Contact the Sundance Documentary Film Program

STAFF

Cara Mertes, Director
Bruni Burres, Senior Consultant
Rahdi Taylor, Associate Director
Kristin Feeley, Manager
Win-Sie Tow, Coordinator

CARA MERTES
Director, Documentary Film Program

Prior to her recent appointment as Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, Cara Mertes was the Executive Director of American Documentary, Inc and Executive Producer of P.O.V., PBS’ acclaimed independent documentary showcase. AmDoc is a leading nonprofit specializing in leveraging the power of independent documentary in public life online, in communities and in broadcast. Mertes is a long-time advocate for independent media artists, and an award-winning filmmaker, programmer, teacher and writer whose work has been featured widely in museums, festivals, on PBS and internationally. She has been recognized with three George Foster Peabody awards, two duPont-Columbia Awards and three Academy Award nominations as P.O.V.’s Executive Producer. In addition, she was the creator and Executive Producer of P.O.V.’s original online showcase, P.O.V.’s Borders, winning a Webby Award, a Batten Journalism Award, an On-Line Journalism and Parent’s Choice Award. She has also executive produced more then 70 original websites for the series’ films (www.pbs.org/pov).  

Bruni Burres has been the programmer and director for the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival for over a decade. The festival began in New York City in 1988 and now tours to over 40 cities throughout the U.S. with its flagship festivals in New York and London, as well as special presentations with festivals in Buenos Aires, Munich, Sderot (Isreal), Rio de Janeiro and Zurich. She also co-produced the Media That Matters Film Festival, an online human rights video festival in collaboration with MediaRights.org, and Theater Meets Film. In 2004 Burres launched Human Rights Watch Selects DVD series with distributor, First Run Features. Burres is also the senior consultant for the Sundance Documentary Program (SDP), where she works closely with Cara Mertes, the Program’s director, to expand the roster of national and international documentary filmmakers working with the program, deepen national and international collaborations with filmmakers and cultural institutions, and broaden the humn rights themes currently explored by the SDP. Burres holds a masters degree from NYU in their Interactive Telecommunications Program.

RAHDI TAYLOR
Associate Director

As Associate Director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Rahdi Taylor administers the Sundance Documentary Fund which supports contemporary, social issue documentary filmmakers worldwide. Prior to Sundance, Taylor was Director of Marketing and Communications for California Newsreel, where she headed distribution campaigns for new releases and was responsible for strategic marketing and branding initiatives. She has served as Director of Production Assistance at Women Make Movies, where she shepherded 20 documentaries annually from script to screen and administered a Fiscal Sponsorship Program. An award-winning filmmaker herself, her works as a writer and director have screened nationally and internationally and garnered her a nomination for the Rockefeller Fellowship for Media Arts. Taylor holds a Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Texas, Austin. She was Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Media Studies at New College of California and has been a guest lecturer at Mills College, Southern University at New Orleans, and U.C. Berkeley.

KRISTIN FEELEY
Manager

After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Kristin Feeley spent two formative years researching the US welfare system at a reputable public policy research firm in New York City. This experience led to an extended stay in the birthplace of socialism, Glasgow, Scotland. There she received a Masters of Philosophy in Media Studies focusing on early American documentary film. Since then she has worked at several international film festivals and arts non-profits before moving to Los Angeles to work for the Sundance Documentary Film Program.

WIN-SIE TOW
Coordinator

A native New Yorker, Win-sie Tow has worked for the IFP Market, Hamptons International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and most recently as associate producer on Jihad for Love and assistant for The Visitors. A graduate of Northwestern University’s Radio/TV/Film department, she is currently Coordinator of the Sundance Documentary Film Program.

GLOBAL CONTACT

The Sundance Documentary Film Program staff travels around the world to support the documentary film field and to cultivate emerging documentary traditions. Throughout the year staff attend forums, conferences and festivals worldwide. Listed below are a few upcoming events that the DFP will attend in the near future:

April 08 Doc A Tunis Festival | Tunisia

April 08 It’s All True Documentary Festival | Brazil

April 08 Hot Docs | Canada

April 08 Tribeca All Access | New York, USA

May 08 The Israeli Forum for International Co-Productions | Israel

June 08 Documentary Edit and Story Lab | Sundance Resort, USA

July 08 Independent Producers Conference | Sundance Resort, USA

July 08 BritDoc | England

August 08 Documentary Composers Lab | Sundance Resort, USA

Sept. 08 Independent Film Week | New York, USA

Sept. 08 Plano Latino | Argentina

Oct. 08 Int. Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film | Germany

Nov. 08 Sheffield International Documentary Festival | England

Nov. 08 IDFA | The Netherlands