What is the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund?
It s a fund to support documentaries in the US and internationally that deal with contemporary human rights issues, social justice, civil liberties, and freedom of expression. It used to be the Soros Documentary Fund. How long has the fund been with Sundance? It s been here for two years. How did Sundance take over the reigns? I initiated the move to Sundance. It s OSI s (Open Society Institute) policy to spin off programs so that they eventually become self-sustainable in organizations and institutions that support that kind of work. When I moved to Sundance, the fund was spun off as a Sundance program and given a multi-year grant to continue the work here. Have you changed the mission of the fund? We ve made a few changes. One of the things that we ve done is increase the grant amount, which means that we re funding fewer projects. We prefer feature-length documentaries that have the potential to be broadcast [on television], and the potential for a theatrical release. We look for wo
