This blog is via blackberry, written on the bus in an April snowstorm en route to Calgary for my flight home from an unforgettable week at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at The Banff Centre.This same week I celebrated my one-year anniversary at Sundance Institute, and I can think of no more fitting way to have spent it than in the mountains among an exceptionally diverse and exciting group of new artists and Advisors collaborating to develop new work. I had forgotten the breathtaking surprise of leaving Calgary for the climb up the mountain pass to Banff, as the Rockies emerge and then encircle the horizon as the trip continues.

When the Film Forward program set out for Nashville almost two weeks ago, I was elated to be part of the team. I had never spent much time in the South and wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but having worked with The Belcourt on multiple Sundance projects, I knew I would be in for a treat.
Outside the Belcourt Theater.

Xin Sheng is a junior student at the Communication University of China in Beijing. She is the student journalist of the American Embassy in China and has internship experience at many large media organizations including the Xinhua News Agency. She loves movies, especially documentaries, and hopes to work as a journalist in the future.

The entire Sundance Institute community mourns the loss of our colleague and friend Tim Hetherington, killed while covering the conflict in Misrata, Libya. He was an amazing talent and special human being who documented the world as never captured before.
Tim came to the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 with his co-director Sebastian Junger to premiere their film Restrepo, one of the most in-the-trenches war documentaries ever made.

April 13-16, 2011, saw Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program lead the first ever Institute workshop for independent Chinese documentary filmmakers. Co-hosted with CNEX, a five-year-old Beijing-based foundation dedicated to supporting artistic documentaries about contemporary Chinese life, the gathering brought together 11 projects from several regions in China to work with a group of international Advisors on story and structure. More than 120 Chinese filmmakers applied for this gathering, which was supported by a special grant for the Open Society Foundations and designed by Documentary Film Program Director Cara Mertes, Ben Tsiang and Ruby Chen of CNEX, and Chinese filmmaker Lixin Fan, to best address the needs of these filmmakers in a three-day forum.

The National Association of Theater Owners today published an open letter speaking out against the launch of premium VOD, which puts films out on VOD 60 days after release. Here is that letter:
We are the artists and business professionals who help make the movie business great. We produce and direct movies.

I did not know what to expect as the plane approached Beijing. I had last visited 16 years ago, so there was no way I could have anticipated the massive changes that have occurred. One of the most striking first images was seeing cars everywhere and smog to go with it.

Xin Sheng is a junior student at the Communication University of China in Beijing. She is the student journalist of the American Embassy in China and has internship experience at many large media organizations including the Xinhua News Agency. She loves movies, especially documentaries, and hopes to work as a journalist in the future.

New York, NY — Sundance Institute today announced four projects and a total of 13 artists selected for its second Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in East Africa, taking place July 17-31, 2011 on the island of Manda off the coast of Kenya. Under the supervision of Philip Himberg, Producing Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, and Roberta Levitow, Artistic Associate, the Lab will provide artists with guidance in their creative development toward final production. Sundance Institute Theatre Lab on Manda is made possible through the generosity of Wayne McGregor CBE who has provided his Manda studio, Akili, as rehearsal and convening space for the artists.

The flight from New York to Beijing was a bit intense, but the cramped seat and crowded arrangement were nothing compared to what greeted me once I hit the ground. China can handle more traffic than anywhere I have been. People flow on top of each other, no distinction if they are in a car, bike, or on foot.

My what a treat I’ve had! I’m just returning from a rewarding trip to Nashville where I was invited to screen my film Son of Babylon for the local community as part of the fantastic Film Forward program. I experienced a true ‘cultural exchange’..

It’s a beautiful spring morning, and we’re on day five of our excursion to Nashville, Tennessee. With our local partners – the amazing team of the Belcourt Theatre’s Stephanie Silverman, Toby Leonard, and Allison Inman – we’ve already screeened a handful of Film Forward films including the special filmmaker presentations of Peter Bratt’s La Mission and Isabelle Stead’s Son of Babylon. While you couldn’t find two films more different in language, style, and geography, they nevertheless embody the best of cinematic storytelling – a specificity of character and story but with universal themes that resonate across boundaries of language and culture.

“We clapped, the walls clapped, the ceiling clapped. Ah, the joy of being here! The joy of theatre!” exclaimed Deborah Asiimwe, a specialist for Sundance Institute East Africa, regarding a final presentation at the close of the 2011 Theatre Lab at The Banff Centre. This pulse of emotion that is intrinsic to live performance can be felt throughout the many activities underway with the Theatre Program this month from the Lab to a photography exhibition to a work-in-progress performance.

The 2011 Theatre Lab has reached the end of Week Two in the Canadian Rockies. Here are some thoughts from Sundance Institute artists at The Banff Centre:
Producing Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Lab participant Chita Rivera. Photo by Robert Petkoff.