Returning after a two-year hiatus, four boundary-pushing nonfiction film project teams will convene at the Sundance Resort in Utah for the 2022 Documentary Edit and Story Lab, the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today.

Designed to provide time and space to go deep into the language, form, and meaning of these four independent nonfiction feature films, the Lab combines director and editor teams in the later stages of post-production, with experienced  documentary filmmakers, for the process of reimagining or reconceiving dramatic structures, exploring character and story development, and refocusing around the director’s original animating vision for their work.

Documentary Film Program Director Carrie Lozano, who oversees the process alongside Deputy Director Kristin Feeley, said, “My team and I are thrilled to come together in person with a  spirit of inquiry and hope that comes from the shared endeavor of reimagining the creative possibilities of the nonfiction form. We hope the community that grows from the Lab will offer strong support in the final stages of the creative process.”

Director advisors for the Documentary Edit and Story Lab are Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Viewing Booth) and Robb Moss (Containment); Editor advisors are Victoria Chalk (Asian Americans), Mary Lampson (Crip Camp), Carlos Rojas (The Territory), and Jacob Secher Schulsinger (Cow). Fellow teams will also work with Contributing Editors during the Lab, a unique position created ten years ago to foster creative dialogue in the edit room. This year’s Contributing Editors include Zaineb Abdul-Nabi, Stephanie Andreou, Michaelle McGaraghan, and Andrew Stowe.

In addition to the Lab, five artists were selected for the second edition of the Art of Editing Fellowship, launched in 2020 to spotlight emerging talents committed to the art and craft of editing nonfiction feature films. Fellows received a stipend, a dedicated mentor, and access to curated workshops and small gatherings through the Fellowship year.

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program is made possible by founding support from The Open Society Foundations. Generous additional support is provided by Ford Foundation; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Luminate; Sandbox Films; The Kendeda Fund; The Charles Engelhard Foundation; Violet Spitzer-Lucas and the Spitzer Family Foundation; Gucci; CNN Films; Compton Foundation; Genuine Article Pictures; Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman; National Endowment for the Arts; Code Blue Foundation; EarthSense Foundation; Adobe; and two anonymous donors. 

2022 Edit and Story Lab

Q (Lebanon/US)

Director: Jude Chehab

Editor: Fahd Ahmed

Jude Chehab (Director) is a Lebanese-American filmmaker whose richly layered visual style was developed under the mentorship of Abbas Kiarostami’s final student group. Her work has been awarded fellowships through: CAAM, NeXtDoc, Points North Institute, Firelight and Close-Up. Filmmaker Magazine named her one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

Fahd Ahmed (Editor) Fahd Ahmed is a Pakistani-British editor. He is the creative director of Studio Amorem, a studio in East London. He was an editing fellow in the Gotham Edit Lab and has edited for the BBC. He is currently a story editor on the PBS-funded 3-part docuseries, A Town Called Victoria.

Standing Above the Clouds (US)

Director: Jalena Keane-Lee

Editor: Diana Diroy

Jalena Keane-Lee (Director) is a filmmaker who explores intergenerational healing through an intersectional lens. Her work has broadcast on POV, streamed on Criterion, and played at film festivals around the world. Jalena co-founded Breaktide Productions, an all women of color production company that has won two Cannes Lion awards for branded content.

Diana Diroy (Editor) is a documentary editor and cinematographer, with a background in journalism and digital video. She was selected for the Karen Schmeer Diversity in the Edit Room Program in 2018. Her work has broadcasted on POV and screened at festivals like the Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca.

The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer (Argentina)

Director: Alessandra Sanguinetti

Editor: Soledad Salfate

Alessandra Sanguinetti (Director) is an Argentine/American photographer currently based in Petaluma, California. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a member of Magnum Photo Agency. Her photographs are in major public and private collections including the New York Museum of Modern Art. She has published five monographs.

Soledad Salfate (Editor) is an editor who began her career with the film Machuca and became part of the new Chilean cinema. She edited films such as Play, El Futuro, Bonsai, To Kill a Man, Gloria and A Fantastic Woman, which received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2018.

The Monster and the Storm (US)

Director: Edwin Martinez

Editor: Inés Vogelfang

Edwin Martinez (Director) is a Nuyorican documentary director whose work includes the NYT Critic’s pick To Be Heard (2010), Emmy nominated Personal Statement (2019), NYT Op-Doc The Scars of Stop and Frisk (2012). A Harvard graduate, he now teaches at SUNY Purchase.

Inés Vogelfang (Editor) is a Brooklyn-based editor from Argentina. Most recently, she was co-editor on the 2022 SXSW Audience Award winner The Art of Making It. She’s a Karen Schmeer Diversity in the Edit Room Fellow and serves on the steering committee for the Alliance of Documentary Editors.

Art of Editing Fellows

Stephanie Andreou has worked as an editor for over eight years on award winning documentaries that have screened at Sundance, True/False, Tribeca, Full Frame, New York Film Festival and IFFR. In 2019, she became a Karen Schmeer ‘Diversity in Edit Room’ Fellow and has been on the screening committee for the True/False Film Festival. She organizes with and for Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) and is a board member for the Alliance of Documentary Editors (ADE).

Diana Diroy is a documentary editor and cinematographer, with a background in journalism and digital video. She was selected for the Karen Schmeer Diversity in the Edit Room Program in 2018. Her work has broadcasted on POV and screened at festivals like the Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca.

Julie Gaynin edited and co-produced the A24 doc series INSTANT LIFE, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. She is currently editing the HBO Documentary AFTER THE BITE. She holds a BA from Macalester College and begins her MFA in documentary at Stanford university in fall of 2022. 

Alma Herrera-Pazmino’s pedagogy is rooted in her upbringing in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA where she worked as a housing rights community organizer and as a youth arts administrator. Her love for story stems from the use of art as a healing form of expression to move through moments of grief and celebrate the resilience of the human experience. 

Luna X. Moya is a documentary Director and Editor whose work screened at A+E Networks, MoMA, The Shed,  BAMcinemaFest, and AFI Docs. Their second directorial film What The Pier Gave Us started off as a short and a feature is in production with support from Sundance and Catapult Film Fund.