via Broadcast
Channel 4 arts commissioner Tabitha Jackson is to leave the broadcaster to head up Sundance’s documentary programme in the US. Jackson, who ordered shows including All In The Best Possible Taste With Grayson Perry and When Bjork Met Attenborough, will leave C4 before the end of the year to become director of the Documentary Film Programme at the Sundance Institute.
C4 is now searching for a replacement and in the interim Jackson’s forthcoming projects are expected to be covered by Ralph Lee’s team of factual commissioning editors.
The Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organisation founded by Robert Redford, running alongside the Sundance Film Festival, which helps fund emerging independent screenwriters and directors. Jackson’s new role is based in Los Angeles but she will also spend time in New York. She will run a commissioning fund that will help finance up to 25 independent documentaries a year. Jackson will be working with fledgling producers from across the globe to fund docs and is keen to work with indies from the UK.
“It is very much an international role, designed to get in early and support film-makers from around the world,” she said. The fund, which was set up in 2002, has already provided nearly $15m (£9m) in funding for more than 600 documentary films in 61 countries. Films it has backed recently include docs such as Sweden’s Concerning Violence, Chile’s Children, New Zealand doc Flickering Time Bomb and a yet-to-be-titled whale-hunting doc from UK cinematographer Mike Day. In addition to funding, the institute operates creative documentary labs, hosting a number of events for new fi lm-makers throughout the year.
Jackson, whose most recent commissions are Grayson Perry follow-up Who Are You? and Charlie Brooker’s How Video Games Changed The World, will replace Cara Mertes. The latter left Sundance earlier this year to join social justice film-making programme JustFilms, which is backed by The Ford Foundation.
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