The Sundance Institute has unveiled the participants for its first in-person Producers Lab and Producers Summit in three years, set to take place in Utah this month.
Under the umbrella of its year-round Producers Program, the two conferences are intended to incubate and champion rising talent by pairing them with industry veterans.
From July 25 to July 28, the Producers Lab will bring together 11 filmmakers and their projects in group workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions. On the feature film side are Apoorva Guru Charan (“The Rotting Of Casey Culpepper”), Leah Chen Baker (“The President’s Cake”), Eli Raskin (“Starfuckers”), Chloe Sabin (“Sales Per Hour”) and Helena Sardinha and Doménica Castro (“Huella”). The documentary producer participants are Lindsey Dryden (“Untitled Dwarfism Project”), Yoni Golijov (“Untitled Sura Mallouh Project”), Dawne Langford (“Untitled Baltimore Project”), Neyda Martinez (“Bartolo”) and Igor Myakotin (“Queendom”).
The following week (July 29-31) will see 12 independent filmmakers convene at Sundance Mountain Resort, along with an assortment of distributors, financiers, agents, sales reps and seasoned independent producers. Jade Jackson (“Losa”), Lauren Lopez de Victoria (“Forward”), Fox Maxy (“Water Tight”), Albert Tholen and Aiko Masubuchi (“Earthquake”) and Séverine Tibi (“Birthday”) have been selected for the fiction cohort. Jude Chehab (“Q”), Amber Espinosa-Jones (“Standing Above the Clouds”), Jamie Gonçalves (“The Monster and the Storm”), Maliyamungu Muhande (“Nine Days a Week”), Julia Solomonoff (“The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer”), Jacob Thomas (“Deep Taxonomy Documentary Project”) round out the non-fiction participants.
“It has been three years since we have been able to gather in person, and over this time, the landscape for independent storytelling has shifted dramatically,” said Shira Rockowitz, Producing and Artist Support Director and Kristin Feeley, Documentary Film Program Deputy Director. “It’s never been more critical to work to create a sustainable future for independent producers, a key priority for the Lab and Summit.”
They continued, “The Producers Summit is a unique space that brings together producers and industry to advance bold, independent projects and address timely questions and issues in the field. We are excited to convene and build community through these vital conversations.”
Along with the annual Lab and Summit, the Producers Program holds events including a fall intensive, Sundance Film Festival orientation and Producers Awards ceremony.
The Producers Program is funded by an endowment from the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Charitable Foundation, as well as Amazon Studios, Cinereach and SAGindie.
