12 screenwriters named to Sundance Lab
They are:
Jonas Carpignano (writer/director) / A Chjàna (Italy/U.S.A.): After leaving his native Burkina Faso in search of a better life, Ayiva makes the perilous journey to Italy; though he finds compatriots along the way, they are unprepared for the intolerance facing immigrants in their newly-claimed home.
Ioana Uricaru (writer/director) / After the Wedding (U.S.A./Romania): Mara, a Romanian immigrant with a young son, soon discovers her recent marriage to an American is not enough to secure their place in the country. As she learns more about the system, an unfamiliar culture, and her husband, she must decide how far she will go to preserve her new family.
David Lowery (writer/director) / Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (U.S.A.): Embracing the atmosphere and tone of a modern-day Western, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints tells the story of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas countryside to reunite with his wife and the daughter he never met.
Marielle Heller (writer/director) / Diary of a Teenage Girl (U.S.A.): In the haze of 1970’s San Francisco, a teenage artist with a brutally honest perspective tries to navigate her way through an affair with her mother’s boyfriend. Adapted from the graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner.
Ryan Coogler (writer/director) / Fruitvale (U.S.A.): Fruitvale is the true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.
Chloé Zhao (writer/director) / Lee (U.S.A): As his two best friends plan to leave for college, a Lakota teen wonders if his future on the reservation is pre-ordained when a tragedy forces him to take dangerous action to protect his family.
Susanna Fogel (co-writer/director) and Joni Lefkowitz (co-writer) / Life Partners (U.S.A.): A straight girl drunkenly promises her lesbian best friend she won’t get married until gay marriage is legal — a promise that becomes awkward when her boyfriend proposes and her friend remains a slacker who’s years away from even thinking about marriage.
Daniel Mulloy (writer/director) / Mitrovica (Great Britan/Kosova): In post-war Kosova, an Albanian woman scavenges with her young son; when she is approached by a Serbian stranger, she doesn’t realize his offer of help will ultimately tear her life apart.
Logan Kibens (co-writer/director) and Sharon Greene (co-writer) / Operator (U.S.A.): In this existential comedy, when a programmer is hired to create the ideal personality for an automated call center, his attempts to quantify what it means to be human throws his life into chaos.
Pengfei Song (writer/director) / Underground Fragrances (China): As Beijing races to keep up with China’s growth, and its poor are pushed underground to live in crude tunnels, a young migrant worker finds community and compassion, putting a human face on China’s rapid development.
Etienne Kallos (writer/director) / Vrystaat (Free State) (South Africa): Set during the annual corn harvest in the Free State, Vrystaat explores the rites of passage into manhood for a new generation as they navigate identity and sexuality within the fractured realm of post-Colonial Africa.
Adam Mansbach (writer) / We’re Entertainment (U.S.A.): On the Gulf Coast of Florida, a failed actress working as a children’s party entertainer shows the new guy the ropes; together they share a day that changes them both in unexpected ways.
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