Meet The Filmmakers!
Cara Mertes and the Sundance Documentary Program staff welcomed a landmark 32 DFP supported projects at the Sundance Film Festival Twenty Ten!
More than 75 DFP Fellows from across the US and every corner of the globe took planes, trains and automobiles to join the snow covered festivities in Park City, Utah. Representing nine film premiers and 23 Works-In-Progress, some were nurtured by DFP from early development through post production. DFP filmmakers promoted projects addressing social justice and human rights issues worldwide. They attended panels, participated in curated and hosted industry meetings, enjoyed social networking, fundraising, and hopefully caught a few screenings in between.
DFP grantees at this year’s festival gave voice to the Native American community, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) communities, and to women who have been silenced, as they shed light on untold stories of global injustice, fearless activists and unsung heroes around the world. These filmmakers continue to champion issues of immigration, border struggles, racial discrimination, military recruitment, effects of war, and so much more.
For those of you who joined us at this year’s festival, we hope that you sought them out, tracked them down, and engaged them in conversation. For any who missed speaking to them in person, DFP staff conducted interviews with each Fellow, to share their thoughts with readers. Find out more about these filmmakers by clicking on the interviews below.
25 TO LIFE
Michael L. Brown (Director) Q&A with Michael
William Brawner was infected with HIV before he turned two and kept it a secret for over twenty years. Now he seeks redemption from the women of his promiscuous past and embarks on a new phase of life with his pregnant wife, who is HIV-negative.
AN AMERICAN PROMISE
Michèle Stephenson & Joe Brewster (Co-Directors / Co-Producers) Q&A with Joe and Michele
Follows the educational journeys of two African American boys from kindergarten to high school at an elite prep school. A n intimate glimpse into universal issues facing African American boys from their earliest experiences in school.
AS NUTAYUNEAN
Anne Makepeace (Director) Q&A with Anne
Jessie Little Doe Baird, of the Wampanoag nation (Rhode Island and Massachusetts), revives a silenced indigenous language that was out of use for more than 150 years. The film unravels the disappearance of the language, while telling a contemporary story of unprecedented cultural revival.
BUDRUS
Julia Bacha (Director) Q&A with Julia
Budrus follows a Palestinian leader who unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter jumps into the fray.
CAMP VICTORY, AFGHANISTAN
Carol Dysinger (Director) Q&A with Carol
Camp Victory, Afghanistan tells the story of the Afghan officers charged with building a new Afghan National Army and the U.S. National Guardsmen sent to mentor them.
CESAR’S LAST FAST
Richard Ray Perez (Director) Q&A with Richard
Molly O’Brien (Producer) Q&A with Molly
A documentary film about Cesar E. Chavez’s intense commitment to farm workers, and the dedicated people leading the fight today.
CRIME AFTER CRIME
Yoav Potash (Director/Producer) Q&A with Yoav
The successful legal battle to free an incarcerated survivor of domestic violence after decades of wrongful incarceration.
DEAR MANDELA
Dara Kell (Co-Director) Q&A with Dara
Christopher Nizza (Co-Director) Q&A with Christopher
Chronicles the year leading up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup through the eyes of three young leaders in South Africa’s Shack Dwellers Movement as they face mass evictions, assassination attempts and a betrayal of Nelson Mandela’s promise of a ‘better life for all’.
¿ DONDE ESTAN?
Maria Teresa Rodriguez (Producer/Director) Q&A with Maria
Kathryn Smith Pyle (Producer) Q&A with Kaye
Margarita, Jamie and Miguel, separated from their families during the Salvadoran war, seek identity, security and justice as the country struggles toward reconciliation.
FAMBUL TOK
Sara Terry (Director) Q&A with Sara
Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone’s brutal war come face to face in an unprecedented reconciliation program of grassroots truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. This film will change the way viewers think about Africa, forcing them to examine their own lives – and what the power of forgiveness can accomplish.
MY GOOD NAME IS STALIN
Kavita Pillay (Director) Q&A with Kavita
This tragic comic look at notoriously named men in Kerala, India, offers a case study in the consequences of emigrating for work.
SEMPER FI: ALWAYS FAITHFUL
Rachel Libert & Tony Hardomon (Co Directors) Q&A with Rachel and Tony
Jeff Key, at thirty-four years old and gay, joined the Marines to fulfill his life long dream. After 9/11, Key was sent to the Iraq war. Having returned home with shattered ideals and broken hearted by what he had witnessed, Key turned his experiences into a riveting one-man play.
THE FIRE THIS TIME
Blair Doroshwalther (Director) Q&A with Blair
Seven young women were threatened and attacked by an older man in New York City in 2006. They defended themselves and were sent to prison.
WAITING TO INHALE: MARIJUANA, MEDICINE AND THE LAW
Jeff Riffe (Director/Producer) Q&A with Jed
Waiting to Inhale explores the battle between patients, doctors, activists and the United States government over the legalization of medical marijuana.
WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM
Heather Courtney (Director) Q&A with Courtney
A four-year journey that takes teenagers from rural northern Michigan to the battlefields of Afghanistan and back, Where Soldiers Come From follows five high school friends who join the National Guard to pay for college. The film is an intimate look at the young men who fight America’s wars.