Sixth Annual Lab Highlights Importance of Editing Craft in Documentary Filmmaking

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program announced the selection of eight Documentary Film Fellows representing four projects to participate in the Documentary Film Edit and Story Laboratory, June 21 – 28 in Sundance, Utah. Held in the Wasatch Mountains at Sundance Resort, the Lab convenes filmmakers in the process of making feature-length independent documentaries for an intensive week of creative feedback in a supportive community setting. “Sundance is welcoming a group of non-fiction artists, who we believe will both contribute and learn from the Sundance Institute’s values of creative freedom and innovation,” said Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program.”

The 2008 Documentary Fellows are NC Heikin (director) and Peterson Negreiros Almeida (editor) for KIMJONGILIA, with stories of survivors of Kim Jong Il’s North Korean regime; Natalia Almada (director and editor) and Daniela Alatorre (producer) for EL GENERAL, a meditation on Mexico’s past, present and future; Deann Borshay Liem (director) and Vivien Hillgrove (editor) for PRECIOUS OBJECTS OF DESIRE, about the filmmaker’s journey to understand the story of her own adoption from South Korea in the 1960s; Jennifer Maytorena Taylor (director) and Kenji Yamamoto (editor) for NEW MUSLIM COOL, the tale of a Puerto Rican rapper who converts to Islam.

The Documentary Edit and Story Laboratory offers an intensive artist-to-artist collaborative experience where quality nonfiction storytelling is engaged with rigor and candor. Each artist is encouraged to explore a new take on story structure, narrative arc, voice, creative elements and more. Sundance Labs are an open, creative environment in which Fellows advance works-in-progress and are encouraged in the spirit of experimentation and risk taking.

“The Labs Advisors and Fellows also comprise an outstanding group of editing talent, some of whom have been working in the documentary form since the late 1960s,” said Mertes. “Editing is a critical and often under valued element of documentary filmmaking and we are privileged to highlight their artistry in this Lab.”

The Fellows will work with an acclaimed group of Creative Advisors: Editors: Kate Amend (Academy Award–winners INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS and THE LONG WAY HOME), Lewis Erskine (JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE and MARCUS GARVEY: LOOK FOR ME IN THE WHIRLWIND), Mary Lampson (A LION IN THE HOUSE and HARLAN COUNTY) and T. Woody Richman (FARENHEIGHT 9/11 and TROUBLE THE WATER) and Directors: Sam Green (WEATHER UNDERGROUND and LOT 63, GRAVE C), and Laura Poitras (MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY and FLAG WARS).