12 selected for Sundance Institute’s 2007 Screenwriters Lab

The reason why I like receiving this press release – is because usually those who assist in Sundance Institute’ screenwriting labs – are the ones who’ll I’ll end up treasuring – here is a most recent list: Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s HALF NELSON, Dito Montiel’s A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS, Hilary Brougher’s STEPHANIE DALEY, Goran Dukic’s WRISTCUTTERS, Michael Kang’s THE MOTEL, and Cam Archer’s WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN, Miranda July’s ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, Hany Abu-Assad’s PARADISE NOW, Debra Granik’s DOWN TO THE BONE, Ira Sachs’ FORTY SHADES OF BLUE, Josh Marston’s MARIA FULL OF GRACE, Peter Sollett’s RAISING VICTOR VARGAS, John Cameron Mitchell’s HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, Darren Aronofsky’s REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, Kimberly Peirce’s BOYS DON’T CRY, Tony Bui’s THREE SEASONS, Walter Salles’ CENTRAL STATION, Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie’s SMOKE SIGNALS, Paul Thomas Anderson’s HARD EIGHT, Tamara Jenkins’ SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS, and Quentin Tarantino’s RESERVOIR DOGS.

Held January 12-17, 2007 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. The Screenwriters Lab is a five-day writer’s workshop that gives independent screenwriters the opportunity to work intensively on their feature film scripts with the support of established writers in an environment that encourages innovation and creative risk-taking. Individual story sessions bring participating screenwriters together with creative advisors for problem-solving discussions.

For more on the 12 projects – click on the film title preview page links above. Here is more on the writer/directors who’ll be attending.

A resident of Tel Aviv, Israel, Nir Bergman graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem. His first feature film, BROKEN WINGS, won the Israeli Oscar in 2002 along with several other international awards, and was distributed worldwide by Sony Classics. Since then, he has co-written the successful television drama REACHING FOR HEAVEN and the series IN TREATMENT, an American adaptation of which is currently being developed at HBO.

Having grown up between Iran and the United States, Maryam Keshavarz drew on personal experience to direct her feature documentary THE COLOR OF LOVE, which screened at international festivals including Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and Montreal World Film Festival and won prizes such as the International Documentary Association’s David L. Wolper Award. Her short film THE DAY I DIED screened at Clermont-Ferrand, New York Film Festival, and won two awards at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Born in France, Sophie Barthes grew up in the Middle East and South America. After graduating from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, she co-directed the short film SNOWBLINK with cinematographer Andrij Parekh. She recently wrote and directed the short film HAPPINESS, set to screen at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival; both HAPPINESS and COLD SOULS won the NYSCA Individual Artists Grants and the Showtime Tony Cox Award for Best Screenplay (Feature and Short categories) at the Nantucket Film Festival.

A graduate of the AFI masters program in film,Jorge Gaggero won the Director’s Guild of America Award for Best Latino Student Filmmaker for his short, A PIECE OF EARTH. His feature debut, LIVE-IN MAID, won several international awards including the Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Competition, and was programmed at MOMA and Lincoln Center’s New Directors/ New Films Festival. He also produced and directed the feature documentary LIVING IN A FALCON which was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival.

David Riker is a New York-based filmmaker currently living in Mexico. His debut feature, LA CIUDAD, filmed over five years in New York’s Latin American immigrant community, screened at the Sundance Film Festival and won a number of awards including the Open Palm from the Independent Feature Project. Riker is the recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships.

Peter Craig has written and directed an eclectic portfolio of award-winning short films which have been shown at AFI Fest, Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, and the Los Angeles Film Festival. His work has garnered further recognition as a part of national ad campaigns, international competitions and world-wide broadcast exhibition with companies and organizations that include Converse, Travelocity, Independent Film Channel and Film Independent.

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Patricia Benoit grew up in Queens, New York. Her documentaries about Haiti’s political turmoil include COURAGE AND PAIN, produced by Jonathan Demme, which was shown at the Walter Reade Theater in New York and the London Film Festival, and TONBE/LEVE, which was selected by the New York Film Festival, The Havana Film Festival, and the San Juan Film Festival. She also founded the Haitian Women’s Program, a community based organization in Brooklyn providing services and creating educational materials for Haitian refugees as well as HIV+ Haitian refugees detained in Guantanamo.

