At the Sundance Labs, which helped launch some of Hollywood’s top filmmakers
Twenty-five years ago, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Love & Basketball was all but dead.
She had pitched her now classic movie all over Hollywood and everyone had said no. Then she got a call inviting her to the Sundance Labs — a creative haven for aspiring directors and screenwriters in the idyllic Sundance Mountain Resort nestled in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah — where she would work on her script and receive advice from veterans from the industry. Suddenly it had life again.
Later, Sundance helped arrange a reading that it delivered to Spike Lee’s company, who would go on to make the film.
“Sundance changed the trajectory of my career,” Prince-Bythewood said in an interview earlier this month from the 2023 Directors Lab, where she had first returned as an advisor. “I’ve been wanting to come back for years.”
The Sundance Institute may be best known for its annual film festival in Park City, Utah, but its screenwriting and directing labs have been just as, if not more, influential in helping launch the first films from many of Hollywood’s top filmmakers in the past 40 years. Alumni include Ryan Coogler, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Nia DaCosta, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, Charlotte Wells, and this year’s Best Director winners Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
Started in 1981, the labs were the brainchild of Robert Redford who wanted to create a space for artists to create, push boundaries and explore beyond the corporate pressures of Hollywood filmmaking. Fellows receive a free trip to the mountains, resources to work on and shoot scenes, actors at their disposal, and some of Hollywood’s top talent as consultants. And since the beginning, Michelle Satter, the founder and director of the institute’s feature film program, has been the beating heart of that community.
Satter has many stories of working with filmmakers early in their careers, from PT Anderson, who came up with the idea for ‘Hard Eight’, to Coogler, who developed ‘Fruitvale Station’ in the labs. When the Daniels came up with “Swiss Army Man,” she recalls that they didn’t have much experience working with actors. The labs gave them the space to help develop that skill and fine-tune their unique sense of storytelling, which blossomed further with their second feature film ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’.
“Sundance does not own, produce or finance these films,” said Satter. “We’re just helping them find their voice and drive their vision.”
Ultimately, Satter just feels privileged to be, what she humbly calls, a small part of these artists’ journeys as they grow and develop their confidence as storytellers.
“As much as the industry has changed, there is always a need for us to support independent voices and bold creative films and courageous work,” said Satter. “Sundance is that kind of sacred, magical space for supporting really exciting new independent voices that need to be seen and heard. Many of the projects we support have a real sense of urgency. And that will never change.”
Filmmaker Miguel Arteta said he owes his career to Satter. He has often returned to the laboratories as a consultant, including this year.
“As artists, most of us have been backed by someone and you want to pay that up front. That element is really beautiful. Then there’s the really selfish element that you want to be stimulated and stimulated by the creativity,” Arteta said. “These are people who try to go against the grain and tell very honest and courageous stories. They try to take risks. The fact that there is a program that has found such a beautiful way to support them is amazing.”
This year’s eight directing fellows included Sean Wang, whose script “DìDi” about a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American boy came out the summer before high school, and Audrey Rosenberg, whose “Wild Animals” follows a character who is considered a pariah. in her 19th century farming community consumed by the hunt for a mythical beast.
Over the course of the week, they’ll be treated to actor directing workshops, screenings and Q&As with consultants and intense work on scenes they’ve chosen from their scripts to shoot, edit and present, while consultants like Joan Darling, Joan Tewkesbury, Arteta, Prince-Bythewood, Ira Sachs and Ed Harris observe and advise.
“It’s hard to put into words how special the lab environment really is,” Wang said. “People who are my heroes are talking to me through a piece of work I’ve written and were able to get so deeply and personally into the deepest crevices of my soul.”
Rosenberg, who attended film school at USC, said the labs were a very different and essential experience.
“It’s much more emotional and less technical,” Rosenberg said. “It’s incredibly rare to really get the space, the opportunity and the security to tap into who we really are and what we really want to say.”
One of the key principles of the laboratories is a “spirit of generosity.” And Satter ensures that there is no sense of competition, only support.
“There’s nothing like just working on film,” says Ed Harris, who has been a consultant since 2002 and has worked with the likes of Chloé Zhao and Benh Zeitlin. “You can’t be here and not be in a good mood. It’s just about giving and learning and sharing your knowledge.”
“It almost sounds like a cult,” Harris added with a laugh. “It’s not. It really isn’t.”
Prince-Bythewood also said she felt inspired to be around new movie voices early in their careers and hopes she helps them as much as she did years ago. Walking the halls for the first time in over two decades, she was struck by all the great films and filmmakers that have come out of the labs.
“How many of these special projects would never have seen the light of day without Michelle, without Robert Redford’s vision, without this incredible place?” she said. “It’s actually really scary to think about.”
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Follow AP film writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
