By Stephanie Ornelas
One of the rewards of being part of a filmmaker’s journey from the beginning is witnessing their stories reach wider audiences. We recently celebrated the 12 remarkable Sundance-supported films at the 2024 Berlinale, and now we’re turning our attention to the True/False Film Fest happening today through March 3 in Columbia, Missouri. We’re so proud to see that 10 documentaries with connections to Sundance Institute are in the program this year.
Over the next four days, festivalgoers will be fully immersed in captivating nonfiction stories, including an emotional look at how incarceration affects families (Daughters) and the inspiring journey of a group of Amazon employees as they fight to unionize (Union).
Whether the filmmakers of the following titles are Documentary Film Program (DFP) fellows or their projects premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, each will forever be a part of the Sundance Institute community. Learn more within our watchlist below about the 10 films with Sundance Institute ties screening at True/False Film Fest — from 2024 Festival favorites that won viewers’ hearts in Utah and online, to Labs and grant projects making their world premiere.
A Photographic Memory — 2019 Documentary Edit Story Lab, 2019 Sundance Documentary Film Grant
Logline: A filmmaker ventures into the archives of her photographer mother to construct a personal story of love, loss, and finding someone in the work they leave behind.
Agent of Happiness — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?
Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano — 2021 Sundance Documentary Film Grant
Logline: After the 2020 explosion in Beirut, a film crew confronts a crucial decision: pursue the production of their film or yield to the devastation surrounding them.
Daughters — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.
Girls State — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Teenage girls from wildly different backgrounds across Missouri navigate a week-long immersive experiment in American democracy, build a government from the ground up, and reimagine what it means to govern.
Ibelin — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world.
Look into My Eyes — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.
There Was, There Was Not — 2020 Documentary Film Program
Logline: A richly textured tapestry telling the story of Artsakh through the daily lives of four women fighting to save their homeland.
Seeking Mavis Beacon — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Launched in the late ’80s, educational software Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the program’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY investigators search for the unsung cultural icon, while questioning notions of digital security, AI, and Black representation in the digital realm.
Union — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.