Sundance Institute Sets 20 Projects As Documentary Film Program Grantees

Matt Grobar
·9 min read
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Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program has set its latest cohort of 20 films receiving Documentary Fund Grants, doling out a total of $600,000 in unrestricted support to projects in varying stages of production and distribution, including eight in development, eight in production, three in post-production, and one in post-production and impact.

Grantees currently at the development stage include Aída Bueno Sarduy’s Anna Borges do Sacramento, Ricardo Ruales’ The Broken R, Damon Davis’ Chain of Rocks, Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig’s Colors of White Rock, Gerardo del Valle’s The Past is Waiting Up Ahead, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo’s unseen, and Farid Ahmad’s Waiting For Winter.

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. - Credit: Sundance Institute
. - Credit: Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute

Recipients at the production stage include Pascale Appora-Gnekindy and Ningyi Sun’s Eat Bitter, Chan Hau Chun and Chui Chi Yin’s Heatroom, Basel Al Adarra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Balal, and Rachel Shor’s No Other Land, Kit Vincent’s Red Herring (working title), Weichao Xu and Weixi Chen’s The Vagrant Master, Tadashi Nakamura’s Third Act, Lerone D. Wilson’s Untitled Lerone D. Wilson Documentary, Lucas Guilkey and JoeBill Muñoz’s Untitled Prison Hunger Strike Film, and Fox Maxy’s Watertight.

Those in post are Cyril Aris’ Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano, Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing’s Hidden Letters, Reid Davenport’s I Didn’t See You There, and Katja Esson’s Razing Liberty Square, the latter of which is also being awarded for impact.

The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund offers non-recoupable support for nonfiction projects from around the world that continue to elevate and advance cultural dialogue, while breaking new ground in creativity and innovation. Grants are made possible by The Open Society Foundations, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Kendeda Fund.

This cycle, eight out of the 10 U.S. films awarded grants are directed by at least one BIPOC director. Half of the projects have international roots in regions that the DFP prioritizes because freedom of expression is at risk, or due to local infrastructures that lack adequate support mechanisms for indie film.

“With this expansive cohort, the Documentary Film Fund is holding true to its commitment to independent storytelling,” said Sundance Institute’s Director of Documentary Film Program and Artist Programs, Carrie Lozano. “As we celebrate 20 years of funding hundreds of films, these films are a tangible representation of all that we stand for and value.”

‘We are thrilled to welcome this latest cohort of exceptional nonfiction artists to the Sundance family. The projects selected embrace an incredibly eclectic range of cinematic languages that expands the vocabulary of documentary film,” added Documentary Film Fund Director, Paola Mottura. “But they also share a common denominator, which expresses the spirit of Sundance. These stories get us out of our comfort zone and challenge our received world-views and assumptions by constantly pushing us to do better as a society and as people.”

Recent projects supported by the Documentary Fund include Ascension, Collective, Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, Faya Dayi, The Edge of Democracy, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Landfall, Minding the Gap, The Mole Agent, North By Current, One Child Nation, Strong Island, Time, Welcome to Chechnya, and Writing With Fire.

More information on the Sundance Institute’s newest grantees can be found below:

DEVELOPMENT

Anna Borges do Sacramento (Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain)
Director: Aída Bueno Sarduy
Producers: Paula Zyngierman, Leandro Listorti

On March 3rd 1734, Anna Borges do Sacramento, an Afro-descendant Brazilian slave, brought a civil action against her first owner, to maintain her “free” status, acquired 16 years earlier. Her history, archived and practically unknown, reveals the iniquity of the legal devices that for centuries sustained the legality of the slave system.

The Broken R (Ecuador, Italy)
Director: Ricardo Ruales
Producers: Soledad Santelices / Matteo Pecorara

From the speech therapy process that I took, many questions about the voice arose, about my own voice and how it sounded. An intimate and family portrait that tries to face the search about questioning oneself, and above all questioning one’s own voice, and understanding it as identity.

Chain of Rocks (U.S.A.)
Director: Damon Davis
Producers: Chris Renteria, Damon Davis

A death row inmate confesses to a crime after 30 years of maintaining his innocence. Now, an activist who once fought for his exoneration is faced with the moral dilemma of whether the fight was in vain. Chain of Rocks is an animated feature-length documentary that explores the complexities of race and masculinity and how they skew our worldview and play a role in oppressive systems.

Colors of White Rock (France, Mongolia)
Director: Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig
Producers: Tessa Louise Salomé, Chantal Perrin

Maikhuu is one of thousands of coal truck drivers fighting for survival along Mongolia’s hazardous mining roads. Her story encapsulates the dilemma the country is experiencing as its decade-long mining boom continues to shake the society.

The Past is Waiting Up Ahead (Guatemala, U.S.A.)
Director: Gerardo del Valle
Producer: Gerardo del Valle

Revisiting the route he traveled as an unaccompanied minor when he was eight, poet Javier Zamora has taken it upon himself to confront his past and discover how the undocumented route from Central America to the United States has changed in the last twenty years.

unseen (U.S.A.)
Director: Set Hernandez Rongkilyo
Producers: Set Hernandez Rongkilyo, Day Al-Mohamed

unseen is a multi-platform documentary that follows the story of Pedro, an aspiring social worker who happens to be a blind, undocumented immigrant. Through Pedro’s personal journey, this “audio-based” film reimagines the accessibility of cinema, while exploring the systemic intersections of immigration, disability, and mental health.

