Sundance Proclaims Fellowship, Scholarship for AAPI Artists

Sundance Institute, the group behind the yearly movie pageant in Park Metropolis, has partnered with the Asian American Basis to create a fellowship and scholarship, which will probably be granted to 12 recipients a 12 months. The aim, the teams say, is to supply Asian American and Pacific Islander artists with inventive and tactical help to develop their skilled abilities, in addition to enhance AAPI illustration in movie and tv industries.

The fellowship will provide six AAPI artists per 12 months a 12-month studying expertise to advance their skilled growth within the arts. By the fellowship, every particular person will obtain a $20,000 unrestricted grant to help their particular person tasks, in addition to custom-made help from the Sundance Institute primarily based on their targets.

The Asian American Basis’s help can even fund the Sundance scholarships for six rising AAPI creatives annually. Scholarship recipients will have the ability to enroll in a stay on-line course targeted on their self-discipline of selection, obtain a Creator+ Sundance Collab membership to entry the Grasp Lessons within the video library, take part in unique networking and community-building occasions, and obtain suggestions from Sundance Collab Advisors on their tasks

The fellowship and scholarship will probably be funded by a $400,000 grant from Panda Categorical, in addition to a $140,000 contribution from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Basis. Over two years, the funding will present artists with grants and year-round assets to help the artists and program actions.

“TAAF helps construct the infrastructure wanted to extend AAPI illustration and storytelling in order that our communities can really feel a broader sense of belonging on this nation,” mentioned Norman Chen, CEO at TAAF. “Investing in and empowering AAPI artists is a strong means of making certain our tales are seen as a part of the material of American life and tradition. That’s why we’re thrilled to collaborate with the Sundance Institute and our philanthropic companions to help AAPI artists who deserve the assets and alternatives they must be main storytellers of their fields.”

Sundance Institute’s director of documentary movie and artist applications Carrie Lozano provides, “Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences are numerous and multifaceted, and inventive industries have a major position to play in correctly highlighting these tales by means of investing in AAPI artists. Our fellowship in collaboration with TAAF was created for this objective. The scholarships for Sundance Collab additionally allow us to additional help AAPI artists. The Sundance Institute is grateful for the help of TAAF for serving to gasoline the inventive growth of numerous artists in our community.”

See beneath for the artists chosen for this 12 months’s fellowship cohort: 

Vera Brunner-Sung

In regards to the artist: Vera was born in Michigan to folks from Korea and Switzerland. Her movies have been screened at festivals and museums around the globe together with Sundance, Rotterdam, the Whitney Museum, and Ann Arbor Movie Competition.

Venture: Bitterroot, a movie a few Hmong man in Montana who hides the reality about his misplaced job and failed marriage from his mom. However when she immediately falls unwell, he should lastly reckon along with his painful previous to save lots of them each.

Desdemona Chiang

In regards to the artist: Desdemona is a nationally famend stage director working in new performs, Shakespeare, and musicals. She is thought for her visceral, no-nonsense strategy to storytelling, together with her distinct perspective as an immigrant and Asian American girl, and a particular curiosity in worldwide and multilingual tales.

Venture: Made in USA, a TV sequence a few Chinese language-American on line casino host who takes within the pregnant teen daughter of her wealthiest consumer after getting handed up for a promotion and unexpectedly fired, and turns her residence right into a beginning resort to regain management of her life.

Shayok Misha Chowdhury

In regards to the artist: Misha is a many-tentacled author and director. Misha was awarded a Jonathan Larson Grant for musical theater and collaborated on the Grammy-winning album Calling All Dawns. Upcoming: Public Obscenities (Soho Rep & Naatco). Lately: Mukhagni (The Public Theater); Brother, Brother (New York Theatre Workshop); Englandbashi (Ann Arbor Movie Competition).

Venture: Rheology, a stay concert-memoir-physics-symposium about an artist son finding out his physicist mom. She research the unusual conduct of sand. Collectively, they unravel the science—the story—of how issues movement.

Tadashi Nakamura

In regards to the artist: Tadashi is an Emmy-winning director and was named one among CNN’s Younger Folks Who Rock for being the youngest filmmaker on the 2008 Sundance Movie Competition and one of many High Rising Asian American Administrators on IMDb. His movies embrace Mele Murals, Jake Shimabukuro: Life On 4 Strings, A Tune For Ourselves, and Pilgrimage.

Venture: Third Act, on its floor, a biopic that explores Robert Nakamura’s life and position because the “Godfather of Asian American movie,” made by his son, Tadashi Nakamura. However with Robert’s analysis of Parkinson’s illness, the movie poses a posh query: how can a father and son say goodbye?

