This week, the Knight arts team is in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. Our merry band of film grantees has been growing over the years here, and we are delighted to also be joined by four new Knight Sundance Fellows.

Our Knight Fellows spend a week here to be mentored by industry experts and to participate in a curated track of professional and creative development opportunities to ensure they have access to Sundance’s expertise as they craft and share their work. Over the last three years, we have seen our fellows progress from participating in open community labs to being selected for highly-competitive screenwriters labs at Sundance. They represent a broad range of diverse experiences from our Knight cities and we are excited for the achievements they are making in the field.

Here’s a peek at our newest class of fellows and the work they are creating:

• April Dobbins, from Miami, who is producing her documentary feature, Alabamaland, which chronicles her family’s life and history in the rural South;
• Iris Devins, from Philadelphia, who works in narrative and documentary film with an emphasis on intersectionality;

• Leya Hale, from St. Paul, an American Indian filmmaker who works on a variety of local content documentaries and digital shorts; and
• Gabriela Arp, from Macon, who bridges digital and physical worlds to create experiential documentary projects that strengthen human connection.

Along with spending time with our fellows, Knight will be hosting a reception with filmmakers, presenters and producers from our Knight cities. 

Sundance has been bringing its labs to eight of our Knight communities over the last two years, with much success. From fellowship opportunities to targeted workshops, master classes, day labs and intensives tailored for emerging screenwriters, directors, composers and artists working in new and immersive media, we have seen growing audiences participate in Sundance workshops and are encouraged by the impact this partnership is having on our film communities. As we enter our third year of labs, we hope you will stay connected and look out for opportunities to take advantage of what the partnership has to offer.

Bahia Ramos is Knight Foundation’s arts program director. Follow her on Instagram @miamibah.