Sundance announces projects for 2009 Ford Fellowship

The Fellows were selected from a pool of film-makers representing Native communities and will participate in the Institute’s Native Filmmakers Lab that runs from May 18-22 in Apache, New Mexico.

The Fellows and their projects are: Sydney Freeland with Drunktown’s Finest; Adam Piron with The Last Thanksgiving; Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson with Nanum Kigutinga (The Nanuk’s Tooth); and Brian Young’s Walk In Beauty.

Run under the guidance of Bird Runningwater, associate director of the Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Programme, the Lab establishes a bond between film-makers and creative advisors who this year include Allison Anders, Sterlin Harjo, Kasi Lemmons, and Merata Mita.

“Storytelling for Native peoples is thousands of years old, while film is just over 100 years old,” Runningwater said. “At this Lab, we are excited to explore the intersection of both of these forms of storytelling and we anticipate that it will yield something new and exciting. The land on which we will be working is sacred and spiritual, ripe for creativity.”