The Native Lab is the most robust of the various initiatives that fall under the Indigenous Program at Sundance Institute
The Sundance Institute has announced the Fellows for the 2024 Native Lab, taking place in person in Santa Fe, NM, from April 29 – May 4.
The Native Lab is designed for participants of Native and Indigenous backgrounds and focuses on centering Indigeneity in their storytelling. Fellows will build community and refine their feature film and episodic scripts through one-on-one feedback sections and roundtable discussions with advisors.
Four fellows were selected: three who are U.S.-based (Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, Ryland Walker Knight, Charine Pilar Gonzales) and another from Canada (Lindsay McIntyre). Also attending will be two artists in residence, Fox Maxy (Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and Payómkawish) and Shea Vassar (Cherokee), experiencing the lab while in script development.
This year’s Native Lab creative advisors are Patrick Brice, Tai Leclaire (Mohawk and Mi’kmaq), Kishori Rajan, and Jon Raymond.
“Our Indigenous Program team looks forward to returning to Santa Fe to spend a week supporting some of the best and brightest Indigenous artists working today,” said Adam Piron, Director of the Indigenous Program. “This group is diverse in the work they are bringing to develop and in how their Indigeneity shapes it — their differences are their strengths. We can’t wait to see what those combined strengths help them add to each other’s projects as they collaborate with each other and with our creative advisors.”
The Native Lab is the most robust of the various initiatives that fall under the Indigenous Program at Sundance Institute. This artist program has spent more than 20 years specializing in supporting Native voices in film and television. Institute founder Robert Redford made sure Indigenous artists were present from the very first Sundance Lab in 1981, and the program was formalized in the mid-90s to uplift Native filmmaking talent, including storytellers responsible for breaking through in the mainstream with Indigenous stories, writers rooms, and casting.
“Part of Robert Redford’s original vision with Sundance is to have a place to support Indigenous voices and film,” said Piron in an interview with Native Viewpoint.
“It’s like going back to Native lands and connecting Indigenous artists there, but also with Indigenous audiences elsewhere, as well. So, the first part of this fellowship is bringing them there, and then we work with them throughout the year to get their screenplays to a new kind of creative phase or new place. After that, they get a grant that goes towards their project for the next year. The fellowship doesn’t conclude at this point; we bring them out to the film festival, set them up with meetings, and they get to see other artists and some of the films that are there and connect with the larger Indigenous community that’s at Sundance as well,” said Piron.
Piron says his role as Director of the Indigenous Program is to steer the veritable ship and meet with and inspire Indigenous filmmakers to showcase their voices. “[We want) to continue supporting Indigenous filmmakers, meeting them where they’re at, rather than telling them where they should or shouldn’t go.”
The Native Lab is overseen by Adam Piron (Kiowa and Mohawk), Director of the Institute’s Indigenous Program, and Ianeta Le’i, the Program’s Senior Manager. Previous Sundance Institute Native Lab Fellows include award-winning filmmakers Sterlin Harjo, Shaandiin Tome, Erica Tremblay, and Taika Waititi.
In addition, Sundance Collab, Sundance Institute’s digital space for artists to learn from experts and build a global filmmaking community, features “Insider Sessions” with Institute staff and Labs alumni on hand to answer questions about our artist programs and provide details about discovering and applying to the many programs and funds the Institute offers.
The 2024 Sundance Institute Native Lab fellows are:
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Writer-Director) with Hum (Philippines, U.S.A.)
themes of trauma, spirituality, and nature, told through the cosmic lens of post-colonial spaces
and Indigenous identities. His film The Headhunter’s Daughter was awarded the Short Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courtesy Sundance)
Haunted by the six-year absence of her missing husband, Esther, a single mother who works as a tour guide for mountaineers, embarks on her own treacherous journey of searching for him in the jungle where he had retreated to live with the beasts.
Eblahan’s works explore themes of trauma, spirituality, and nature, told through the cosmic lens of post-colonial spaces and Indigenous identities. His film The Headhunter’s Daughter was awarded the Short Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Ryland Walker Knight (Writer-Director) with The Lip of the World (U.S.A.):
When Cassandra discovers a young Indigenous woman washed ashore with no memory, the pair journey into the violent underworld of the Northern California psychedelic culture to uncover her true identity.
