SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
THE OFFICE has worked with the Sundance Institute since the 1990s, producing a screenplay reading series of works in progress and acting as Consultant to the Sundance Feature Film Program, the Sundance Theatre Program, and the Rawi Screenwriters Lab in Jordan.
THE OFFICE founder Rachel Chanoff is a Creative Advisor and on the Selection Committee for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Directors Lab. The Screenwriters Lab is a five-day writers’ workshop that gives independent screenwriters the opportunity to work intensively on their feature film scripts with the support of established writers in an environment that focuses on the art and craft of screenwriting and creative risk taking. Through one-on-one story sessions with creative advisors, Screenwriters Lab Fellows engage in an artistically rigorous process that offers indispensable lessons in craft to facilitate the deep exploration needed to fully realize their material.
At the Directors Lab, the Fellows will work with an accomplished group of creative advisors, professional actors and production crews to shoot and edit key scenes from their screenplays. Through this concentrated, hands-on process, the Fellows workshop and make key discoveries about their scripts, collaborate with actors and find a visual storytelling language for their films.
Quentin Tarantino and Steve Buscemi. © Sundance Institute | Sandria Miller
“Finally, Michelle Satter, Ilyse McKimmie, Anne Lai, Cullen Conly, Keri Putnam, Lee Nersesian, Alesia Weston, Kathleen Broyles, Rachel Chanoff, Laura Leonard, Jarom Rowland, and all the staff and support people… you made it work. I wish you all ran the world. It’d be such a better place, and a much cooler one to make movies in too. Till then, I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing here…”
Rachel Chanoff at the Sundance Festival. Photo by Hassan Damouni