Sundance Institute Announces 13 film projects for January Screenwriters Lab

Water them, nourish them, provide sunlight and show em your love and they will produce yummy results. This is what the folks at Sundance Institute do year in and year out and before the circus comes to town in mid January there are 13 folks that will pack their bags for a working-vacation reserved to the new talents. I've got my ear to the ground and follow the trades so only a few of these names actually ring a bell, but for the most part these are unknowns and these film projects mean zilch: that is until the day the premiere at a major film festival and gain tons of accolades.

The annual January Screenwriters Lab, (January 11-16, 2008) 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.

Here is the complete list of projects and their creators:

• ADDICTED TO LOVE/Liu Hao, writer/director, (China)
• BLOOD ABUNDANCE, OR THE HALF-LIFE OF ANTOINETTE/John Magary, writer/director, (U.S.A.)
• COCKEYED/Ryan Knighton, writer, (Canada)
• HAMMER AND ANVIL/Alicia Erian, writer, (U.S.A.)
• HANNAH M./Hadar Friedlich, writer/director, (Israel)
• THE HENCHMAN/Patrick Vala-Haynes, writer, (U.S.A.)
• MEADOWLANDZ/Moon Molson, writer/director, (U.S.A.)
• POLETOWN/Daniel Casey, writer/director, (U.S.A.)
• QUOTAS/Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa, co-writer/director and Karen Sztajnberg, co-writer, (U.S.A./Brazil)
• RETURN/Liza Johnson, writer/director, (U.S.A.)
• SAMBA DO MAAZOOZ/Hicham Ayouch, writer/director, (Morocco)
• SHOCKHEADED PETER/Frank Budgen, writer/director, (United Kingdom)
• TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN/Darrell Dennis, writer, (Canada)

Liu Hao (writer/director)/ ADDICTED TO LOVE (China): In an unexpected love story set in contemporary Beijing, two elderly neighbors fight against their own mental deterioration as well as opposition from their grown children in their last stab at happiness.

Born in Shanghai, Liu Hao graduated from the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy.  His debut feature, CHENMO AND MEITING, won the NETPAC Award and the PREMIERE First Movie Award at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival.  His second feature, TWO GREAT SHEEP, won the Best Feature Award at the 2005 Canada Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival and the Best Asian Film Award at the 2005 France Deauville Asian Film Festival.  It screened as part of China Night of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and was selected for Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films Festival.  His latest feature, THE BASEMENT, screened at the Hong Kong and Bangkok International Film Festivals.

John Magary (writer/director)/ BLOOD ABUNDANCE, OR THE HALF-LIFE OF ANTOINETTE (U.S.A): Set amidst poverty, with moments of both joy and upheaval, BLOOD ABUNDANCE, OR THE HALF-LIFE OF ANTOINETTE is a retelling of the chaotic life of Antoinette Dawson as she raises seven children in New Orleans.

A graduate of Williams College and Columbia University’s MFA film program, John Magary has written and directed several short films, including THE SECOND LINE (National Finalist, Student Academy Awards), SITE IN FISHKILL CREEK, and OUR NATIONAL PARKS, among others.  Both THE SECOND LINE and OUR NATIONAL PARKS had their world premieres at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.  In 2003 Magary received a Grand Marnier Film Fellowship for his essay, “Shock to the System: Adolfo Aristarain’s Time for Revenge,” presented at the New York Film Festival and published in Film Comment magazine. 

Ryan Knighton (writer), COCKEYED (Canada):  A working class punk rocker/poet has his life transformed by the unexpected onset of blindness, forcing him to wrestle with issues of identity, family and love.

On his 18th birthday, Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a congenital disease marked by a progressive pathology of night-blindness, tunnel vision, and eventually total blindness.  Knighton’s internationally acclaimed third book, COCKEYED, an irreverent memoir of going blind, was shortlisted for several awards, including the Stephen Leacock medal, Canada’s national award for humor.  Knighton has written numerous satirical and comic essays for The New York Times, Salon, The Believer, The Sunday Telegraph, The Utne Reader, and The Globe and Mail.  Ryan is the 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

Alicia Erian (writer) / HAMMER AND ANVIL (U.S.A.):  An idealistic American with a checkered past agrees to do the favor of a lifetime for a Salvadoran immigrant, only to face repercussions years later.

Alicia Erian is the author of the short story collection, THE BRUTAL LANGUAGE OF LOVE (Villard, 2001), and the novel TOWELHEAD (Simon & Schuster, 2005). The latter has been made into a film by Alan Ball, to be released by Warner Independent in 2008.  Erian is currently the Newhouse Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Wellesley College.

Hadar Friedlich (writer/director)/ HANNAH M. (Israel): The world of 80-year-old Hannah starts to fall apart when the kibbutz she helped found undergoes privatization, forcing her to re-examine many of the ideals on which she has based her life.

Hadar Friedlich’s short films GRIEF and SLAVES OF THE LORD have screened at film festivals around the world, winning various prizes including the Fipa d’or, the Melbourne Grand Prix Award, and the Odense Critics Award.  In 2004 Friedlich was selected for the Cinefondation Residence du Cannes, where she developed an early draft of HANNAH M.  The script won the development grant at Montpellier in 2004 and the La Foundation Gan Grant in 2007.