Waiting For Winter (Bangladesh, France, Germany)
Director: Farid Ahmad
Producers: Salma Sonia, Vincent Wang, Christoph Hahnheiser

Bangladesh is the largest delta of the world where floods become devastating during each summer. When winter arrives, an island emerges beside the Jamuna river and a homeless mother serves there as cheap labor, caught in a modern slavery system. She fights to break down this chain of subjugation.
KENDEDA FUND

PRODUCTION

Eat Bitter (Central African Republic, China)
Directors: Pascale Appora-Gnekindy, Ningyi Sun
Producer: Mathieu Faure

During a civil war in the Central African Republic, an immigrant Chinese construction manager and a local African laborer work on opposite ends of the spectrum to construct a sparkling new bank. As deadlines loom, they don’t hesitate to strip the earth and destroy their family lives for a seat at the table of prosperity.

Heatroom (Hong Kong)
Directors: Chan Hau Chun, Chui Chi Yin
Producer: Peter Yam

The documentary tells the stories of a group of subdivided flat residents who live in the same building for over a few years. Having little control over their destinies, individuals wrestle with immense suppression of the times, yet flourish with dignity in their everyday lives.

No Other Land (Palestine)
Directors: Basel Al Adarra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Balal, Rachel Shor
Producers: Basel Al Adarra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Balal, Rachel Shor

For ten years, Basel, a young Palestinian activist, has been filming homes in his community being destroyed by Israeli soldiers. During the darkest period of his life, in face of mass eviction of his community, he develops an unlikely, intimate relationship with a similarly aged Israeli journalist who joins his struggle.

Red Herring (working title) (U.K.)
Director: Kit Vincent
Producers: Ed Owles, Dea Gjinovci

After a young filmmaker is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, he decides to follow his family’s spiritual and darkly humorous journey towards acceptance.

The Vagrant Master (China)
Directors: Weichao Xu, Weixi Chen
Producers: Jia Zhao, Weicong Xia

After living in seclusion with his books for 26 years, Shen Wei, an erudite trash collector, inadvertently became a viral sensation thanks to a live streaming app, where he was venerated by millions of followers as China’s “Vagrant Master”. The overnight fame reintroduced Shen to a society that once left him behind. When the frenzy abruptly subsided two years later, however, Shen found himself caught in a dilemma and started to lose control of his life.

Third Act (U.S.A.)
Director: Tadashi Nakamura
Producer: Ursula Liang

On its surface, Third Act is a biopic that explores Robert Nakamura’s role as the “Godfather of Asian American film,” made by his son, Tadashi Nakamura. But with his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, the film poses a complex question: how can a father and son say goodbye?

Untitled Lerone D. Wilson Documentary (U.S.A.)
Director: Lerone D. Wilson
Producers: Andrea Mustain, Lerone D. Wilson

Good intentions, unforeseen consequences, and the forces of the Internet collide, revealing the humanity—and the humans—confronting the unprecedented power of social media.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Untitled Prison Hunger Strike Film (U.S.A.)
Directors: Lucas Guilkey, JoeBill Muñoz
Producers: Lucas Guilkey, JoeBill Muñoz

A feature documentary about the rise and fall of California’s system of indefinite solitary confinement.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Watertight (U.S.A.)
Director: Fox Maxy
Producers: Michel Sayegh, Jaida Grey Eagle, Mad Max Alo

A collection of interviews about mental health and suicide, interrupted by fake commercials, reality tv parodies, animations and archival footage. Watertight flips through channels, traveling around Indian country and big cities, following people who create their own realities. This film is for freaks.

POST-PRODUCTION

Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (Lebanon, France)
Director: Cyril Aris
Producers: Katharina Weser, Myriam Sassine

A country that experiences one disaster after another. A film crew that surmounts the insurmountable to shoot their vision of Lebanon’s future. A portrait of Beirut society in the aftermath of the August 4th 2020 port explosion, struggling to rebuild, resist, and ultimately find life again.

Hidden Letters (China, U.S.A., Norway, Germany)
Directors: Violet Du Feng, Zhao Qing
Producers: Violet Du Feng, Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas, Jean Tsien, Su Kim

Hidden Letters tells the story of two Chinese women trying to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditional identity that defines but also oppresses them. Connected through their love for Nushu — a centuries-old secret text shared amongst women — each of them transforms through a pivotal period of their lives and takes a step closer to becoming the individuals they know they can be.

I Didn’t See You There (U.S.A.)
Director: Reid Davenport
Producer: Keith Wilson

Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent that goes up outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker launches into an unflinching meditation on freakdom, (in)visibility, and the pursuit of individual agency.

Razing Liberty Square (U.S.A.)
Director: Katja Esson
Producers: Katja Esson, Ann Bennett, Corinna Sager, Ronald Baez

Miami is ground zero for sea level rise. When residents of the Liberty Square public-housing community learn about a $300 million revitalization project in 2015, they soon discover that this sudden interest comes from the fact that their neighborhood is located on the highest-and-driest ground in the city. Now they must prepare to fight a new form of racial injustice – Climate Gentrification.
KENDEDA FUND

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