Park City, UT–Today, Sundance Institute announced details for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival’s presentation of films by Native American and Indigenous filmmakers and the annual Native Forum. The Forum features a program of panel discussions, filmmaker workshops, and networking events that provide opportunities for Indigenous filmmakers to share their expertise and knowledge with each other and the larger independent film community. This year’s Festival will provide a world stage for Native American and Indigenous filmmakers whose works include two short films and four features screening in the Competition and Spectrum Categories. The 2007 Festival includes work from Native American and Indigenous filmmakers from New Zealand, U.S.A., and the Philippines. The 2007 Sundance Film Festival runs January 18-28, 2007, in Park City, at the Sundance Resort, in Salt Lake City, and in Ogden, Utah.

Through its Native American and Indigenous Initiative, the Sundance Institute has a long standing commitment to supporting Native American and Indigenous artists. The Initiative encourages Native and Indigenous Cinema by hosting the Festival’s Native Forum and supporting filmmakers through the Institute’s Feature Film and Documentary Film Programs, the Independent Producers Conference, and the Sundance Institute/Ford Foundation Film Fellowship.

“Each year the Native Forum continues to raise the profile of Native and Indigenous Cinema and showcases works by a range of talented filmmakers,” said N. Bird Runningwater, Associate Director, Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Initiative. “The Forum activities this year will continue to connect Native and Indigenous Cinema with the marketplace of independent film. Through the Film Festival as well as the labs, workshops and other programs, Sundance Institute brings together the writers, directors and producers of Native and Indigenous Cinema as part of a global filmmaking community.”