IDA's Impact Shows In Numbers At Upcoming 2019 Sundance Film Festival

(Los Angeles, CA) - The works of four International Documentary Association (IDA) grantees will have their world premieres at the upcoming 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The films are all directed by women and include IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund Production Grantees Knock Down The House directed by Rachel Lears and One Child Nation directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, as well as IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund Development Grantee Life Overtakes Me, a Netflix Originals short documentary directed by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson.

Also premiering at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival is Jacqueline Olive’s Always In Season, which received the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation’s IDA Enterprise Elevate Grant. The Enterprise Elevate Grant provides funds to emerging women filmmakers of color directing feature-length documentary films that explore original, contemporary stories and integrate journalistic practice into the filmmaking process. The IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund launched in 2017 and has since awarded 35 grants totaling $1.9 million dollars.

“When IDA launched the Enterprise Documentary Fund, we committed to funding the most challenging phases of documentary filmmaking: development and production. Only in our second year, we are thrilled to see so many films make it to the finish line. Four Sundance premieres, all directed by women, is no small achievement, and we are so excited for our grantees. As a welcome aside, it’s a stamp of approval that journalistic rigor is resonating with the field at large,” said Carrie Lozano, director of the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund.

The Sundance Film Festival premieres are sure to leave a tremendous impact on festival audiences, tackling complex and timely subject matter including a mother’s search for justice after her son’s lynching, insurgent candidates and one of the most shocking political upsets in recent American history, the shocking Resignation Syndrome which is afflicting hundreds of refugee children facing deportation in Sweden, and the untold history of China’s One Child Policy.

Additionally, two IDA fiscally sponsored films, Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins directed by Janice Engel and Bedlam directed by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, are also selected to world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins tells the story of trailblazing Texan journalist Molly Ivins, while Bedlam tackles our current mental health care delivery system, the past that shaped it, and it’s uncertain future. The IDA Fiscal Sponsorship Program was established in 1988 and currently provides over $9 million in fiscal sponsorship support to 300 active projects. Four of the six IDA-supported projects—Always In Season, Bedlam, Knock Down The House, and One Child Nation—will be screening in competition.