Patrick Vala-Haynes (writer)/ THE HENCHMAN (U.S.A.): A rural father fights for connection with his son, but further complicates their relationship when he chooses to nurture a troubled neighbor boy.

Patrick Vala-Haynes has choreographed stage combat for 25 years, including work with Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  His essays and short fiction have appeared in numerous national and regional magazines and newspapers.  He owns a bicycle shop and lives near the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range.

Moon Molson (writer/director)/ MEADOWLANDZ (U.S.A.) A black teen finds his African immigrant stepfather passed out drunk in their tenement-building hallway; as he and his friends spend the night driving around trying to unload him, their story barrels toward a violent resolution.

Moon Molson is a New York based filmmaker living in Harlem.  His short film POP FOUL has screened at more than  75 film festivals worldwide and has won more than 30 international film festival awards, including the Panavision Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Palm Springs ShortFest, the REEL Shorts Jury Prize at the 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival, the HBO Short Film Award at the 2006 American Black Film Festival, and the 2006 Student Academy Award.  Molson is a 2007 NYFA Film Fellow and has received grants from NYSCA and the Jerome Grant Foundation.

Daniel Casey (writer/director) / POLETOWN (U.S.A.):  Set in the heart of Detroit’s dying Polish community, POLETOWN follows the intertwining lives and fates of three ex-boxers caught in the midst of ethnic turmoil.

A native of Detroit, Daniel Casey holds a BFA in filmmaking from the College for Creative Studies, and an MFA in directing from the American Film Institute.  Casey has been awarded 4 Emmys for his work in public service announcements, the Herman Fox Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking, and has taken first division honors at dozens of film festivals. His feature film THE DEATH OF MICHAEL SMITH earned the Grand Jury Prize for Excellence at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and the Best Feature Award from the 2007 Silver Lake Film Festival.  Casey was the 2007 recipient of AFI’s prestigious Tom Yoda Scholarship.

Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa (co-writer/director), and Karen Sztajnberg (co-writer) / QUOTAS (U.S.A./Brazil):  Exploring issues of class privilege, race relations, and sexual awakening among Rio’s decadent elite, QUOTAS depicts a teenage boy's struggle to escape his overprotective parents' way of life and experience a more authentic—and dangerous—view of the world.

Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa was born in Rio and completed his MFA in film at Columbia University.  Two of his short films, LA MUERTE ES PEQUEÑA and SALT KISS, screened at the Sundance Film Festival.  SALT KISS was also an official selection of the New York Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, and won awards at more than 10 international festivals, including Aspen, Austin and Guadalajara.

Karen Sztajnberg received her MFA in film at Columbia University, where she won the Sloan Foundation award for her feature script VOLATILE.  As an editor, she cut a variety of projects including the feature documentary EN ROUTE TO BAGHDAD, MTV's DARIA and the latest feature by Brazilian filmmaker David França Mendes.  Sztajnberg’s work has screened at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art, and has been broadcast internationally.

Liza Johnson (writer/director) / RETURN (U.S.A.):  Home from a tour of duty, a young mother soon finds she is struggling to recover her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.

Liza Johnson's work has been exhibited widely in film festivals, galleries, and museums, including the Berlin and Rotterdam Film Festivals, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Walker Art Center, Mass MOCA, MIX-NY, and many others.  Her short film SOUTH OF TEN was selected to open the New York Film Festival in 2006.

Hicham Ayouch (writer/director) / SAMBA DO MAAZOUUZ (Morocco): A young Moroccan obsessed with all things Brazilian must fight for his religious freedom when the arrival of a new Imam turns his village against him for not worshipping as a traditional Muslim.

Born in Paris in 1976, Hicham Ayouch graduated with a degree in journalism and then went on to work in screenwriting and directing.  In 2004, he began writing the screenplay for SAMBA DO MAAZOOZ.  In 2005, he worked on a number of television commercials as well as directing LES REINES DU ROI (THE KING'S QUEENS), a documentary about the status of women in Morocco, and the feature film LES Arêtes du Coeur.

Frank Budgen (writer/director) / SHOCKHEADED PETER (United Kingdom):  Adapted from the award-winning West End stage show, via the nineteenth century nursery rhymes of Heinrich Hoffmann, SHOCKHEADED PETER is a deliciously gruesome, hilariously nasty cautionary tale for adults. 

Frank Budgen started directing commercials full-time in the early 90s after leaving BMP-DDB advertising agency where he was an award-winning copywriter and creative director. He was voted Director of the Year his first year as a director, and in 1997 he co-founded Gorgeous Enterprises, which almost annually tops the UK Production Company of the Year list.  He has received countless advertising awards, both in the UK and the US, and has also staged a one-man photographic exhibition. 

Darrell Dennis (writer) / TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN (Canada):  A dark, irreverent comedy that follows the trials and tribulations of a young Native American man from the reservation to the big city and ultimately to self respect.

Darrell Dennis is a First Nations writer from the Secwepemc Nation in the interior of British Columbia.  His short stories have been published in periodicals across North America, and his work has been broadcast nationally on CBC radio.  Dennis wrote the short film MOCCASIN FLATS, which screened at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.  The short film was later adapted into a television series for which he also wrote.  Dennis was nominated for the prestigious Dora Award for writing his one man show TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN, which has toured across Canada and the U.S. and on which his screenplay is based.