Neo Sora

In regards to the artist: Neo is a Japanese-American filmmaker working in New York and Tokyo. His brief The Hen (2020) premiered at Locarno Worldwide Movie Competition 2020. Filmmaker Journal named Neo one of many 25 New Faces of Unbiased Movie in 2020. In 2022, he participated within the Sundance Screenwriters and Administrators Lab.

Venture: Earthquake, a function movie targeted on a rabble-rousing teenager dwelling in near-future Tokyo, the place inhabitants await the following huge earthquake, who should determine between persevering with a lifetime of youthful abandon, or shedding one among his finest associates whose blossoming political consciousness has made him extra distant.

Sean Wang

In regards to the artist: Sean is a filmmaker from Fremont, CA, and a 2020 Sundance Ignite Fellow. Most lately, his movie, H.A.G.S (Have A Good Summer time), was acquired and launched by the New York Instances. He’s presently growing his first function movie, Dìdi (弟弟), which was awarded the SFFILM Rainin Grant.

Venture: Dìdi (弟弟), a function movie set in Fremont, CA in 2008. Within the final month of summer season earlier than highschool begins, an impressionable thirteen-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his household can’t train him: skate, flirt and love your mother.

See beneath for this 12 months’s scholarship recipients:

Georgia Fu

In regards to the artist: Georgia is a Taiwanese American filmmaker eager about thematics surrounding uncommon factors of connection. Her shorts have been acknowledged at festivals corresponding to Slamdance, New Orleans Movie Competition, Hollyshorts, and LAAPFF. She is presently growing two options, one among which is an adaptation of a narrative by Edward Yang.

Venture: Approximate Pleasure, a function movie a few younger Taiwanese American teenager who decides to run away together with her highschool historical past instructor to flee her grief from the sudden loss of life of her father. On the street, she discovers that irrespective of how far you run, you can’t run away from your self.

Leomax (Ziyuan) He

In regards to the artist: Leomax obtained his bachelor’s diploma in Digital Media Arts and is presently a Movie Directing MFA candidate at CalArts. He’s an alumnus of Nespresso Abilities 2021 and the Artist-in-Residence program of Artwork Nova 100. He desires to make narratives which have a sober intoxication.

Venture: Gungnir, a thesis movie set in 2020 Los Angeles, by which the outbreak of COVID-19 by chance coincides with the birthday want of a 9 year-old boy, Leo, who desires to cease a Chinese language-American lady, Charly, whom he crushes on from going again to China. He thinks the pandemic is because of his want and panics on a regular basis as he fears others will study his secret.

Jenna Lam

In regards to the artist: Jenna is a Southeast Asian inventive who relishes in enterprise operations and figuring out themes in communities’ tales to transform into inventive tasks.

Venture: Formidable, an internet sequence starring an impatient, daring Vietnamese-Cambodian-American lady who navigates her new life as a college-dropout regardless of her immigrant mom’s needs and plans for her.

Simi Prasad

In regards to the artist: Simi is presently a showrunner’s assistant on a brand new fantasy present for Disney+. Beforehand, she assisted a function literary agent at WME. Simi grew up in London, England, although her American accent implies in any other case. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton College with levels in Psychology and Inventive Writing.

Venture: Altering of the Guard, which is a few legendary world impressed by medieval India. After a dutiful commoner’s aunt is executed for failing to stop the mysterious homicide of the king she was sworn to defend, she takes her place as an elite guard to the brand new authoritarian queen to guard her household from retribution.

Norbert Shieh

In regards to the artist: Norbert is a Taiwanese-American filmmaker and cinematographer whose movies discover the subtleties of the on a regular basis. His work thrives with help from Inventive Capital, CAAM, BAVC, Logan Nonfiction Program, True/False and Visible Communications. In 2019, Filmmaker Journal named him as one among 25 New Faces of Unbiased Movie.

Venture: Preserves, a feature-length documentary following the lives of those that preserve a disappearing agricultural custom alive by means of intimate moments between work and their quiet home lives. Going down in Taiwan, the movie is a lyrical portrait that explores “desk to farm” for the culinary ingredient, suan cai – a pickled mustard inexperienced.

Nicole Solis-Sison

In regards to the artist: Nicole is a multi-racial author, producer and director. She is a founding member of the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective, a corporation that tackles inequities going through immigrants within the media subject. She is engaged on a script that explores rejection, acceptance, loss of life, and therapeutic as a younger refugee.

Venture: Papeles, a coming of age movie about two younger asylum refugees trying to find the ICE agent that saved them.