The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program has unveiled the 15 projects that will receive grants and creative support from the Sundance Documentary Fund.

Grant administrators received a record near-900 proposal submissions from film-makers in 61 countries.

The chosen projects cover stories ranging from a cinema restoration project in the West Bank, to the revival of an indigenous American language, to a Cambodian journalist’s attempt to understand the men and women who took part in the Khmer Rouge’s murderous Year Zero genocide.

“The films funded today reflect the Sundance Documentary Film Program’s belief that documentary storytellers are ‘first responders’ exploring the current global realities we all face,” Cara Mertes, director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, said. “Documentary film is gaining momentum as an international language of cross-cultural awareness and understanding. These artists are at the forefront of the movement.”

In development are: Regarding Susan Sontag by Nancy Kates (US); and Strong Island by Yance Ford (US)

In production or post-production are: All That Glitters by Tomas Kudrna (Czech Republic / Kyrgyzstan); An American Promise by Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster (US); As Nutayunean – We Still Live Here (working title) by Anne Makepeace (US); Budrus Has A Hammer by Julia Bacha (US / Israel / Palestinian Territories); Cesar’s Last Fast by Richard Ray Perez (US); and Cinema Jenin by Marcus Vetter and Alex Bakri (Palestinian Territories / Israel/ Germany).

Cooked by Judith Helfand (US); Crime After Crime by Yoav Potash (US); Enemies Of The People by Rob Lemkin and S Thet (UK / Cambodia); High Tech, Low Life (working title) by Stephen Maing (US / China); In A Town Called Oil City by Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer (US); Russia’s Pepsi Generation (working title) by Robin Hessman (US / Russia); and The Georgian Year by Nino Kirtadze (France / Georgia);

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