August 21, 2023 NEW YORK, NY  — The Sundance Institute today announced this year’s grantees for the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, which supports the work of nonfiction filmmakers from around the globe. Twenty-three projects have been selected for unrestricted grant funding totaling just over $1,000,000. This cycle of granting has projects from notable filmmakers, including Looking at Ourselves directed by Oscar and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, Adam’s Apple directed by artist and filmmaker Amy Jenkins, and Untitled Uvalde Documentary by Anayansi Prado.
Main Content
Supporters
The Sundance Institute
Perspective Fund
LEF Foundation
Points North
The Film Study Center at Harvard
The Gotham Film and Media Institute
DOC NYC's Industry Roundtables
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Center for Independent Documentary
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Amy Jenkins (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose work focuses on themes such as familial relationships, desire, and gender identity. She was awarded the 2022-23 Harvard Film Studies Center-LEF Fellowship, a 2023 Flaherty Fellowship, the 2019 Ewing Award for Interdisciplinary Art, and the 2018 NHFF Filmmaker of the Year. Most recently, she became a 2023 Grantee of The Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program. Her work has been presented at museums including MoMA, The National Gallery of Art, The Haifa Museum, The Akron Art Museum and Palm Beach ICA. Her first documentary feature, INSTRUCTIONS ON PARTING, premiered at MoMA Doc Fortnight 2018 and won Best Feature Documentary at Athens International Film and Video Festival, OH. Her short film WISHES premiered at the Camden International Film Festival in 2019, and screened at festivals including Salem, New Orleans, Ashland Independent, Frameline, OutfestLA, Sidewalk, NewFest, Wicked Queer, among others. Her artwork has been reviewed in many publications, including The New York Times, ARTnews, Bomb, Artcritical, Performing Arts Journal, and The Village Voice.
WRITER/COLLABORATOR/ADDITIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHER: Adam Jenkins (he/him) is a full-time student at Columbia University studying Creative Writing. In his free time, he likes to write poetry and produce original songs. He is a Staff Editor of Columbia’s literary magazine of the undergraduate Creative Writing department, QUARTO.
PRODUCER: Brit Fryer (he/him) is a queer and trans producer based in Brooklyn, NY. Recently, he was a producer on Crystal Kayiza’s REST STOP, which won the Short Film Jury Award for US Fiction at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. He also worked as a producer on Lydia Cornett’s BUG FARM and Noah Schamus’s KIND OF. As a director, his film CARO COMES OUT, premiered on HBOMax after winning the Knight Made in MIA Award at the Miami International Film Festival. His other films include Vimeo Staff Pick ACROSS, BEYOND AND OVER, and TRANS·IENCE. His most recent film, THE SCRIPT, explores the complicated relationship between trans and nonbinary communities and medical providers. He is grateful to have shown at CPH:DOX, Indie Grits, NewFest, BFI Flare, Outfest, Inside Out, MIX NYC, Blackstar, and more. Brit and his work have been supported by the The Sundance Institute's Producer Intensive, Creative Culture, Multitude Films, Chicken and Egg, GLAAD's Equity in Media and Entertainment Initiative, and HBO / Gotham's Documentary Development Initiative.
