwide and are available to watch on Vimeo Staff Picks and Short of the Week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sylvia Khoury<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with I\u2019m Heather<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): Recently widowed Lebanese housewife Fadia, 60, dares to pursue a life outside the home by serving as a standardized patient for medical students to practice interacting with. Finding that Heather, the white character she plays, commands more respect than she does, Fadia begins to play at being Heather in her everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sylvia Khoury<\/strong> received her MD from the Icahn School of Medicine in 2021 and is a 2022 Pulitzer Finalist in Drama (Selling Kabul<\/em>). She is the Berlind Playwright-in-Residence at Princeton, commissioned by Lincoln Center and LAMF\/Protozoa, and developing original TV shows with Plan B and at FX with the Js.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kristine Gerolaga<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with Lamok<\/strong><\/em> (Philippines \/ U.S.A.): A Filipino woman determined to avenge the death of her daughter following a botched abortion finds her worldview dramatically altered after she is cursed to transform nightly into a fetus-eating creature known as the manananggal. [Screenwriters Lab only]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kristine Gerolaga<\/strong> is a Filipina American filmmaker and actor. She is supported by The Future of Film is Female and Sundance Institute\u2019s Artist Accelerator Program. Mosquito Lady<\/em>, the proof-of-concept short for Lamok<\/em>, had its world premiere at Beyond Fest and is now on the festival circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diana Peralta<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with No Love Lost<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): When a troubled young woman brings her new husband home to meet the family, her devoted but insular sisters reveal the extremes they will go to protect one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diana Peralta<\/strong> is a Dominican American writer, director, and creative producer from New York City. Her debut feature film, De Lo Mio<\/em> (The Criterion Collection), premiered as the closing night film of BAMcinemaFest in 2019 and was initially distributed by HBO. Peralta was featured in Filmmaker<\/em> magazine\u2019s \u201c25 New Faces of Independent Film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hanna Gray Organschi<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with Rubber Hut<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): Rhode Island, 1992. An entrepreneurial ex\u2013Pan Am stewardess opens a drive-thru condom shop in her Italian Catholic town. Overnight, Emanuella DelVecchio becomes the local lightning rod, a radical hero to the neighborhood teens and an unlikely threat to her tight-knit community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hanna Gray Organschi<\/strong> is a New England filmmaker pursuing her MFA at New York University. She received the NYWIFT scholarship, the Wasserman Award, and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Accelerator Grant and is on the 2024 Purple List. Her upcoming short F*ck That Guy<\/em> is executive-produced by Spike Lee and Riva Marker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sara Crow<\/strong> (Co-Writer, Co-Director) and David Rafailedes<\/strong> (Co-Writer, Co-Director)<> with Satoshi<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): The potentially true story of a teenage anime-obsessed hacktivist who, after losing her scholarship to Stanford, returns home to Arizona to become the mysterious inventor of a new digital currency called Bitcoin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sara Crow<\/strong> is a Brooklyn-based writer-director whose stories center misfits and subcultures. She is currently an MFA candidate at New York University\u2019s Graduate Film Program, where she is a Martin Scorsese Scholar and the recipient of the Sloan Feature Film Award and the Sundance Institute Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Rafailedes<\/strong> is a bicoastal (Hudson River\/Lake Erie) based writer-director. He attends New York University\u2019s Graduate Film Program. He is also the co-playwright of Cellino v. Barnes<\/em> and the recipient of the Sloan Feature Film Award and the Sundance Institute Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Urvashi Pathania<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with Skin<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): A horror-thriller about a dark-skinned Indian American woman tempted by an addictive and dangerous experimental skin bleaching machine \u2014 and the white woman who invented it. [Screenwriters Lab only]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Urvashi Pathania<\/strong> (she\/her) is a writer-director based in Brooklyn. Her films explore gender, sexuality, and cultural bereavement. Pathania was selected for the 2023 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive with her feature Skin<\/em>. She is also a recipient of the 2023 Sundance Horror Fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claire Fowler<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with Toad<\/strong><\/em> (U.K.): After seeing a disturbing accusation online, a woman living far away from home and ostracized from her strikingly successful twin brother begins to piece together memories of the teen theater experience that came between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claire Fowler<\/strong> is a writer and director from North Wales. She is an alum of Oxford University, Columbia University\u2019s Film MFA, the WB Directors\u2019 workshop, and the AFI\u2019s Directing Workshop for Women. Her short Salam<\/em> premiered at Tribeca and won a BAFTA Cymru, and she recently was a director on Netflix\u2019s Manifest<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramzi Bashour<\/strong> (Writer-Director) with Tomahawk Springs<\/strong><\/em> (U.S.A.): Tomahawk Springs<\/em> is a comedy about a Lebanese woman in America on an odyssey with her second-generation teenage son who barely speaks any Arabic. One riding shotgun, the other at the wheel, they journey the open road and rediscover themselves along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramzi Bashour<\/strong> is a filmmaker based in New York. He grew up in Beirut and over the years has worked as a cook, baker, journalist, and teacher. He\u2019s written and directed award-winning shorts, including The Trees<\/em>, and has collaborated as a composer and editor on feature films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sundance Institute Indigenous Program is supported by Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The 11th Hour Project, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, Nia Tero, The Christensen Fund, WBD Access, Indigenous Screen Office, NBCUniversal, SAGindie, and Indigenous Media Initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program is supported by explore.org, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; The Asian American Foundation (TAAF); Hartbeat; United Airlines; The Walt Disney Company; Maja Kristin; Salman Al-Rashid; K Period Media; Golden Globe Foundation; Ray and Dagmar Dolby Fund; Scott and Jennifer Frank; Steward Family Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; NHK\/NHK Enterprises, Inc.; Levantine Films; Onyx Collective; Directors Guild of America (DGA); SAGIndie; Spotlight on San Francisco; T-Street Productions; ShivHans Pictures; Rosalie Swedlin and Robert Cort; Lam T. Nguyen; and the Deborah Reinisch & Michael Theodore Fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the fellows selected for the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs. The Native Lab in New Mexico will support four fellows and two artists in residence, and the Directors Lab in Colorado will support the development of eight projects with nine fellows, with an additional three fellows also joining… Continue reading Sundance Institute Announces Fellows For 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Lab<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-festival","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SundanceNativeLabs.jpg?fit=500%2C281&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}