Ryland Walker Knight is a Cherokee writer and filmmaker, and once upon a time, he was called a film critic. Knight is an avid basketball and audiobook enthusiast who lives and works in Oakland and Los Angeles, California.
Charine Pilar Gonzales (Writer-Director) with NDN Time (U.S.A.):
Quiyo: Maria Martinez. She co-produced the 2024 Sundance Film Festival short doc Winding Path. A Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico, she aims to
intertwine memories, dreams, and truths through story. (Photo courtesy Sundance)
A Tewa college student must master her new dimension-bending abilities to expose the nuclear secrets threatening her Pueblo.
Charine Pilar Gonzales wrote and directed the short films River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh) and Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez. She co-produced the 2024 Sundance Film Festival short doc Winding Path. A Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico, she aims to intertwine memories, dreams, and truths through story.
Lindsay McIntyre (Writer-Director) with The Words We Can’t Speak (Canada):
A terrible Arctic accident leaves an Inuk interpreter unwelcome in her community. She is forced to weather impossible conditions and hateful prejudices yet still care for her daughter when she embarks on a dangerous 1,000-mile journey by dog sled with an inexperienced RCMP constable who fancies her for his wife.
Lindsay McIntyre (Inuit/settler) is a filmmaker whose works explore themes of portraiture, place, and personal histories. After 40+ experimental/documentary films and many festival awards, her recent leap into narrative with NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (2023) garnered her Best Short at imagineNATIVE and a chance at the Oscars. She teaches film at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
The 2024 Sundance Institute Native Lab Artists-in-Residence are:
Fox Maxy (director/writer) with $hy Heart (U.S.A.): A woman explores the events surrounding her mother’s death, unlocking time-traveling portals where she meets beings that show her how to grieve.
Fox Maxy (Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and Payómkawichum) is a film director and visual artist based in San Diego, California. Her first feature-length film, Gush, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023. Currently, she is working on a film about mental health.
Shea Vassar (writer/producer) with Julie Takes a Walk (U.S.A.): After Julie is told she’s adopted right before she walks down the aisle on her wedding day, she journeys to a little Oklahoma town to figure out more about her biological family and herself.
Shea Vassar is a Cherokee writer/comedian who is based between New York and Oklahoma. Her work explores Native diaspora, irony, and existentialism through humor. She studied film at Hunter College and completed her Masters of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law at the University of Oklahoma.
The Sundance Institute Indigenous Program, supported by:
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The 11th Hour Project, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, Nia Tero, The Christensen Fund, WBD Access, Indigenous Screen Office, NBCUniversal, SAGindie, and Indigenous Media Initiatives.
Interested in the Indigenous Program at Sundance
For readers interested: https://www.sundance.org/programs/indigenous-program/
About the Sundance Institute
As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings together a global cohort of working artists to learn from Sundance advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling.
Through the Sundance Institute artist programs, we have supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick, Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Boys State, Call Me by Your Name, Clemency, CODA, Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, The Forty-Year-Old Version, Fruitvale Station, Get Out, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, Honeyland, The Infiltrators, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Woods, Love & Basketball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mudbound, Nanny, Navalny, O.J.: Made in America, One Child Nation, Pariah, Raising Victor Vargas, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, RBG, Sin Nombre, Sorry to Bother You, The Souvenir, Strong Island, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Swiss Army Man, Sydney, A Thousand and One, Top of the Lake, Walking and Talking, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and Zola.
Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of such artists as Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, The Daniels, David Gordon Green, Miranda July, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Boots Riley, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao.
This article was written using a combination of press releases from Sundance and Zoom interviews.
Vincent Schilling, Akwesasne Mohawk, is the founder and editor of Native Viewpoint. With nearly 20 years of experience as a Native journalist and former member of the White House Press Pool, Vincent works to uplift underrepresented voices in the world of media and beyond. Follow Vincent on YouTube.com/VinceSchilling, on Twitter at @VinceSchilling or on any other of his social media accounts by clicking on any of the icons below.
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