Friday, June 15-------With the accent on documentary production, financing and distribution here at SILVERDOCS, an announcement from the Sundance Institute regarding their own documentary lab initiative is particularly relevant. With many of the SILVERDOCS film having received their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it is clear that Sundance has a large role to play in the development and disemination of non-fiction material.

The Sundance Institute announced today the selection of four projects to participate in the fifth annual Documentary Film Editing and Story Laboratory, to be held June 22 – 29 at the Sundance Institute headquarters in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. The annual editing and story lab is an integral part of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. The Program provides year-round support to nurture nonfiction filmmakers worldwide. The program advances innovative nonfiction storytelling about a broad range of contemporary social issues, and promotes the exhibition of documentary films to a broad audience. Through the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Documentary Edit and Story Laboratory, Documentary Composers Laboratory as well as the Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Institute Independent Producers Conference and a variety of international initiatives, the program provides a unique, global center for documentary film.  Films that have received the financial and/or creative support of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program include BORN INTO BROTHELS, IN THE PIT, MANDA BALA, PARAGRAPH 175, MR. DEATH, LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, THE TRIALS OF DARYL HUNT, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, and WHY WE FIGHT.

This year’s projects for the Documentary Film Editing and Story Laboratory explore a wide range of subjects including the role of music in Tibet's assertion of cultural heritage, women in the Nepalese army, a moderate Muslim in Jordan forced to confront Jihad, and the emotional journey of several Ninth Ward, New Orleans residents through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The Lab is a creative environment that provides the participating artists and creative advisors with an intensive, week-long experience focused on the editing process for documentary film, and the role it plays in developing stories and characters.

During the Lab, the Fellows will work directly with an acclaimed group of Creative Advisors, including two directors and four editors, who jointly engage the creative process.  The Creative Advisors for the 2007 Documentary Editing and Story Lab are: editors Jean-Philippe Boucicaut (CITIZEN KING); Kate Amend (The Long Way Home); Lewis Erskine (Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple); Mary Lampson (A Lion in the House) and accomplished directors Robb Moss (SECRECY) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (THE INNER TOUR).

2007 DOCUMENTARY FILM EDITING AND STORY LAB PROJECTS AND FELLOWS

 TIBET IN SONG (Ngawang Choephel, Director and Tim Bartlett, Editor)

Through the story of Tibetan music, this film depicts the determined efforts of Tibetan people, both in Tibet and in exile, to preserve their unique cultural identity after more than a half-century of Chinese occupation. It evokes the courage, defiance and determination that have preserved Tibetan culture in contemporary consciousness. 

THE SARI SOLDIERS (Julie Bridgham, Director and Mona Davis, Editor) 

Six Nepali women on opposing sides of Nepal 's political conflict battle to transform their country's future. Amidst an autocratic Monarch's "War on Terror" against the Maoist rebels, the film follows their journey from the war-torn hillsides, to the extraordinary street revolution to reclaim democracy, and their struggles and pursuits for justice.

RECYCLE (Mahmoud Al Massad, Director)

A moderate Muslim father in Jordan faces a setback at every turn. Forced to collect cardboard in the streets of Zarqa, he is barely sustaining his family. As his situation deteriorates he has to make a radical decision to save himself from humiliation.

TROUBLE THE WATER (Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, Directors; Woody Richman, Editor)

A streetwise young couple survives the flooding of New Orleans by any means necessary, rescuing dozens of neighbors along the way, and using video to capture the storm and its aftermath. This redemptive tale of outlaws who become heroes is set against one of the largest diasporas in American history.

Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Online Dailies Editor