Category: News

Friday night might be Shabbat on the Upper West Side, but in Addis Ababa, it’s “Azmari Bets” – meaning “House of Singers”. The tradition is to move from home to home to listen to authentic Ethiopian music – traditional and contemporary. Our Ethiopian hosts treated us to a magnificent dinner and then onward to the Azmari Bets.

London, 23 April 2012 — Sundance Institute and WorldView today announced that they will jointly present awards to four films that focus on social justice issues in the developing world: Street Girls by Katie Mark; FARMING by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje; My Brother the Devil by Sally El Hosaini; and Valley of Saints by Musa Syeed. Each award is accompanied by a £5,000 or £10,000 grant, and the Documentary Development Award for Street Girls is enhanced with professional access to film mentorship from Jerry Rothwell, whose documentaries have been supported by WorldView and Sundance Institute. The awards will be presented at a private event during the first-ever Sundance London film and music festival, 26-29 April at The O2.

Liesl Tommy (Workshop leader): “I know you guys don’t kiss on stage in Ethiopia, is that right?”
            Silence.
Workshop Participant: “That is right.”
            Silence
 Second Workshop Participant: “But we are willing to try!”
 
This exchange blows me away.

I was in Freddy’s group.
Liesl Tommy, creative advisor for the workshops, had given us the assignment to create a staged piece based on poems or lyrics we had selected. We divided into two groups.

London, 20 April 2012 — Extranjero, a five-minute film from Daniel Lumb and Crinan Campbell, was announced today as the winner of the Short Film Competition at the first-ever Sundance London film and music festival, 26-29 April at The O2. The film will screen as part of the official Short Film programme at the festival and is available for immediate viewing at http://competition.sundance-london.

There are those who argue that Los Angeles, with its sprawling polyglot patchwork of ethnic enclaves, is the city of the future — a global microcosm where it’s possible to travel a few miles and have a full-immersion foreign cultural experience. Such was the case last week at the 10th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, where Indian expats and international film lovers gathered to savor the cinema of the subcontinent. This year, the IFFLA introduced its first-ever Industry Leadership Awards, with Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter, Director of Feature Film Program, and Alesia Weston, Associate Director of Feature Film Program, International, among the honorees.

In this eco-conscious age of hybrid vehicles, carbon-cutting cleaning products, and urban composting, Earth Day appears to have ascended the holiday hierarchy—to heights that perhaps even the crunchiest of its 1970s creators couldn’t have envisioned. This Sunday, April 22, marks the 42nd Earth Day, and Sundance Institute’s #ArtistServices program is currently offering a pair of documentaries for home viewing that confront vastly different (but equally alarming) stories addressing urgent threats to the environment. To commemorate Earth Day this year, we’re offering a solution to Kermit the Frog’s famous lament that “it isn’t easy being green” with our hand-picked selection of sustainability-themed Sundance Film Festival favorites below.

Imperial, CA — Sundance Institute announced today that FILM FORWARD: Advancing Cultural Dialogue, a program that promotes cultural dialogue through independent documentary and narrative film, will travel to Imperial Valley and Mexicali from April 30 through May 4.  The Imperial County Film Commission and Mexicali Rose Media/Arts Center will present the FILM FORWARD program, which includes 10 films, filmmaker appearances and workshops, at multiple cities in the Imperial Valley including Calexico, Brawley, El Centro and Ocotilloin the U.S.

“Ubuntu.” An African concept meaning: Humanness. “I am because we are and because we are, therefore I am.

Sunday, 15 April 2012
Orthodox Easter Sunday, Addis Ababa — “And what is that?” I ask, pointing to a bowl of what appears to be a red gritty substance. “Oh? That ? That is baked blood — from the lamb we slaughtered this morning. Please – take some.

On Sunday afternoon, when writer-director Josh Radnor debuted his second feature film, Liberal Arts, to a liberally enthusiastic audience at the Sundance Film Festival, the Eccles erupted with a sustained explosion of applause, laughter, and full-on whistles that lasted throughout the entire screening, culminating in a standing ovation.
Radnor’s first film happythankyoumoreplease premiered in the Dramatic Competition at the 2010 Festival and took home the Audience Award. And judging by last night’s screening, his follow-up appears poised to follow a similarly crowd-pleasing trajectory.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Sundance Institute today announced the eight artists currently participating in the 2012 Theatre Stage Directors Workshop in Addis Ababa. The one-week exchange and development program, taking place through Sunday, is part of the Sundance Institute East Africa (SIEA) initiative, which supports the work of theatre artists in East Africa by creating exchange and exposure opportunities between U.S.