Braden King co-directed the film DUTCH HARBOR: WHERE THE SEA BREAKS ITS BACK with photographer Laura Moya, which toured internationally with live, improvised soundtrack accompaniment by the Boxhead Ensemble under the direction of composer Michael Krassner. King has directed music videos and short films for Sonic Youth, Will Oldham, and Yo La Tengo, among others. He has lectured at Yale University and Bard College, and his works have been screened on HBO, the BBC, The Sundance Channel, Showtime, MTV, and Channel 4 (UK) and more. Australian writer Dani Valent spent eight years traveling the world for guidebook publisher Lonely Planet as a researcher and writer. Her book WORLD FOOD TURKEY was short-listed for the Andre Simon Memorial Fund Book Awards in 2000, and her stories and poems have appeared in various Australian literary magazines and arts festivals. Valent currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she works as a freelance journalist, contributing regularly to Travel + Leisure (Australia) and The Age, Melbourne’s daily broadsheet.

John Leguizamo received an Emmy Award for the Spike Lee-directed presentation of his Tony-nominated Broadway solo show FREAK for HBO. His numerous other accolades include a Golden Globe nomination for TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, JULIE NEWMAR, and a SAG Award nomination for his work in Baz Luhrmann’s MOULIN ROUGE. Leguizamo’s other credits include Baz Luhrmann’s ROMEO & JULIET, Spike Lee’s SUMMER OF SAM, and UNDEFEATED, which he also directed, as well as a recent recurring role on the hit series ER. He just penned his autobiographical memoir PIMPS, HOS, PLAYA HATAS, AND ALL THE REST OF MY HOLLYWOOD FRIENDS for Harper Collins.

Eric Lahey received his BFA in Film from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2005, his first feature documentary THE CENTURY PLAZA world premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival. That same year he received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create a video propagating systemic education reform in Oregon. Most recently Lahey has worked as the director of photography for Alex Hammond’s documentary on Haitian street kids in Cap Haitian. He has also illustrated a dark children’s story about the extermination of the human race by animals, called THE ANIMAL MUTINY and his artwork can be seen throughout Gus Van Sant’s ELEPHANT.

Lara Foot Newton is the resident Director and Dramaturge at The Baxter Theatre Center in Cape Town, South Africa. As well as numerous contemporary classics, she has directed 25 premiers of new South African works, including her own adaptation of Zakes Mda’s novel, WAYS OF DYING; THE WELL BEING, which she co-wrote with Andrew Buckland and Lionel Newton; and her own creation TSHEPANG, a devastating portrayal of child abuse in South Africa. In 2004 she won The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative Award in the category of theatre; her mentor was Sir Peter Hall. Lara, in collaboration with Gerhard Marx, won six international awards for their short film AND THERE IN THE DUST. Gerhard Marx is an artist, scenographer, animator, and theatre maker. His work, including AND THERE IN THE DUST, a short animated film co-directed with Lara Foot Newton and animated by Marx, has won numerous awards. His scenographic and theatre work has received international acclaim and has won him two Naledi Theatre Awards (Best Set Design 2003, 2004). He graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Arts (UCT), where he received the Michaelis Award, and received his MA (FA) from Wits University, where he is now a lecturer in the department of Dramatic Arts.

Richard Montoya is a founding member of Culture Clash, a performance trio that has been creating works for the national stage since 1984. WATER & POWER, which was presented in the 2006 season at the Center Theater Group/Mark Taper Forum, is an official submission for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in Drama. CHAVEZ RAVINE, ZORRO IN HELL and WATER & POWER represent a trilogy of works committed to exploring the Chicano experience in Southern California. New works for the stage include PALESTINE/NEW MEXICO and 32 COFFINS; both plays explore narratives of the ongoing Iraqi civil war. Montoya is an actor and Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles.