The Sundance Film Institute announced today the 29 feature-length documentary films selected to receive financial support totaling $575,000 as part of their Documentary Film Program. Among the selected projects were three documentary films dealing with Central American themes: Magic Words by Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez; La Camioneta by Mark Kendall; and Who Is Dayani Cristal? by Marc Silver (pictured).
In Magic Words, Moncada Rodríguez returns to her native Nicaragua to explore memory and identity in the form of a poetic documentary fiction, whilst Kendall's La Camioneta documentary focused on an out-of-service American school that travels 3,000 miles to its new owner in Guatemala where its repaired, renamed, requipped and reborn. Silver's British-Mexican co-production Who Is Dayani Cristal is a fusion of drama and documentary, made in collaboration with actor Gael García Bernal, that follows one man's journey from his home in Honduras to the Mexico-US border where he meets his death trying to cross.
Sundance's Documentary Film Program received applications from 650 filmmakers in 80 countries and according to the Institute, the submissions were "judged on their approach to storytelling, artistic treatment and innovation, subject relevance and potential for social engagement."
