2024 Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund Projects Selected

The nonprofit Sundance Institute and Sandbox Films has announced the 15 projects and teams who will be receiving support through The Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund. The fund provides grants to projects in any stage from development to post-production, providing filmmakers with opportunities to explore the link between science and culture through nonfiction storytelling. At a critical time for documentary support, the fund is increasing its granting to $500,000 annually. Since its inception in 2017, the fund has seen a 500% increase in the number of project submissions from all around the globe. This program expansion will allow The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP) and Sandbox Films to award more sizable grants and support a larger number of artists telling vital stories in compelling ways.

 

Themes that have emerged within this year's granting cohort include: animal adaptations to climate change, the impact of trauma on the human brain, environmental impacts of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, scientific ethics, biological death and human mortality, the future of African space and scientific programs, and reexaminations of human interventions in water management systems. The breadth of the topics explored in these projects speaks to the potential for nonfiction storytelling as a means for deep and creative exploration of scientific subject matter.

 

Supported projects have roots in 12 countries: Canada, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Germany, North Macedonia, Mexico, Peru, Spain, U.K., and the U.S.A., with 80% of projects directed by artists from communities that have been traditionally marginalized (e.g., artists who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women and/or gender nonconforming, and people with disabilities).

 

“Going into the seventh year of this beautiful collaboration with Sandbox Films, it is clear to us in The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program that there is no shortage of groundbreaking nonfiction work being developed and made around scientific topics on a global scale — it is very exciting to be able to support that production demand in an expanded way thanks to increased funding,” said Paola Mottura, Director of Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Fund. “We thank our filmmakers for entrusting us with their work, and we thank Sandbox for being great collaborators and for deepening their investment in this work as we seek to empower these storytellers via financial and creative resources.” 

 

“We have been truly impressed by the caliber of projects this initiative has enabled us to support. One of our key objectives at Sandbox is to promote greater diversity within science documentaries, and through this fund, we've connected with artists who are exploring scientific topics in extraordinarily innovative ways.” said Jessica Harrop, Executive Director of Sandbox Films. 

 

Prior projects supported with funding from the Sandbox Fund include Nocturnes (which is being released by Grasshopper Films this month and received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival), Wilfred Buck (which premiered at the 2024 CPH:DOX), Oscar-nominated Fire of Love (which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary), All Light, Everywhere (which won the 2021 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Nonfiction Experimentation), Fathom (which premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by Apple), and Users (which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and won the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary). 

The latest Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund grantees, presented by production stage, are:

 

DEVELOPMENT

 

Artificial Clouds (Chile)

Director: Josefina Buschmann Mardones

Producer: Daniela Camino Valdivia 

Artificial Clouds is a creative documentary that explores the ecological impact of artificial intelligence through a journey from mineral extraction to electronic ruins in Chile.

 

Ever and the Sharks (Peru, Spain)

Director: Lucía Flórez

Producers: Chémi Pérez, Joel Cazorla, Sofia Tapia

A young boy from a fisherman's family and a marine researcher embark on a quest to tag whale sharks for the first time in Peru.

 

In Praise of Invasive Species (Canada)

Director: Mila Aung-Thwin

Producer: Bob Moore

For some, hunting and destroying “invasive species,” such as Burmese pythons or Japanese knotweed, is a moral issue. For others, the idea is pseudoscience and contrary to our concept of nature. This film examines the heated politics of the new wild.

 

My Friend the Bear (U.S.A.)

Director: Drew Xanthopoulos

Producers: Bennett Elliott, Drew Xanthopoulos

My Friend the Bear, a feature documentary, will show the unprecedented, decadeslong relationship between a severely dyslexic researcher and a bear. Their story challenges our basic ideas of how humanity fits into the rest of nature.

 

Sing at My Wake (U.S.A.)

Director: Jonathan Pickett

Producers: Jonathan Pickett, Josh Polon, Sarah Stewart

Sing at My Wake is an observational documentary that explores an innovative green deathcare company while chronicling the emotional journey of a family embracing this novel end-of-life option.

 

Spaceman in Kongo (Democratic Republic of the Congo, U.K., Germany, U.S.A.)

Director: Maisha Maene

Producers: Maisha Maene, Leo Nelki, Josune Hahnheiser, Dale Dobson

Two young rocket engineers, propelled by the memory of African dreamers and a resilient belief in their homeland, work on building the first Congolese Space Program.

 

The Vortex of Extinction (North Macedonia, U.S.A.)

Director: Ljubomir Stefanov

Producer: Maya E. Rudolph

After discovering a turtle population gripped by a pattern of mysteriously savage, sexually charged destruction, a young ecologist becomes the first to map a “vortex of extinction” playing out in a wild population — and descends into an ethical and existential spiral that transcends species. 

 

Valley of the Night (Working Title) (U.S.A.)

Director: Lynne Siefert

Producer: Lynne Siefert

Valley of the Night is a science fiction documentary that envisions a near future world in Phoenix, Arizona, the hottest city in the United States, where nighttime becomes a place of natural refuge as people adapt to survive the extreme temperatures of the day. 

 

PRODUCTION

 

Badlands (U.S.A.)

Directors: Hannah Jayanti, Alexander Porter

Producers: Hannah Jayanti, Alexander Porter, Keith Wilson

In the magnificent Badlands of South Dakota, a seemingly “bad” barren landscape is revealed to be teeming with life, buried histories, and crucial lessons about stewardship in a rapidly changing world. 

 

Captions Will be Needed (U.S.A., Mexico)

Director: Natalia Almada

Producers: Natalia Almada, Josh Penn, Esther Robinson

Captions Will be Needed is filmmaker Natalia Almada's cinematic response to living with a rare cancer. A magical realism, science fiction documentary about embracing uncertainty during an era that believes in technology's omnipotent power to answer all questions.

 

Only on Earth (Denmark, Spain)

Director: Robin Petré

Producers: Signe Skov Thomsen, Malene Flindt Pedersen

A journey deep into southern Galicia, one of Europe's most vulnerable wildfire zones, where wild horses have roamed the mountains for centuries under the watch of local cowboys. During the hottest summer ever measured, humans and animals alike struggle to cope as inextinguishable fires draw closer.

 

Providencia (Colombia)

Director: Juliana Schatz Preston

Producers: Guillermo Zouain, Wendy Muñiz, Tanja Tawadjoh

An extended Colombian family with a fifty-fifty chance of losing their memory grapples with their fate as researchers race against time to access the answers within them.

 

Terminal (U.S.A.)

Director: Abby Ellis

Producer: Fletcher Keyes

An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah. Two intrepid scientists and a political veteran race the clock to save their home from an unprecedented environmental catastrophe.

 

The River (U.S.A.)

Director: Caitlyn Greene

Producers: Caitlyn Greene, Sara Archambault, Claire Haley

The River is a vivid, character-driven film about Louisiana's complex relationship with the Mississippi River.

 

Untitled PMSR Film (U.S.A.)

Director: Tracy Jarrett

Producer: Emma Moley

Untitled PMSR Film explores post-mortem sperm retrieval (PMSR), a medical procedure that extracts sperm from men in the 72 hours after their unexpected death, by embedding in deeply personal experiences of love and grief.
 

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