The Art of the Documentary: How Sundance Institute Is Supporting Unparalleled Creativity On-Screen
In the digital age, making a documentary with an impact is deceptively simple. All you theoretically need is a smartphone camera and an Internet connection. But as any filmmaker will tell you, that’s like saying, “Here’s a fire and a fork—go make a gourmet meal for hundreds.”
Not only do docs require serious cash to film, edit, and produce—the bare minimum for soup-to-nuts production is $20,000—but funding is so tight in the film industry in general that even celebrities such as Zach Braff, Don Cheadle, Spike Lee, and Kristen Bell have resorted to crowdfunding to finance their projects.
Few know these challenges better than the team at Sundance Institute. Much more than the force behind the eponymous film festival, the Institute's Documentary Film Program has helped independent filmmakers create some of the most arresting movies of the past decade, including Why We Fight, The Square, The Queen of Versailles, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, and The Invisible War.
For the past 12 years, the DFP has been delivering the tools that promising documentary filmmakers require to elevate the artistry in their films and bring them to wider audiences. Among its projects are Stories of Change, a program that fosters artistic activism through social entrepreneurship, and the Story and Edit Labs, a retreat for grantees that provides one-on-one interaction with world-class filmmakers.
With Sundance Institute’s backing, filmmakers get an agnostic benefactor that has no outcome-based agenda, nor any control over editorial decisions. There’s also the formidable power of the Sundance Institute brand at filmmakers' backs.
Now designer and philanthropist Kenneth Cole is shining a light on the DFP’s work through his brand’s Look Good, for Good initiative. Read on to learn more about the DFP’s impact in a Q&A with Richard Ray Perez, DFP’s producer of creative partnerships. Then take action with Kenneth Cole to support the Sundance Institute’s incredible work.
TakePart: When practically everyone has access to a camera in their phone and YouTube, why is it still so difficult to get great documentaries out into the world?
Richard Ray Perez: It’s true that the technology and the tools to make documentaries are more accessible now than any time in the history of filmmaking. But that doesn’t mean great documentaries are easier to make. Filmmaking is a collaborative art form that depends on the collective talent and experience of a team under the leadership of a visionary director. Assembling a talented team with the right skills necessary to enhance, elevate and execute a director’s vision is just as difficult as it’s always been. Creative mentorship and guidance is also vital to maximizing a project’s potential. We help our artists navigate this part of the filmmaking process by connecting our artists working on high-potential projects with senior filmmakers in the field: directors, editors, and producers at our Creative Labs, intensive residential experiences where artists focus on solving some of the creative challenges they’re confronting in their projects. The goal of the lab process is to infuse a project with artistry to maximize the storytelling presentation for a particular film.
TakePart: Why is documentary film such a great medium for introducing audiences to underreported stories?
Perez: Film in general is a phenomenal art form because it has the power to transport us to worlds we have not visited ourselves. Documentary film specifically allows us to have a factual experience in these worlds. When we watch a good documentary we turn ourselves over to the curiosity of filmmakers to guide us through unexplored corners of the human experience or under-explored parts of the world. We are given access to experiencing powerful stories that would otherwise go untold, and in the process feel empathy, aspire for the revelation of some truth, and discover situations that need to change.
TakePart: Why is it so valuable for artists to take time out in DFP’s labs to focus on their films?
Perez: Making a documentary film can be a hectic process. You’re juggling so many balls; you’re worried about funding; you want to attract the best possible collaborators; you’re always struggling complete the project. All of that can come at the sacrifice of just focusing on how to tell the best possible story with highest artistic integrity. Sundance Institute’s DFP recognizes that. We like to create a space where we can isolate the creative storytelling components of documentary filmmaking by allowing our filmmakers to travel to the Sundance Resort and for six days solely focus on the art of storytelling. They do so with some of the best documentary directors and editors in the field. Sundance Institute is unique in that we prioritize creative storytelling.
Filmmaking is an art form. There’s no substitute for creativity. You can have an amazing distribution and outreach plan, but those will not make up for substandard storytelling.
TakePart: What does it mean for artists to have the Sundance name and connections behind their projects?
Perez: As a former Sundance Documentary Film Program grantee myself [in 2009], when I got the grant, it sort of felt like I got into Harvard. It’s an invitation that acknowledges your potential and gives access to resources to which few people in the field have access. Throughout the filmmaking process the DFP was pivotal in ushering the project through every stage—creatively and strategically. The DFP’s guidance ultimately paid off. My documentary [Cesar’s Last Fast] premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
TakePart: Many of your programs support international filmmakers, who are often beholden to public funding in their country that comes with strings attached. How do DFP grants support artistic freedom globally?
Perez: One of the values we have at the institute across all programs is freedom of expression for artists. What our grants do is allow international artists to express themselves freely because the funding we provide is not tied to government incentives or other influences that can affect editorial decisions. Freedom of expression is one of our guiding principles. It’s one of the reasons we do not mingle in the filmmakers’ editorial decisions. We do not dictate or influence what stays in a film or what ends up on the editing room flow, not just here in the States but for international artists who don’t have that privilege.
TakePart: What’s one of the most powerful examples you’ve witnessed of how a Sundance-backed film can change hearts and minds?
Perez: There are so many concrete examples. A film we supported called Revolutionary Optimists comes to mind. The filmmakers followed children who live in a slum in India where the residents have no access to clean drinking water. It’s a residential community completely neglected and bereft of public services. While participating in a program run by an NGO named Prayasam, they become public health workers, ambassadors, and lobbyists for their community. They collect data of vaccination rates of infants in their community, calculate the availability of potable water, collect census data that local authorities have never collected, among other tasks. The film screened in India. People were moved and impressed by these kids, and there was such a strong response to the lack of running water in this community that within two weeks of the screening local officials started digging trenches and laying pipe to bring clean drinking water to this community. This was a direct result of the story of the work these kids were doing as illustrated in an amazing documentary.
You can help support these deserving projects, including the important work Sundance Institute artists do. Tell TakePart about a time when art enlightened you about a particular issue, and we’ll enter you in a special sweepstakes for a chance to win a $500 Kenneth Cole gift card in addition to $500 toward art supplies for your own creative expression.
This article is sponsored by Kenneth Cole's Look Good, for Good campaign. Kenneth Cole and TakePart are teaming up to highlight their ongoing work to support projects promoting collective health, civil liberties, and artistic activism.
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Original article from TakePart