Interview a family member about something (an event, a relationship, an experience) in their background or in your family history that had a profound impact on their life, something you were always curious about.
Interview a family member about something (an event, a relationship, an experience) in their background or in your family history that had a profound impact on their life, something you were always curious about. Shoot the interview and then choose one of the following:
A) Non-fiction: Craft a video (maximum 8 mins) that includes this interview, but can also include archival or other visual material.
B) Fiction: Write the scene/sequence (maximum 10 pages) that includes the reveal of the family secret as an important moment for your main character.
All entries are reviewed and ranked by Sundance Co//ab jurors who will select a winning entry. (To give jurors more time for this process and to ensure complete fairness and consistency, jurors will no longer be providing individual feedback, but we encourage the community to continue to provide their valuable contributions to the creators who submit work.)
Sundance Co//ab Members are welcome to submit their works-in-progress through our Share Your Work section of the site, where feedback is provided by Sundance Co//ab Advisors and other community members. Your work-in-progress submission can include your Challenge entry, following the announcement of the winner.
SUBMISSION LIMITS
Your written work cannot exceed 10 pages and short films should be under 8 minutes.
Deadline to submit: October 31, 2019 at 12PM/Noon PT.
CHALLENGE RULES
Our monthly challenges are open to everyone in the Sundance Co//ab community. One entry per person, per challenge. All submissions will be viewable to the community. All submissions will be given equal consideration and the final winner will be determined by the consensus of the designated Sundance judges.
Only those submissions that meet the criteria outlined in the submission guidelines can be selected as the winner.
The challenge closes on October 31 2019 at 12PM/Noon PT.
PRIZE
The winner will have their work featured on the Sundance Co//ab site and receive:
- One-year Sundance Co//ab Membership
- One-on-one mentorship session with a Sundance Advisor
- Free Master Class of their choice
Jurors
Grainger David
Juror
Grainger David's short THE CHAIR screened in competition for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, won the Jury Prize at SXSW and at the LA Film Festival, and went on to play Berlin and Telluride. His feature script THE WALL AT THE END OF THE ROAD was selected for the 2017 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, the 2017 Directors Lab and the 2019 Talent Forum. He is a South Carolina native and graduate of Princeton and NYU Grad Film.
Sachin Dharwadker
Juror
Sachin Dharwadker is a screenwriter and director from Madison, Wisconsin currently based in Los Angeles. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, he was a Sundance Ignite fellow (for his short film BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT), a participant of the Sundance Episodic Lab and the New York Stage & Film Filmmakers’ workshop (both for his drama pilot THE PRINCE OF HYDE PARK), and a Richie Jackson Artist Fellow. In 2018 he relocated from New York to Los Angeles to pursue work as a TV writer, and he’s currently developing a drama pitch for sale to cable and streaming networks.
Eliza Lee
Juror
Eliza was the 2016 Sundance Asian-American Feature Film Fellow, and attended the Sundance Screenwriters Intensive that same year with her Athena Film Festival award-winning screenplay, A BEAUTIFUL LIE, about crime novelist Patricia Highsmith. In 2017, she was selected to participate at the first ever Amazon Studios lab.
Currently, Eliza has set up two original TV series, including an epic, WWII mini-series starring and executive produced by Steven Yeun (THE WALKING DEAD). The other series, PRETTY LITTLE FACE, is based on her experiences as a teenage model. Her pilot, ANGELICA, about the last standing abortion clinic in a state, has been included on the We For She WriteHer List, the best unproduced pilots by women. This project was also in competition at the 2018 Cannes /MipTV showcase of exceptional international drama series from new voices. The series is being produced by Oscar award winning, Shaun Redick, and Yvette Yates of Impossible Dreams (BLACKKKLANSMAN, GET OUT).
In 2019, Eliza was tapped to adapt Norma Yaeger’s memoir, “Breaking Down the Walls”, for screen, which is about the first woman stockbroker on Wall Street. An international coproduction set within the global EDM scene has commissioned Eliza as writer. She will also pen the authorized Robby Krieger Story, the guitar hero of the rock band, The Doors.
Eliza’s feature, MAYBE TOMORROW, about rock legend Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, is being produced by Michelle Sy (FINDING NEVERLAND), and executive produced by Sophia Chang (The RZA). With this script, she also went through the CAPE 2015 Film & TV Fellowship, and in 2017, she was invited to Film Independent's Fast Track with the project. She will make her directorial debut with this film.
As a 2015 Outfest Screenwriting Lab fellow, she was mentored by Patrick Tobin, Don Roos, and Guinevere Turner, Gideon Raff among others.
A Canadian, Eliza graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BFA in Film and further film studies in the Czech Republic. She took a detour to Asia as a DP trainee before returning to her calling: to write and direct.
AWARDS:
Canneseries / MipTV 2018 In Development
Amazon Studios Lab 2017
Film Independent Fast Track Fellow 2017
WriteHer List 2017
Sundance Asian American Feature Film Fellow 2016
Sundance Screenwriters Intensive 2016
Outfest Screenwriting Lab 2015
Athena Film Festival 2015 Screenwriting Award