Conversations from the Sundance Institute Labs | Building Characters, Emotion and Story with J.R. Cole (BLACK PANTHER) & more

Joe Robert Cole is a writer committed to crafting smart, rich, character-driven journeys in addition to creating tent-pole, world-renowned projects. Along with Ryan Coogler, Cole co-wrote the Academy Award-nominated BLACK PANTHER. He recently completed the Netflix feature ALL DAY AND A NIGHT, an Oakland-based drama that centers on a young man who committed a homicide and is dealing with the consequences, starring Ashton Sanders (“Moonlight”) and Jeffrey Wright. In addition to writing the feature, this film will mark Cole’s directorial debut.

Next up, he will script FAILSAFE, a highly-anticipated series based on the Vault Comics title. The series will be produced by Michael B. Jordan, who will potentially star in it as well. Also for television, Cole is attached to create and Executive Produce a new series adaptation of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT for MGM.

In 2016, Cole produced the Emmy-Winning FX series AMERICAN CRIME STORY: THE PEOPLE VS. OJ SIMPSON, for which he also received an Emmy nomination for writing the episode A JURY IN JAIL. His past credits also include REVOC, a sci-fi action thriller with Lionsgate and Mandeville Films.

Maya Daisy Hawke is an editor and experimental filmmaker. Her current project, UNFATED YET, a live online video installation, was first presented in March 2020 by First Look at Museum of the Moving Image and the Sundance Documentary Film Program. The next iteration is upcoming at LACMA. She is the creator of the interactive social media video novels, BOX OF BIRDS (2016) and CURRENCY OF DESPAIR (2014), both Facebook based. She was co-director of LITTLE ETHIOPIA, a love story between two editors, told as a live documentary, which was performed at the Sundance Film Festival, Frames of Representation and First Look (2018-19). Maya is the editor of over a dozen feature length documentary films, including CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (2010) and FREEDOM FIELDS(2018). Also the BBC television series HOUSE OF ASSAD: A DANGEROUS DYNASTY (2018), and MOON LANDING LIVE (2019) for UK Channel 4. She is an editorial consultant on feature documentaries internationally; an advisor at the Sundance Edit and Story Lab 2018; an advisor at the Sundance New Frontier Story Lab 2019; and a Sundance Nonfiction Directors Residency Fellow in 2018. She trained polo ponies in Singapore as a teenager and worked for Apple in the 2000s making commercials. She is from Christchurch, New Zealand and now lives in London, England.

Melissa Painter heads MAP Lab. She has deep experience in narrative design, augmented and virtual reality, content strategy, interaction design, storytelling, both cinematic and live, and in leading large and small teams in creative collaboration. MAP is focused on the intersections of emergent technologies and human intent and on employing design to tackle challenges of today and the future.

Painter is an award-winning filmmaker and author. Her work has been featured at Sundance, New York Film Festival, Unity Vision Summit, Future of Storytelling, The Huntington Library, and Botanical Gardens, Siggraph, Cannes, CES, SXSW, on Microsoft Holo Lens, Magic Leap, Gear VR Oculus store, and Windows Mixed Reality. 

MAP’s strategic partners and funders include: Microsoft, lululemon, Nike, Clif Bar, NASA, Unity Technologies, Intel, Boeing, Oculus, AMD, HP, San Francisco Bay School, Technicolor, USC Center for Body Computing, and NVIDIA. 

Painter has been selected as a Fellow of both the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Sundance Directors Lab, and as a mentor of Sundance’s New Frontiers Lab. She has directed three feature films, and over 150 short form documentaries focused on innovation, education, and social justice. Melissa holds a BA in Ancient Greek from Columbia University where she graduated summa cum laude and phi beta kappa, and an MFA in film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  

Chosen Interviews:

• David Bowie’s Heroes Inspires Quest into New Technologies at Sundance 2017
• Heroes // Shift

Creative Resources:

• http://opendoclab.mit.edu/
• https://nycmedialab.org/
• http://longnow.org/
• Poetry: The Poetry Foundation
• City Architecture + Mapping: http://rebeccasolnit.net/, https://www.spur.org/
• All of the LA Museums: https://hammer.ucla.edu/
• Jim Hodge: https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2014/jim-hodges-give-more-than-you-take/, http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/3d-double-vision
• Dancers: https://walkerart.org/calendar/2017/common-time, http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/merce-cunningham-clouds-and-screens
• Earth Artists/Light Artists: http://jamesturrell.com/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrGMkXukeEo
• Athletes: High School Basketball in LA, Track, Adventure Athletes
• Music: All

Jon Raymond is the author of the novels THE HALF-LIFE, RAIN DRAGON, and FREEBIRD, and the story collection Livability, winner of the Oregon Book Award. He's also published a collection of writings about visual art called The Community. He's collaborated with director Kelly Reichardt on five films—OLD JOY, WENDY AND LUCY, MEEK'S CUTOFF, NIGHT MOVES, and FIRST COW—and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the HBO miniseries MILDRED PIERCE. His writing has appeared in TIN HOUSE, ZOETROPE, PLAYBOY, ARTFORUM, and BOOKFORUM, among many other publications.