Sundance gets political

Some of the world's leading thinkers on global crises -- from our dying oceans and overabundant waste to child poverty and the logistics of saving the planet -- came to the festival Wednesday to network with filmmakers who might help educate the masses on ways to help.

The gathering came about after the Skoll Foundation gave the Sundance Institute $3 million, which the institute will use to connect these "social entrepreneurs" with documentarians in the hope that films may result.

Albina Ruiz of Ciudad Soludable, which organized waste scavengers and helps create jobs through recycling; Rupert Howes of Marine Stewardship Council, which aims to reverse the decline of wild capture fisheries; Susan Burns and Mathis Wackernagel of Global Footprint Network; and Sebastien Marot of Friends International, which helps street children around the world, all hoped to bring their efforts to a wider audience with the help of filmmakers.

They cited films such as "An Inconvenient Truth," Iran's "Children of Heaven" and "The 11th Hour" as examples of the type of project they aspired to make happen. They each want to inspire and motivate people to fight for change, not overwhelm them with the challenges involved in doing that.

The idea, Howes said, is to use film "to enlighten" and "change behavior."

"Humanity has a limited time frame to address these challenges," he said.

Howes and the others were handpicked by Sundance Institute Executive Director Ken Brecher and Cara Mertes, director of the institute's documentary film program.

"We think documentary is increasingly becoming the way we can motivate people towards change, transforming how people think about issues and [inspiring] action on that," Mertes said. "Things we can't predict will spark from this dialogue."

-- Gina Piccalo

(Photo courtesy Participant Productions)