Innovation in Focus: The Sundance Institute's DocSource Project

Launched just a week ago at the Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Institute's new DocSource is an online hub that uses the latest digital tools to connect filmmakers, human rights advocates and publics from around the globe supporting a robust international social documentary environment.

Cara Mertes, director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program (DFP), notes that DocSource provides tools and content not only for the filmmakers, but for audiences as well, making the important stories behind the program's international documentary films more accessible and open for public discussion. "I see a new field of human rights documentary emerging, fueled by the instincts and inspiration of filmmakers," Mertes writes on the site's blog. DocsSource offers clips from films that tell stories from around the world, as well as the latest headlines in human rights and documentary news, which makes the connection between the art and the issues.

The films featured on the website address a variety of subjects, from the effects of global climate change on communities, to homosexuality in Iran, all of which serve to inform the public on the world around us. "DocSource is a noteworthy addition to Sundance's Documentary Film Program," said Ken Brecher, executive director of Sundance Institute. "It is a global program, and growing more so, and the human rights and documentary artist communities will benefit from this virtual convening and discussion resource to carry on their work and amplify their impact."

The Sundance Documentary Film Program and Sundance Institute, like the Center for Social Media, are part of a group of nonprofit organizations with a common goal: to push forward into the future of public media. In an initiative funded by the Ford Foundation, the group's work fosters experimentation to forge the public media structures and projects of tomorrow.